Category of time and space in a literary work. Artistic time and space in a work

Of the literature intended for reading in ancient Rus', the most widespread was hagiographic or hagiographic literature (from the Greek auos - saint), through which the church sought to give its flock examples of the practical application of abstract Christian principles. The conventional, idealized image of a Christian ascetic, whose life and work took place in an atmosphere of legend and miracle, was the most suitable conductor of the ideology that the church was called upon to instill. The author of the life, a hagiographer, pursued primarily the task of presenting an image of the saint that would correspond to the established idea of an ideal church hero. Only those facts were taken from his life that corresponded to this idea, and everything that diverged from it was hushed up. Moreover, in a number of cases events were invented that did not take place in the life of the saint, but contributed to his glorification; It also happened that the facts told in the life of some popular church ascetic were attributed to another ascetic, about whose life very little was known. So, for example, in the practice of Russian original hagiography there were cases when, when writing the life of some Russian saint, what was said about the Byzantine saint of the same name was borrowed. Such a free attitude to factual material was a consequence of the fact that hagiography did not set itself the goal of a reliable presentation of events, but of an instructive effect. The saint, by example of his life, was supposed to affirm the truth of the basic tenets of Christian doctrine. Hence the elements of rhetoric and panegyrism, which are inherent in most works of hagiographic literature, hence the established thematic and stylistic template that defines the hagiographic genre.

Usually the life of a saint began with a brief mention of his parents, who turned out to be for the most part pious and at the same time noble people. The saint will be born “of a good and faithful parent and pious”, “noble and pious”, “great and glorious”, “rich”. But sometimes a saint was descended from wicked parents, and this emphasized that, despite the unfavorable conditions of upbringing, the person still became an ascetic. Next they talked about the behavior of the future saint in childhood. He is distinguished by modesty, obedience, diligence book business, shuns games with peers and is completely imbued with piety. Later, often from youth, his ascetic life begins, mostly in a monastery or in desert solitude. It is accompanied by ascetic mortification of the flesh and the fight against all sorts of passions. In order, for example, to get rid of female temptation, the saint inflicts physical pain on himself: he cuts off a finger, thereby distracting himself from carnal lusts (cf. the corresponding episode in “Father Sergius” by L. Tolstoy), etc. Often the saint is haunted by demons in which The same sinful temptations are embodied, but through prayer, fasting and abstinence the saint overcomes the devilish obsession. He has the ability to perform miracles and communicate with heavenly powers. For the most part, the death of a saint is peaceful and quiet: the saint passes painlessly into another world, and his body emits a fragrance after death; Miraculous healings take place at the saint’s tomb and at his grave: the blind receive their sight, the deaf receive hearing, the sick are healed. The life usually ends with praise to the saint.

From the inside, life is characterized in general by the same features that are inherent in secular narrative literature. It often contains psychological characteristics of the characters, especially the main character, and his reflections are mostly used for it; monologues are common, revealing the mental state of the characters, often in the form of lyrical crying and lamentation; A dialogic form of speech is also common, serving to enliven the narrative and to dramatize it. In a number of cases, the hagiographer, distracted from the consistent presentation of the fate of the saint, himself indulges in reflection, often pathetically colored and supported by quotations from the “holy scripture.” Finally, in some lives there is a portrait of a saint, schematically drawn by simply listing his main signs.

The canonical form of life developed on the soil of Byzantium in the 4th century. Already at this time, its most characteristic example existed - the life of Anthony the Great, written by Athanasius of Alexandria. The main theme of this life, artistically translated in the 19th century. Flaubert in his “Temptation of Saint Anthony” depicts the intense struggle of the saint with demons. The work of the compiler of the second half of the 10th century had a kind of final character in the field of hagiographic literature in Byzantium. Simeon Meta-frast, which basically consolidated the tradition of the hagiographic stencil.

Translated Lives have long been circulated among us either in a common form or in a short form. The first existed separately or were part of collections, the so-called “Four Menyas”, i.e. books intended for reading and arranged material according to the dates of the month; the latter, which were a short form of the saint, found a place for themselves in the “Prologues”, or (in Greek) “Synaxars”, “Minologies” (the Russian name “Prologue” came about as a result of the fact that the Russian editor of the collection wrote the introductory article to the “Synaxars” - “ProHowo;” adopted as the title of the collection). “Cheti Menaia” existed in Rus', apparently already in the 11th century. (the oldest surviving Assumption list of the “Chetya Menaia” for May, written in Russia, dates back to the beginning of the 12th century.) “Prologue” - in the 12th century. The latter included, on Russian soil, in addition, edifying legends-short stories, borrowed from the "Paterik" (see below), and articles of an instructive nature. It arose, one must think, as a result of the cooperation of South Slavic and Russian church leaders, in a place where both could meet, most likely in Constantinople. Already in its early the editors, in addition to the biographies of Greek and Yugoslav saints, contain “memories” of Russian saints - Boris and Gleb, Princess Olga, Prince Mstislav, Theodosius of Pechersk. Subsequently, on Russian soil, the “Prologue” is replenished with extensive material and becomes the most popular book in the hands of the religious reader. it is used in the fiction of the 19th - early 20th centuries - in the works of Herzen, Tolstoy, Leskov and others 2.

