This article seems to miss the drastic religious importance and confuses it for politics. Of course religion affects politics, but I don’t think that was really the aim nor the main reason Sts Cyril and Methodios are held in such high honour.
First and foremost they are honoured as “equal to the apostles, enlighteners of the Slavs” as they were first and foremost missionaries. That the article calls them “diplomats” before even mentioning their mission work is already rather telling. Of course being sent somewhere by an emperor on the request of a duke will inevitably entail some diplomatic work, but that was hardly the point.
But I think it’s hard to overstate also the benefit the Slavic people saw in having Christianity in a language they understood as well as the benefit of having their religion and all the necessary literary tradition that comes with it being broadly compatible with the spoken vernacular.
First and foremost they are honoured as “equal to the apostles, enlighteners of the Slavs” as they were first and foremost missionaries. That the article calls them “diplomats” before even mentioning their mission work is already rather telling. Of course being sent somewhere by an emperor on the request of a duke will inevitably entail some diplomatic work, but that was hardly the point.
But I think it’s hard to overstate also the benefit the Slavic people saw in having Christianity in a language they understood as well as the benefit of having their religion and all the necessary literary tradition that comes with it being broadly compatible with the spoken vernacular.