Saints Cyril and Methodius were born at Salonica. Cyril was a philosopher of some note and a priest. Methodius was governor of a Slavonic colony in Macedonia when in 863 the Emperor of Constantinople sent them to the Moravians who were asking for the light of the Gospel. Both possessed the requisite preparation for successfully undertaking a mission of this kind. They perfected a Salvonic alphabet and translated the liturgy into this language. This missionary method aroused some opposition but the Pope, Adrian II, gave it his approval and consecrated Methodius Bishop. St. Cyril died in Rome in 869; he was buried close to the relics of St. Clement which he had brought from Chersonesus. St. Methodius died in Moravia in 885.