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'''Church Slavonic''' originated as a literate language when the [[missionary]] Constantine (later called Cyril) in the ninth century devised an alphabet for the spoken language of the Slavs of Great Moravia. Cyril and his brother Methodius used the alphabet to prepare translations of liturgical books for use during their mission preaching Orthodox Christianity to the Slavs of Moravia. His original alphabet was called ''Glagolitic''. The Glagolitic alphabet was later, in the eleventh century, refined into the alphabet called ''Cyrillic''.

In preparation for their mission to preach Orthodox Christianity to the Slavs of Moravia [[Cyril and Methodius|Cyril]], with his brother [[Cyril and Methodius|Methodius]], in 863 created the Glagolithic alphabet based upon the Slavic dialects of their home, Thessalonkia. This alphabet was used to prepare translations of some of the [[Holy Scriptures]] and church services books. After about two years of use in the Moravian Academy and in government and religious documents, Papal prohibitions in 865 banned use of '''Slavonic''' in favor of Latin in Moravia and the pupils of the missionaries were expelled from Moravia the following year.

In the middle European Slavic areas, the use of the spoken Slavic languages and dialects began to replace Church Slavonic in secular documents about the 15th century. Church Slavonic remained the literary language in Russia until the 17/18th centuries and was generally not spoken outside of [[church]] services. From the 17th century on the Russian language began replacing Church Slavonic in secular literature, although usage of Church Slavonic continued among the [[Old Believers]] much longer.

[[Category:Liturgics]]