Catholic prayers listing saints often mention Cyril and Methodius.   I paid no attention to this until I visited the Balkans.  There are statues honoring these 2 early saints in many public places and there are images of them everywhere, especially in Bulgaria.  I began to pay attention to this phenomenon and ultimately realized that they are iconic in every possible way in this part of the world.

Cyril and Methodius were brothers.  Their mother was Bulgarian and their father was Greek.  They were born in Thessaloniki and, as adults, they are usually shown together.  In the year 867, they were invited to Rome by Pope Nicholas because they were successful missionaries good at spreading  Christianity. Cyril is often shown as a monk and Methodius as a bishop. This is because Cyril entered a monastery while in Rome and died there 50 days later. The pope made Methodius, who continued their work, a bishop.   They are honored today like media stars because they created the Galolitic alphabet and began translating Greek books into Old Bulgarian.  Their alphabet evolved into the Cyrillic one that is used by more than 250,000,000 people in Europe and Asia today, including Russia.

Ruth and I saw a depiction of their alphabet in the Bulgarian National History Museum in Sofia.  Teacher Ruth grabbed my notebook and wrote, “St Cyril & Methodius mural from the Church of the Virgin Mary Kamenski in Ohrid 1863 with inscription, ‘Bulgarian educators, they wrote the characters of the Bulgarians.’  They are Cyril and his brother.

Cyril and Methodius are a big deal in Bulgaria.  May 24 is a national holiday there.  It’s actually Saints Cyril and Methodius Day but it’s called Bulgarian Eduction Day and Culture Day or Slavonic Literature Day or Culture and Literacy Day or Alphabet Day.  It’s also high school graduation day and kids dress in their best and party. Ruth & I were in Sofia at Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in May 2015 and saw honking cars full of them outside this massive church that had depictions of Cyril and Methodius inside.

Skopje is the capital of Macedonia.  the largest university in this republic is Skopje’s Saints Cyril and Methodius University.  May 24 is also a public holiday in Macedonia.

Hank

The man who inspired the Dracula character in Bram Stoker’s novel was Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad the Impaler.  Vlad was born in Sighisoara, Romania, in 1431.  If he died and you’d like to visit the grave where his headless torso supposedly lies, and this is a very popular day trip, you go to an island in a lake near Snagov, Romania, about 25 miles north of Bucharest.

Bram Stoker didn’t write Dracula until 1897.  In 1816, the year without a summer, John Polidori wrote a ghost story called “The Vampyre”.  He was in something of a competition with Lord Byron and Mary Shelley.  They were driven inside by bad weather and, being writers, they composed stories.  Mary’s was the most enduring. Her Frankenstein became a classic.  Lord Byron, far more known for his poetry, wrote “Darkness”.

Writer Téa Obreht, who has roots in Serbia, wrote an essay that was published in Harper’s Magazine.  “Twilight of the Vampires” tells about her journey to a Serbian village named Zarozje to learn what she could about a Balkan vampire.  She says in her essay, “Vampir is probably the only Serbian word used the whole world over…..”  She talks about Balkan superstitions.  I wondered about these when I was there last year.  The Balkans is home to many monasteries with devils depicted on their walls. Dracula was a Balkan native.

Obreht mentions common repellants–garlic, holy water, crucifixes–and adds one I was not familiar with–scissors under the bed. Austria is not a Balkan country, but, according to Obreht, Petar Blagojevic is the first vampire this country has officially certified.

In preparation for her journey, Obreht tracked down a Serbian film called Leptirica.   Made in 1973, it’s said to be about a young shepherd from Zarozje and bizarre.  I have not been able to find it.

Obreht headed for Zarozje to find the water mill where a weird incident occurred.  She met a man on the way who said, “That’s my water mill!”  He told her that nobody died or was killed there, but his grandmother would tell him stories and his father would make him spend the night in the mill to make him brave.  He said that a clever man would go into the mill at night and throttle the millers a little and steal their flour because there was a famine occurring. This got the legend started.  He said that the mill was actually no longer there and he assured her, “There is…no vampire in Zarozje.”

While there, she discovered that the widespread legend had no basis in fact. She cites scholarly theories about causes involving disease, bodily decay, medieval myths about contagion, etc.  She concludes, “Balkan religion rests on tradition rather than belief, superstition rather than faith…..”  Obreht segues into a story of a village being bothered by a sinister vukodlak.  It would knock on people’s doors at night and strangle anyone who answered.   “It is unclear,” she concludes, “why the villagers did not think to stop answering their doors after dark.”

The above is for those who are inclined to think that the top rated series on TV, The Walking Dead, is a documentary.

Hank