In the XI-XII centuries. V separate lists The translated lives of Nicholas the Wonderworker, Anthony the Great, John Chrysostom, Sava the Sanctified, Basil the New, Andrei the Fool, Alexei the Man of God, Vyacheslav the Czech (the latter of Western Slavic origin) and others were known in Rus'.

As an example of the hagiographical genre in its widespread form, let us take the life of Alexei the man of God according to the text of a manuscript of the 14th-15th centuries. 1 .

This life begins with a story about the birth of the future saint in Rome from noble parents, about his commitment to learning from childhood, about his flight from his parental home immediately after he was married to a girl from the royal family. Arriving in a strange city and distributing everything he had to the poor, he himself lives there for seventeen years in beggarly attire, pleasing God in everything. The fame of him spreads throughout the city, and, running away from it, he decides to retire to a new place, but “by the will of God” the ship on which he sailed arrives in Rome. Unrecognized by anyone, mistaken for a wanderer, he settles in the house of his parents, who, together with his wife, grieve inconsolably for their missing son and husband. And here he lives for another seventeen years. The servants, violating the orders of their masters, mock him in every possible way, but he patiently endures all insults. Dying, Alexey, in a note left before his death, opens up to his family and describes his life after leaving home. He is solemnly buried in front of a huge crowd of people. At the same time, the deaf, blind, lepers, and those possessed by demons are miraculously healed.

As is easy to see, in the life of Alexei we find a number of significant moments of the hagiographic genre noted above: here is the origin of the saint from pious and noble parents, and his early inclination to study, and disdain for the sweets of earthly life, and severe asceticism, and a blessed death, and, finally, posthumous miracles performed at the tomb of the saint. The life contains both dialogical speech and lyrical laments-monologues. The presentation itself contains elements of an ornate, rhetorical style combined with the author's lyricism. Traditional in this life are references to the childlessness of the saint’s parents before his birth, and leaving the parental home, and the saints distributing their property to the poor, and evading human glory, etc. 2 . The Life of Alexei, like other monuments of ancient Russian literature and hagiography in particular, was subject to editorial revisions until the 17th century, influenced a number of subsequent works of our original literature and, finally, formed the basis of popular spiritual verse.

In the old days, our great interest in the life of Alexei is explained by the fact that it tells about the life of a man who, with his disdain for everything that the rich, eminent nobility lived by, aroused the sympathy of those who did not belong to the top of society. What attracted me to this life was its general lyrical tone.

On Russian soil in ancient times Translated collections of short stories were also known, telling about some edifying episode from the life of a Christian ascetic. These collections, called “Pateriks” or “Pateriki”, combined stories about ascetics and hermits who lived in a certain area or in a certain monastery, or about such events and various life incidents, which these hermits witnessed and witnessed. Elements of entertainment, anecdotism and naive superstition, uniquely intertwined here with everyday episodes of a purely secular nature, contributed to the wide dissemination of these stories, which incorporated material that sometimes dates back to pagan mythology. “Prologue” absorbed a lot of patericon legends and this largely determined its popularity.

Of the “Paterikons”, two were especially popular in the old days - “The Spiritual Meadow”, or “Sinai Patericon” by John Moschos (VII century), which outlined events from the life of the Syrian monks, and the “Egyptian Patericon”, usually bearing the title “The Legend of the Egyptian Monks” "and used as material mainly the "Lavsaik" of Bishop Palladius of Elenopolis, compiled in 420. Both patericons in the 11th century. were already known in Rus'. Somewhat later, but still still in the era of Kievan Rus, we knew the “Roman Patericon” compiled in the West."

Let us give one story - about Mark - from the “Egyptian Patericon”.

“This Mark,” says Palladius, “even in his youth knew by heart the writings of the Old and New Testaments; he was very meek and humble, like hardly anyone else. One day I went to him and, sitting at the door of his cell, began to listen to what he said or what he did. Completely alone inside the cell, an almost hundred-year-old old man who no longer had any teeth - he was still struggling with himself and with the devil and said: “What more do you want, old man? And you drank wine and consumed oil - what else do you ask of me? You gray-haired glutton, you glutton, you are disgracing yourself.” Then, turning to the devil, he said: “Finally, get away from me, devil, you have grown old with me in negligence. Under the pretext of bodily weakness, you forced me to consume wine and oil and made me a sensualist. Do I really owe you anything else now? There’s nothing more you can take from me, get away from me, you misanthrope.” Then, as if jokingly, he said to himself: “Come on, chatterbox, gray-haired glutton, greedy old man, how long will I be with you?”

The story of the Sinai Patericon about the elder Gerasim and the lion, artistically processed in modern times by Leskov, tells of the lion’s touching affection for the monk Gerasim, who removed a splinter from the lion’s paw that was causing him severe pain. After this, Leo, serving him, did not part with him, and when Gerasim died, he himself gave up the ghost on his grave, not being able to survive his death.

Having entered the “Prologue”, the paterikal stories found access to the widest circle of readers and influenced some types of original book literature and partly oral literature.

