CYRIL AND METHODIUS SCULPTURE

A wooden cross stood at the site where the sculpture of the Apostles of the Slavs has been standing since 1735. On July 26, 1805, it was replaced by a stone cross. However, that cross did not last and was toppled during a severe windstorm. For this reason, the base was reduced in size and the cross was rebuilt. Today, the cross can be found on the left side of the chapel entrance. 

The sculpture of Sts. Cyril and Methodius is the work of an academic sculptor Albin Polasek (February 14, 1879 – May 19, 1965; born in Frenstat pod Radhostem and died in Winter Park, USA). He donated it to the Matice Radhostska association in 1930. The sculpture stands in contrast to the nearby statue of the pagan god Radegast, radiating a sense of brotherhood and a desire for unity.

The sinewy hands of both men suggest that they were accustomed to hard labor. In the open book held by St. Cyril (the venerable), we read in Glagolitic script the beginning of the Gospel of St. John: “In the beginning was the Word.” St. Methodius (the lover of order) points to the text and raises a three-barred byzantine cross amidst the halos. Both figures, bareheaded and wearing sandals, are precisely distinguished and characterized.

St. Cyril is unmistakably a philosopher. He gazes gently and intently in his monastic habit, his face appearing younger than that of St. Methodius, who is already bald and in his advanced age had also endured greater tribulations. Methodius’ features are dramatically agitated, bearing traces of the pain from which Cyril was spared by his premature death at the age of 42. Methodius’s rank as archbishop is indicated by his richer vestments. 

The hollow sculpture, 2.6 meters tall and weighing 800 kg, was cast in bronze which, in contrast to the stone statue of Radegast, signifies a later and more advanced culture. It stands on a 1.60-meter-high granite pedestal behind the chapel, on the site where a stone cross once stood. The saints gaze eastward toward Radegast on the opposite hill and welcome visitors arriving at the chapel.