A ninth-century disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius who helped bring literacy and Christian learning to the Slavic peoples of the Balkans.

Saint Nahum of Albania, more widely known as Naum of Ohrid, was a priest and disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius who continued their missionary and educational work among the Slavic peoples of the Balkans after his teachers’ deaths, dying around the year 900. He is remembered as one of the group later honored as the Seven Apostles of Bulgaria, credited with founding centers of Slavic literacy and liturgical life, including a monastery associated with his name on the shores of Lake Ohrid, straddling territory now divided between Albania and North Macedonia.

Quick Facts

• Died: c. 900 (Balkans)
• Venerated as: Priest, disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius

Who Was Saint Nahum of Albania?

Nahum trained under Cyril and Methodius, the brothers who developed the Glagolitic script and translated Scripture and liturgy into Old Church Slavonic, and after their mission in Great Moravia faced setbacks and their own deaths, he carried this work south into the Balkans, helping establish enduring centers of Slavic Christian learning, most famously at Ohrid, where a monastery bearing his name still stands.

Historical Setting

The ninth century was the decisive period of the Christianization and literary formation of the Slavic peoples, driven by the missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius and carried forward by their disciples after political pressures forced them out of Great Moravia. The Balkan region, including territory in modern Albania, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria, became the primary refuge and flourishing ground for this Slavic literary and liturgical tradition, with figures like Nahum ensuring its survival and spread.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Nahum of Albania

The Church remembers Nahum for faithfully continuing the missionary and educational legacy of Cyril and Methodius at a critical moment when that work might otherwise have been lost, helping to secure the foundations of Slavic Christian literacy and worship that would shape the religious identity of the Balkan and wider Slavic world for centuries afterward.

Canonization and Feast Day

No formal Latin canonization process applies to Nahum, whose veneration developed primarily within the Eastern Christian tradition; he is honored as a saint through ancient and continuous Eastern liturgical commemoration rather than through a dated Roman Church procedure.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Nahum’s faithful continuation of his teachers’ unfinished work, at a time when their mission seemed at risk of collapse, is a model for anyone called to carry forward a good work begun by others, especially when the original leaders are no longer present to guide it themselves.

A Prayer to Saint Nahum of Albania

Saint Nahum, faithful disciple who carried forward the mission of your teachers, pray for those entrusted with continuing the work of the Gospel after others have gone before them. Give us your perseverance and dedication to finish well what has been begun. Amen.

Sources

• Byzantine and Slavic synaxaria
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia
• Britannica