The
Glagolitic alphabet (, also known as
Glagolitsa) is the oldest known
Slavic alphabet. It was created in the 9th century by
Saint Cyril, a Byzantine monk from
Thessaloniki. He and his brother,
Saint Methodius, were sent by the Byzantine Emperor
Michael III in 863 to
Great Moravia to spread Christianity among the Slavs in the area. The brothers decided to translate liturgical books into the Old Slavic language that was understandable to the general population, but as the words of that language could not be easily written by using either the Greek or Latin alphabets, Cyril decided to invent a new script, Glagolitic, which he based on the language of the Macedonian Slavs from the Thessaloniki region.