Cyril

Cyril (827-869), apostle of the Slavs, amongst whom he worked in conjunction with his elder brother Methodius (q.v.). Tradition says that while in the Khazar country (where he combated Jewish and Mahommedan influence) he found at Kherson the remains of Clement of Rome, which he bore with him wherever he went, finally depositing them at Rome in 867. His name is associated with the invention of the modified (Cyrillic) form of the Greek alphabet, which largely superseded the ancient Slavonic characters.