Plenary session of the Interregional Scientific Forum “Heritage of St. Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, and modern theological education in Russia”, part of Days of Slavic Writing and Culture celebrations, took place at Orthodox Seminary on May 15.
The celebrations are hosted by Saratov State University together with Saratov Episcopacy from 14 to 24 of May.
Chief Federal Inspector in Saratov Region M.V. Aleshina opened the celebratory meeting. “Celebrating the memory of St. Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, and the Days of Slavic Writing and Culture unites religious and secular culture as the saint’s heritage makes the foundation of orthodox society. The importance of writing is enormous. History is kept in monuments, sculptures, and household items but spiritual history is preserved only in writing”, said M.V. Aleshina. “For more than a thousand years, Russian national identity, Russian education and culture have been forming and developing thanks to the great gift of St. Cyril and Methodius – Cyrillic alphabet”.
On behalf of Saratov Region Governor and regional administration, deputy head of regional administration M.V. Goremyko congratulated the guests. “Day of Slavic Writing and Culture unites everyone who values the heritage of St. Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles. This is our spiritual fortune that we have to keep and enlarge. Unity and sympathy are very topical today. Only cooperation and mutual understanding could unite fraternal people, help fiond the way to world peace and agreement, teach the younger generation to be responsible for themselves, their families and their country”.
Then Saratov Region Minister of Culture S.V. Krasnoshekova greeted the guests. “Days of Slavic Writing and Culture are special as they remind us about our spiritual roots, the importance of writing and its development. We remember Brothers Cyril and Methodius who made the dream of writing come true for Slavic people. Numerous books and spiritual wealth kept in them make an invaluable contribution to the society development, help understand our past, value the present and envision the future”.
SSU President L.Yu. Kossovich congratulated the forum participants. “Today we celebrate the holiday dedicated to one of the most important events for our people – creation of writing that gave birth to our culture, science and education. It is said Cyril and Methodius’s main contribution is the Cyrillic alphabet. But they did much more. People who lived without writing did not have a literary language, did not have means and categories to understand themselves and describe their relationships with the world”, reminded the facts L.Yu. Kossovich.
In his speech, SSU President told about the long-standing cooperation between our university and Saratov Orthodox Seminary. It resulted in re-opening of the Department of Theology and Religion Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy. The institutions also organize numerous joint events that are part of Days of Slavic Writing and Culture celebrations.
Then SSU Rector A.N. Chumachenko took the word. “Honoring St. Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles has a long history. They made a great contribution of developing the first alphabet; later their students created the Cyrillic font that spread widely among Slavic people. It gave an impulse for their national development and becoming. National and world culture is based on writing created by Cyril and Methodius”.
Metropolitan of Saratov and Volsk Longin also greeted the guests. He said the Forum is one of the most important events in Days of Slavic Writing and Culture celebrations in Saratov. It includes conferences, round tables and symposiums on topical issues and interdisciplinary problems of philosophy, cultural studies, sociology, etc. This interdisciplinary character is rooted at the Days of Slavic Writing and Culture content. It is a state holy day celebrated in Russian and some Slavic countries. The gift of St. Cyril and Methodius influenced Russian people’s fate, their national identity, world view and social make-up, gave an impulse for becoming of the great original Russian culture”, said the Mitropolitan.
At the plenary session, Prof. V.V. Prozorov, scientific advisor of the Institute of Philology and Journalism, presented a report “Literary Memory as the guarantee of Russian unity”. He reminded of the XVIII meeting of the World Russian Assembly and Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill’s speech. “People’s unity is strongly tied to understanding its history, honoring its heroes, keeping its monuments. The most important guarantee of keeping our country and its people’s unity is preserving the values of classic Russian culture and strengthening its spiritual origin – orthodox faith”, said Prof. V.V. Prozorov. “This year is the Year of Literature. So it is time to remember our imperishable fortune – the literary memory that unites us”.
Other reports concerned the development of spiritual diplomacy as a new area of Russian spiritual education, the concept of neopatristic synthesis of G. Florovski, worldview foundations of higher secular and spiritual education.
On May 21, as part of the celebrations, a webinar “Philosophical foundations of contemporary culture” takes place in SSU at 15:00. The webinar is organized together with the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. I All-Russia conference “Philosophy and Art in the XXI century: aspects of cooperation” opens on May 22, at 16:00
All-night vigil at the church in the name of St. Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, starts on May 23, at 17:00. On May 24, the consecration will meet the chest with St. Cyril’s hallows at 8:00. Then a Greater consecration of the church in the name of St. Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles and Divine Liturgy will take place. After that there will be a religious procession and a service at the Memorial cross at the Theatre Square.
The celebrations will end with a concert of St. Trinity Cathedral chorus at 16:00.