Introduction

The study of Russian holiness in its history and its religious phenomenology is now one of the urgent tasks of our Christian revival.

Hagiography (hagiography, from the Greek hagios - saint and...graphy), a type of church literature - biographies of saints - which were an important type of reading for medieval Russians.

Lives of Saints - biographies of spiritual and secular persons, canonized by the Christian Church. From the first days of its existence, the Christian Church carefully collects information about the life and activities of its ascetics and reports them for general edification. The lives of saints constitute perhaps the most extensive section of Christian literature.

The lives of saints were the favorite reading of our ancestors. Even laymen copied or ordered hagiographic collections for themselves. Since the 16th century, in connection with the growth of Moscow national consciousness, collections of purely Russian lives have appeared. For example, Metropolitan Macarius under Grozny, with a whole staff of literate employees, spent more than twenty years collecting ancient Russian writing into a huge collection of the Great Four Menaions, in which the lives of saints took pride of place. In ancient times, in general, reading the lives of saints was treated with almost the same reverence as reading Holy Scripture.

Over the centuries of its existence, Russian hagiography has gone through different shapes, knew different styles and was formed in close dependence on the Greek, rhetorically developed and decorated life.

The lives of the first Russian saints are the books “The Tale of Boris and Gleb”, Vladimir I Svyatoslavich, “The Lives” of Princess Olga, abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Theodosius of Pechersk (11-12 centuries), etc.

Among best writers Ancient Rus' dedicated their pen to the glorification of saints Nestor the Chronicler, Epiphanius the Wise and Pachomius Logothetes.

All of the above leaves no doubt about the relevance of this topic.

Purpose of the work: a comprehensive study and analysis of the hagiographic literature of Rus'.

The work consists of an introduction, 3 chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

Development of the hagiographic genre

The appearance of the first hagiographic literature

Also St. Clement, bishop The Roman, during the first persecution of Christianity, appointed seven notaries in various districts of Rome to daily record what happened to Christians in places of execution, as well as in prisons and courts. Despite the fact that the pagan government threatened the recorders with the death penalty, recordings continued throughout the persecution of Christianity.

Under Domitian and Diocletian, a significant part of the records perished in the fire, so when Eusebius (died in 340) undertook the compilation of a complete collection of legends about the ancient martyrs, he did not find sufficient material for that in the literature of martyrdoms, but had to do research in the archives of institutions, who carried out the trial of the martyrs. Later, more full meeting and the critical edition of the acts of the martyrs belongs to the Benedictine Ruinart.

In Russian literature, the publication of acts of martyrs is known from the priest V. Guryev “Warrior Martyrs” (1876); prot. P. Solovyova, “Christian martyrs who suffered in the East after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks”; "Tales of Christian martyrs revered by the Orthodox Church."

From the 9th century appeared in the literature of the lives of saints new feature- a tendentious (moralizing, partly political-social) direction that decorated the story about the saint with fictions of fantasy.

More extensive is the literature of the second kind of “lives of the saints”—venerables and others. The oldest collection such legends - Dorothea, bishop. Tyrian (died 362), - a legend about the 70 apostles.

Many lives of saints are found in collections of mixed content, such as: prologue, synaxari, menaion, patericon.

A prologue is a book containing the lives of saints, along with instructions regarding celebrations in their honor. The Greeks called these collections synaxarions. The oldest of them is the anonymous synaxarion in the manuscript of Bishop Porfiry Uspensky in 1249. Our Russian prologues are adaptations of the synaxarion of Emperor Vasily, with some additions.

Menaions are collections of lengthy tales about saints on holidays, arranged by month. They are of service and menaion-chetii: in the first, the designation of the names of the authors above the chants is important for the biography of saints. Handwritten menaions contain more information about saints than printed ones. These “monthly menaions” or service were the first collections of “lives of the saints” that became known in Rus' at the time of its adoption of Christianity and the introduction of Divine services.

In the pre-Mongol period, there already existed in the Russian church full circle Menaion, Prologue and Synaxarion. Then patericons appear in Russian literature - special collections of the lives of saints. Translated patericons are known in the manuscripts: Sinaitic (“Limonar” by Mosch), alphabetic, monastery (several types; see description of the RKP. Undolsky and Tsarsky), Egyptian (Lavsaik Palladium). Based on the model of these eastern patericons, the “Kievo-Pechersk Patericon” was compiled in Russia, which began with Simon, bishop. Vladimir, and Kiev-Pechersk monk Polycarp.

Finally, the last one common source Calendars and month books are compiled for the lives of saints throughout the church. The beginnings of calendars date back to the very first times of the church. From the testimony of Asterius of Amasia (died 410) it is clear that in the 4th century. they were so complete that they contained names for all the days of the year.

The monthlies, under the gospels and the apostles, are divided into three types: eastern origin, ancient Italian and Sicilian, and Slavic. Of the latter, the oldest is under the Ostromir Gospel (XII century). They are followed by monthly books: Assemani, with the Glagolitic Gospel, located in the Vatican Library, and Savvin, ed. Sreznevsky in 1868

This also includes short notes about the saints (saints) under the church statutes of Jerusalem, Studio and Constantinople. The Saints are the same calendars, but the details of the story are close to the synaxars and exist separately from the Gospels and statutes.

