Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century, who became missionaries of Christianity among the Danubian Slavs. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavic peoples for which they received the title “Apostles to the Slavs”. They are credited with devising and spreading the Glagolitic alphabet, which was used for Slavonic and from which was derived the Cyrillic, that, with small modifications, is still used in a number of Slavic languages. After their death their pupils continued their missionary work among other Slavic peoples. Both brothers are venerated in Eastern Orthodoxy as "equal-to-apostles" and were also canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. They became the patron saints of Europe in 1980.