Vatican City, May 11, 2018 / 11:08 am
In a meeting with the leader of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church Friday, Pope Francis recalled two of the saints the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches have in common – Sts. Cyril and Methodius – remarking on the holiness both Churches have inherited.
The Bishop of Rome noted that according to tradition, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the great evangelists of eastern Europe in the ninth century, brought relics of St. Clement, one of the first successors of St. Peter, to Adrian II.
This gesture "reminds us Christians that we have inherited – and we continually need to share – an immense common heritage of holiness," Francis said in a May 11 meeting with Metropolitan Rastislav, the Eastern Orthodox Archbishop of Prešov.
The Orthodox bishop celebrated Divine Liturgy at the tomb of St. Cyril in the Basilica of San Clemente al Laterno before his visit with Francis.