Since the beginning of the 15th century, Epiphanius and the Serb Pachomius created in northern Rus' new school- a school of artificially decorated, extensive life. They - especially Pachomius - created a stable literary canon, a magnificent “weaving of words”, which Russian scribes strive to imitate until the end of the 17th century. In the era of Macarius, when many ancient inexperienced hagiographic records were being redone, the works of Pachomius were included in the Chetya Menaion intact.

The vast majority of these hagiographic monuments is strictly dependent on its samples. There are lives almost entirely copied from the ancients; others develop common places, refraining from providing precise biographical information. This is what hagiographers involuntarily do, separated from the saint by a long period of time - sometimes centuries, when folk legend runs out. But it works here too common law hagiographic style, similar to the law of icon painting: it requires the subordination of the particular to the general, the dissolution human face in the heavenly glorified face.

(LIFE OF BORIS AND GLEB, KIEV-PECHERSK PATERIK)

The emergence of hagiographic literature in Rus', like the emergence of chronicles and Hilarion’s writing of the “Sermon on Law and Grace,” was closely connected with the political tasks that the young Kiev state set for itself. In the struggle with Byzantium for church and political independence, Kievan Rus was very interested in creating its own church Olympus, its saints, who could strengthen the authority of the Russian church and thereby the Russian land as having independent, indisputable pan-Christian merits and therefore not needing outside guardianship. Compared to subsequent times, a relatively small number of hagiographic works have reached us from ancient times. It is characteristic, however, that first of all we wrote lives dedicated to secular representatives of the ruling class, namely princely lives. This circumstance best emphasizes the service political role, which our church began to perform at first.

Yaroslav the Wise energetically sought from the Byzantine Church the canonization of several prominent Russian figures, including his great-grandmother Olga, but especially persistently - for the most pressing political reasons for him - his brothers Boris and Gleb, who were killed due to political rivalry with Vladimir's eldest son Svyatopolk, and this he finally achieved.

The largest number of hagiographies created in ancient times are associated with the memory of Boris and Gleb. The chronicle story about their murder by Svyatopolk (under 1015), prose tales and parimitic readings, “The Legend and Passion and Praise of the Holy Martyr Boris and Gleb”, which was attributed, however, without sufficient evidence to Jacob Mnich, and “Reading about the life and about the destruction of the blessed passion-bearer Boris and Gleb" Nestor. The question of the relationship of all these monuments and their chronology still continues to be controversial. Usually the only thing considered reliable is that the chronicle story of the death of Boris and Gleb preceded the anonymous “Tale” and Nestor’s “Reading” and to one degree or another influenced them.” As for the question of the relationship between the “Tale” and the “Reading”, then S. A. Bugoslavsky argued that “The Legend” was written before “Reading” and influenced it." Both monuments should be dated to the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th century. The oldest list the first dates back to the 12th century, the second - to the 14th century.

Let us first dwell on the anonymous “Legend”.

After a brief praise, the author lists the sons of Vladimir, mentioning that Svyatopolk was born “to two father and brother,” since Vladimir, while still a pagan, took the wife of his brother Yaropolk, who was killed by him, when she was no longer “idle.” Restraining himself from verbosity and much writing, the author hastens to move on to the presentation of events. Twenty-eight years after his baptism, Vladimir became seriously ill. At this time, Boris came from Rostov, whom his father sent with an army against the Pechenegs, who were marching as an army to Rus'. “Blessed” and “quick to obey” Boris happily goes against his enemies. Having not met the Pechenegs, however, he returns back, and then the messenger informs him about the death of Vladimir and that Svyatopolk hid the death of his father. Hearing this news, Boris began to weaken in body, and, bursting into tears and not being able to say anything, in his heart he said this: “Woe is me, the light of my eyes, the radiance and dawn of my face, the bridle of my weariness.” , punishment (instruction) for my misunderstanding! Alas for me, my father and lord! Who will I resort to? who will I take it to? Where can I get my fill of such good teaching and teaching (instruction) of your mind? Alas for me, alas for me! How my light has faded, I don’t exist!.. My hearts are BURNING 1 My souls are confused and I don’t know who to turn to and to whom to extend this bitter sadness.” He has an older brother (Svyatopolk), who is in the bustle of the world and is thinking about killing him; but if he is killed, Boris thinks about himself, he will become a martyr to his Lord, because it is written: the Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, and the Apostle says: whoever says that he loves God, but hates his brother, he He speaks a lie, and it is also said: there is no fear in love: perfect love casts out fear. And he thinks: “What will I say or what will I do? I will go to my brother and say: be my father; You are my brother and, moreover, the eldest. What do you want me to do, my lord?

“What if I go to my father’s house? - Boris then thinks. - There they may encourage me to drive away my brother, as my father once did, even before baptism, for the sake of worldly glory. But what will I gain from this for the future life? What did my father's brothers or my father gain by this? Where is their glory and all the wealth, silver, gold, luxurious feasts and fast horses, beautiful and large houses, countless tributes? It was as if all this had never happened: everything had disappeared with them, and there was no help for them either from property, or from the multitude of slaves, or from the glory of this world. Therefore, Solomon, having gone through everything, having seen and experienced everything and acquired everything, said: “All is vanity of vanities and all vanity.” Help comes only from good deeds, from true faith and unfeigned love.”

