Glagolica

The Glagolitic script (,ⰳⰾⰰⰳⱁⰾⰹⱌⰰ, glagolitsa) is the oldest known Slavic alphabet It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Kiril, a monk from Thessalonik. He and his brother, Saint Methodius, were sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III in 863 to Great Moravia to spread Christianity among the West Slaves in the area. The brothers decided to translate liturgical books into the contemporary Slavic language understandable to the general population (now known as Old Church Slavonic). 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 local dialect of the Slavic tribes from the Byzantine Theme of Thessalonica.

After the deaths of Cyril and Methodius, the Glagolitic alphabet ceased to be used in Moravia for political or religious needs. In 885,Pope Stephan V issued a papal bull to restrict spreading and reading Christian services in languages other than Latin or Greek. On the other side, Svatopluk I followed the interests of the Frankish Empire and prosecuted the students of Cyril and Methodius. In 886, Clement of Ohrid (also known as Kliment), Naum, Gorazd, Angelar and Save arrived in the Fisrt Bulgarian Kingdom where they were warmly accepted by the Tsar Boris I of Bulgaria. Both the Glagolitic and Cyrilic alphabets were used until 13th-14th century in Bulgaria. The Cyrillic alphabet (which borrowed some letters from the Glagolitic alphabet) was developed at the Preslav Literly School in the late 9th century. The Glagolitic alphabet was preserved only by the clergy of Croatia and Dalmatia to write Church Slavonic until the early 19th century. Glagolitic also spread in Bohemia with traces in Pannonia, Moravia and Russia.