Learn to read Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic is the first written Slavic language. It was created for Bible translation in the ninth century, and it is a close early relative of Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Polish and the rest.
Start reading Old Church Slavonic
No account needed. Your first line takes about three minutes.
What Old Church Slavonic is like
The missionaries Cyril and Methodius wrote it down so that Slavic peoples could hear scripture in their own speech. It remained a language of the Orthodox churches for centuries, and many of its words live on in Russian.
If you know any Slavic language, you will recognise a lot here. If you don't, its case system and its old letters take some getting used to, but the Gospel stories keep you on familiar ground.
How Urling teaches it
- You start with a real line from a real text, in your first few minutes.
- Each lesson teaches the words that unlock more of a text you want to read.
- Short exercises rebuild real sentences, and words you miss come back later.
- Grammar comes as short notes when you meet it, not as a wall of tables first.
Famous texts to start with
New to the grammar? Read the short guide to Old Church Slavonic grammar.
The letters
These texts are shown in early Cyrillic. The small marks over some words show holy names written in shortened form. Urling teaches the letters in a short script course.
Also in the course
The course has 33 texts in all, including:
- Start of the Christmas story in Codex Marianus
- How the angels announce the birth to the shepherds
- How the younger son leaves home and wastes his inheritance
- How the father welcomes his lost son home
- Lawyer's question to Jesus
- How the priest and the Levite pass by the wounded man
- How the Samaritan cares for the wounded man
- Parable of the sower
- How the angel Gabriel greets Mary
- Mary's question and her answer to the angel
- How the first disciples follow Jesus
- Why we should not worry, the birds and the lilies
Start reading Old Church Slavonic
No account needed. Your first line takes about three minutes.