And as he walked his way, he thought about the beauty and strength of his body; bursting into tears, he wanted to hold them back but could not. And everyone who saw him sobbing cried over his noble body and his honest mind, and everyone in his soul groaned with heartfelt grief, and everyone was embarrassed with sadness. “And in fact,” the author adds on his own behalf, “who would not cry, imagining this disastrous death with the eyes of his heart?”

But Boris’s sadness soon gives way to joy at the thought of the reward that awaits him in heaven.

Meanwhile, Svyatopolk, sitting in Kiev after the death of his father, bribes the people of Kiev with rich gifts, then sends people to Boris, offering him his flattery and promising to give him generous gifts, and he himself goes secretly at night to Vyshgorod, near Kiev, where he enlists the support of the governor Putsha and Vyshgorod husbands. The devil, the author argues, who has hated a good man from time immemorial, realizing that Boris had placed all his hope in God, caught in his net, like Cain once, Svyatopolk, this second Cain, and instilled in him the idea of destroying all the heirs of his father in order to take all the power himself .

Boris stops on the Alta River and pitches tents there. The squad advises him to go to Kyiv and, with its support, take his father’s throne. Boris refuses to oppose his older brother, and then the squad leaves him; Only his youths remain with him.

In tears and prayer, bringing to mind the death of other martyrs just like him, Boris awaits his fate. Those sent from Svyatopolk arrive at the time when Boris is praying at Matins. They pierced the prince’s body with a spear and killed his beloved youth, the Ugrin George, who stood up for his master. Seriously wounded, but not yet killed, Boris asks to be given a short time to pray, then, having finished the prayer, he turns touchingly to the soldiers, shedding tears and inviting them to finish the task entrusted to them. Those who heard him could not utter a word from tears, but everyone in their soul glorified his spiritual greatness and meekness.

Many of his youths were killed with Boris. His body was carried on a cart, but on the way Boris began to raise his head, and the Holy Regiment ordered two Varangians to pierce his heart with a sword. He was buried in Vyshgorod, near the Church of St. Basil.

The turn comes for Gleb, who reigned in Murom. He does not yet know about Vladimir’s death. Svyatopolk calls him as if on behalf of his seriously ill father. Gleb quickly sets off on his journey, but in Smolensk, through messengers from his brother Yaroslav, who warns him not to go to Svyatopolk, he learns about the death of Vladimir and the murder of Boris. Hearing this news, Gleb cried out with bitter weeping and heartfelt sadness, saying: “Oh, alas for me, my lord! For two reasons I cry, I cry and groan; I lament and strain for two reasons. Alas for me! Alas for me! I cry for my father; I cry even more, I desperately despair for you, brother and Mr. Boris... Alas for me! It’s better for me to die with you than to live alone and orphaned from you for seven lives.” In this lament of Gleb, as in the lament of Boris, bookish elements are combined with oral poetic elements common in folk funeral laments.

Suddenly the evil servants of Svyatopolk arrive with drawn swords. With a touching gaze, a contrite heart, shedding tears, Gleb asks Svyatopolk’s soldiers not to kill him, promising to be his brother’s servant. Close to the people’s lamentations and laments sounds his request addressed to his murderers: “You will not reap me, I have not ripened from life,” he begs, “you will not reap the ear of grain, not already (not yet) ripe, but bearing the milk of goodness.” ! You will not cut the vines until they have grown to the end, but still have the fruit!” But the killers are adamant. Gleb says goodbye to his father, mother, Boris, Yaroslav, his squad and even the Holy Regiment; then he once again turns to his father and brother Boris, as if seeking their protection, then says the last prayer, after which, by order of the warrior Svyatopolk Goresyar, the cook Gleb Tor-chin kills him with a knife, like a gentle lamb, on the fifth day, Monday . Gleb's body was thrown to the ground in a deserted place. Above it, as the “Tale” says, passing merchants, hunters and hunters saw either a pillar of fire, or burning candles, or heard angelic singing. So Gleb’s body lay neglected until Yaroslav defeated the accursed Svyatopolk. The victory took place on the same Alta River where Boris was killed and where Svyatopolk came with many Pechenegs. The battle is described in a style that has become traditional for military stories: “And the field of Letskoe (near the Alta River) was covered with many howls, and the rising sun stepped aside, and the evil was quickly cut off from there (on both sides). AND stepping down three times, and walking every other day the whole day.” By evening, Yaroslav prevailed, and the accursed Svyatopolk ran, and a demon attacked him, and his bones weakened, so that he could not mount a horse, and they carried him on a stretcher. And then, getting up, “driven by the wrath of God,” he ran to the deserted land between the Czechs and Poles and then gave up his ghost, having accepted retribution from the Lord, having lost here not only his principality, but also his life, and in the next world he accepted eternal torment. And his grave exists to this day, and the stench emanates from it “for the testimony of man.”

Since then, strife in the Russian land has ceased, and Yaroslav assumed full power over it. He found Gleb’s body, which turned out to be, as the author of the “Tale” says, incorruptible and fragrant, and laid it in Vyshgorod, next to the body of Boris.

The “Tale” ended with praise to Boris and Gleb and a prayer addressed to them and to God. Then, a short description-characteristic of the internal and appearance Boris and information about the posthumous miracles of his brothers The characterization of Boris, which is a typical example of an ancient Russian literary portrait, reads like this: “This blessed Boris, good rooted, is obedient to his father, repenting in front of his father. The body is red, tall, the face is round, the shoulders are large, thin in the loins, the eyes of a good-looking man, the face is cheerful, the beard is small and mustache, he is still young, shining like a king, strong in body, decorated in every possible way, like a flower in its youth, in the age good, wise in advice and reasonable in all things, and the grace of God blooms upon him.”

The “legend” of Boris and Gleb differs significantly from the canonical form of Byzantine life. It does not contain a consistent presentation of the entire life of the saints, or at least its main moments, as is usual for life, and only one episode is told - their murder. "The Legend" is rather historical story, striving for an accurate designation of events and facts, with mention of historical places and names, and at the same time is a work lyrically saturated with laments, monologues, including “internal” monologues, prayers and reflections put into the mouths of Boris and Gleb . The author himself does not remain aloof from the events he tells and reveals heightened lyrical emotion where the narrative reaches its greatest drama, and especially at the end, in praise of Boris and Gleb. But, striving for documentaryism in purely external references and in indicating names and places, the author in all other respects follows the norms that are so typical of hagiographic literature. Everything that Boris and Gleb think and say, and how they act and how they are treated before the murder, is the fruit of the purest author’s imagination, or more precisely, the result of adapting ready-made hagiographic narrative schemes to the fate of these specific individuals. Rhetoric and lyrical pathos, in some cases quite talented, dominate throughout the entire “Tale”, replacing the story about the individual fate of its main characters. The author tries to depict the psychological state of the young brothers before the death that threatens them (especially the younger one - Gleb), their internal struggle between fear and despair and faith in heavenly reward, but this image is made in a generalized way, so to speak, from hearsay and based on the consideration that in general pious people experience in similar cases. The portrait of Boris is given in an equally generalized, non-individualized manner, harmoniously combining the ideal internal and external qualities of a Christian hero.

Like all hagiographic works, “The Tale” is, first of all, a tendentious work that sets itself a certain journalistic task, in this case protection and support 4 that political situation, which in the person of Yaroslav emerged victorious in inter-princely personal accounts. The literary glorification of Boris and Gleb and their church canonization that followed six years after their death, which for the first time introduced Russian saints into the Christian pantheon, were primarily a matter of obvious political calculation.

The literary and church apology of Boris and Gleb and the curse that weighed on Svyatopolk simultaneously fulfilled two tasks: on the one hand, the princely fratricidal feuds were condemned, on the other hand, the whole behavior of the murdered brothers, who did not want to raise a hand against their elder brother, emphasized and strengthened the idea of ancestral seniority in the system of princely inheritance, carried out in order to establish a new feudal system. All this was very beneficial to Yaroslav, and that is why he was so hasty with the canonization of Boris and Gleb.

It is curious that the selfless feat of George, Boris’s warrior, who dies solely out of love for his prince and, according to Christian concepts, thereby shows supreme example Christian virtue is mentioned in the “Tale” only in passing. From the point of view of political effect, the figure of an ordinary warrior and his feat were rather indifferent, and neither literary nor church glorification of such an unnamed hero could be part of the tasks of a hagiographer-publicist.

In the parimiyny reading about Boris and Gleb (i.e., in the reading included in the liturgical books - “Parimiyniks” and “Service Menaions”), formulas of military combat are grouped, typical for describing military episodes: “Before the heels then, the rising sun came for at that hour Svyatopolk came from the Pechenegs, and trespassed on the wallpaper, and the slaughter of evil began, as if it had not been in Russia. And I hold hands, setsahu, and the blood flows freely, and the trishdas step aside, and the merkosha (covered in darkness) beats. And the thunder was great and loud, and the rain was great, and the lightning flashed. When lightning struck and weapons flashed in their hands, I saw many faithful angels helping Yaroslav. Svyatopolk, giving his splashes, ran.”

The anonymous “Tale” was very popular and has come down to us in more than 170 copies; on its basis a spiritual verse about Boris and Gleb arose. It, being in the 13th century. transferred to Armenian language, included in the Armenian Chetya Menaion 1.

The legend was not a canonical life. Such a life was written by Nestor, the author of “Reading about the life and destruction of... Boris and Gleb,” as well as the life of Theodosius of Pechersk. (It is quite possible that Nestor, the author of the lives, and Nestor the chronicler were different persons, which can be concluded from the presence of contradictions between the information reported in both lives and the information reported by the chronicle edited by Nestor.) Beginning the “Reading” with prayer to God for help in writing his life and recognizing the “rudeness and foolishness” of his heart, Nestor then speaks about the creation of the world and the fall of the first people. Next we talk about Christ’s atonement for human sin and how Christianity reached the Russian land, which at first was “in the delusion of idolatry.” God himself looked upon the Russian land, for it had not heard about Christ from anyone, and the apostles did not walk on it and did not preach the word of God. At that time, Prince Vladimir, a truthful husband, merciful to the poor, orphans and widows, owned the entire Russian land; by faith he was a pagan. And God ordained for him, as Placis once did, to be a Christian. Christ, whom he revered without knowing him, appeared to the pagan Placis, a righteous and merciful man, and told him to be baptized. Placidas was baptized with his wife and children, and his name was given to him Eustathius. So it was with Vladimir. And he had a “appearance of God,” and he was baptized and named Vasily. Yesterday he ordered everyone to make idol sacrifices, but today he commands his nobles and all people to be baptized. With this, Nestor, like Hilarion and as the oldest chronicle, emphasizes the independence of Vladimir from Byzantium in the matter of baptism. But if Hilarion says that after Vladimir everyone was baptized, some of their own free will, and some under duress, out of fear of the prince, because his good faith was associated with power, then Nestor claims that everyone was baptized with joy.

Then there is a story about Boris and Gleb, who shone “like two bright stars in the middle of the dark ones.” Since childhood, Boris read divine books and spent time in prayer, and Gleb, day and night, without looking away from his brother, listened to his reading. Both brothers gave alms to all those in need. The fact that Boris was named Roman at baptism, and Gleb David, prompts the author to make a rather verbose comparison of both Russian princes with the Byzantine saints Roman and David. As in the life of Alexei the man of God, young Boris marries, yielding only to the will of his father. The anonymous “Legend” says that Boris was sent by his father to Rostov, and Gleb to Murom, while in “Reading” Boris ends up in Vladimir, and Gleb, while still a child, lives with his father. In his area, Boris shows an example of mercy and meekness, so that all people marvel at him. Svyatopolk plans to destroy Boris in order to take possession of the entire Russian land himself after his father’s death. Having learned about this, Vladimir calls Boris to Kyiv to protect him from Svyatopolk’s assassination attempt. Svyatopolk, thinking that Boris wanted to take the throne after the death of his father, became even more angry with Boris.

Subsequently, the facts in the “Reading” are conveyed in approximately the same way as in the “Legend”, but specific names and places are almost not indicated here. So, Boris goes against the “warriors” (and not specifically against the Pechenegs, as they say in the “Tale”), the place of death of Boris and Gleb is not named, etc. There is also no mention of the battle of Yaroslav with Svyatopolk in “Reading”. Svyatopolk is expelled by the inhabitants of the “region”, he flees to foreign countries and there “his stomach is completely open.” After this, Yaroslav takes power into his own hands. The “Reading” ends with a detailed description of the miracles that took place over the tombs of Boris and Gleb (similar miracles in the “Tale” - a later addition), reproaches to the young princes for disobedience to the elder princes, praise to Boris and Gleb, their tomb and Vyshgorod, in which the brothers were buried, and a request to readers to pray to the “blessed passion-bearers” for him, “Nestor the sinner.”

Written according to established hagiographic schemes, Nestor’s “Reading,” like his own life of Theodosius of Pechersk, is a fairly typical example of a hagiographic work. Rhetoricism and edification are its predominant feature. As a literary phenomenon, it is less significant than the anonymous “Tale”; it lacks the relative lyrical freshness that is felt in “The Tale”; his rhetoric is too cold and pompous, and his style is very artificial. This circumstance, apparently, was the reason for the lesser popularity of “Reading” compared to “The Legend,” which has reached us only in a little over twenty copies. In it we find approximately the same journalistic tendency as in the “Tale”.

In connection with the glorification of Boris and Gleb, in 1175, on May 2, on the day of celebration of their memory, an unknown clergyman pronounced a word of praise in honor of the brothers in the Chernigov Cathedral, known as “Tales about Princes.” It was compiled in the interests of the future Kyiv Grand Duke Svyatoslav, who appears in the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” who was then competing with the younger Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich for the Chernigov table. The idea of obedience of the younger princes to the elders and the condemnation of princely strife sounds in this word even more energetically than in “The Tale of Boris and Gleb.” “Listen, princes, who oppose their elder brothers, raising up an army against them and bringing in the filthy! - we read here. - Will not God convict you at the Last Judgment with these two saints? How they suffered from their brother the loss of not only power, but also life! You cannot even stand a word to your brother and for a small offense you create deadly enmity, you accept help from the filthy against your brothers... Be ashamed, you who are at enmity against your brothers and fellow believers, tremble and weep before God! You want to lose your glory and honor for your rancor and enmity!”

A significant role in the development of hagiographic literature belonged to the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery as a Russian religious center. Within its walls, as we know, a chronicle was kept that included a number of hagiographic tales, on the basis of which, in part, in the first quarter of the 13th century. a monument arose, which later took shape in the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon. Its core was the correspondence between Bishop Simon of Vladimir (d. 1226), a former monk of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery, and Polycarp, a monk of the same monastery. Not satisfied with the modest role of an ordinary monk in the monastery and aspiring to occupy the episcopal see, Polycarp, distinguished by his extraordinary literary abilities and erudition, complained to his friend Simon that he was being bypassed. In response to Polycarp, who discovered a lack of the main monastic virtue - humility, Simon wrote a reproachful letter, adding to it for edification several short stories from the life of the Pechersk monks and the story of the construction of the Pechersk Church. All this material was supposed to instill in Polycarp the consciousness of the holiness of the monastery, the modest position in which he was burdened. Apparently, Simon’s admonition had an effect on Polycarp, and he, in turn, in the form of an appeal to the Pechersk abbot Akindinus, supplemented Simon’s work with a number of new stories from the life of the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. Later, exactly when is unknown, apparently in the middle of the 13th century, the writings of Simon and Polycarp, with the addition of the chronicle legend of 1074 about the “first monks of Pechersk” were combined. The oldest manuscript, containing such a combined text of both writers, with the addition of the legend of the first monks of Pechersk, Nestor’s life of Theodosius of Pechersk and some other materials, dates back to the beginning of the 15th century. (1406). It was created in Tver at the initiative of the Tver bishop Arseny, after whom the text of this manuscript is called the “Arsenyevsky” edition of the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon. In the same, XV century, in 1462, in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, on the initiative of the monk Cassian, a new edition of the monument, the so-called “Kassianovskaya”, appeared, in which for the first time it received the name “Paterik of the Pechersk”. further revisions until the 17th century, when in 1661 the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon was printed in Kiev by order of Archimandrite Innocent Gisel.

The sources of the writings of Simon and Polycarp were mainly the life of Anthony of Pechersk, the life of Theodosius written by Nestor, and the Pechersk Chronicle, which have not reached us, as well as oral traditions. Some things were written by both authors from memory. Notable influence These writings were influenced by Byzantine translated patericons, mainly “Sinaiticus” and “Jerusalem”, as well as the writings of some church fathers (Ephraim the Syrian, John Climacus, etc.). One might think that the discovery of the life of Anthony, imbued to a certain extent with the Grecophile tendency, prompted Simon to take up work dedicated to the glorification of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery and its outstanding figures 2 . In the work of Simon and Polycarp, these tendencies were significantly weakened, and the national aspect was put in first place.

The stories of Simon and Polycarp are replete with elements of fantasy; in them, as in works of hagiographic literature in general, a significant place is occupied by miracles that originate from local oral traditions or book hagiographic sources, as well as descriptions of the extraordinary ascetic deeds of monks. But at the same time, in these stories, especially those belonging to Polycarp, there are many realistic, sometimes naturalistically colored everyday details that characterized the monastic way of life.

The main task that both Simon and Polycarp set for themselves was the exaltation of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery as a Russian religious center. Thus, the authority of the Russian church as a serious political factor in feudal society was elevated and strengthened. At the same time, an apology was created for the Kyiv state, which by that time had lost its former political significance. The idea of glorifying the stronghold of Christianity in Rus' - the Pechersk Monastery - testified to the increased self-awareness of the Russian clergy, who thought of themselves as a solid force and an influential organization in historical life Rus'.

In all likelihood, Simon began his work with a story about the creation of the Pechersk Church in honor of the Mother of God, based primarily on oral traditions circulated in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. According to this story, the creation of the church was attended by the son of the Varangian prince Shimon, who came to serve the son of Yaroslav the Wise Vsevolod and accepted the Orthodox faith in Kiev, as well as Byzantine architects and icon painters who went from Constantinople to Kiev to Anthony and Theodosius at the behest of the Mother of God. The construction of the church is accompanied by miraculous signs. So, for example, Anthony prays for three days that God would send him a sign where the church should be built: let there be dew on the whole earth, and let it be dry in the place where the church is to be built. And so it happened. Then - after a second prayer - the opposite happened: it was dry everywhere, and there was dew in the place where the church was to be built. So, the place for the church was determined. Through Anthony’s prayer, fire came down from heaven, burning brushwood and thorns around, drying up the dew and making a depression in the place reserved for the church. Approaching Kiev, the icon painters, seeing a church larger than the one they had agreed to paint, decided to go back. They sailed down the Dnieper, but twice a storm brought them back upstream to Kyiv - to the location of the church. Then the painters realized that decorating the church with icons was their duty, indicated to them from above, and they set to work. It was accompanied by the miraculous appearance of the image of the Mother of God, shining dazzlingly. A dove flew out of the mouth of the Mother of God and, flying around the church, was not given into the hands of the icon painters. And then those present in the church realized that the “holy spirit” was there.

This legend, as we see, connects the construction of the Pechersk Church, firstly, with Scandinavia, and secondly, with Byzantium. This was a consequence of the fact that, on the one hand, the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery was on friendly terms with the princely house of Vsevolod, which was related to the house of the Varangian Shimon, on the other hand, Simon was influenced by the popular trend carried out by the Byzantine church and which boiled down to the approval dependence of Russian Christianity on Byzantium. This tendency, to a certain extent, was characteristic of the life of Anthony, who was, as said, one of the main sources of the Kiev-Pechersk patericon, but in the patericon, in comparison with the life of Anthony, it is noticeably moderated: next to Anthony, Theodosius appears almost everywhere.

The Kiev-Pechersk Patericon vividly reflects the struggle that took place between the monastery and the princes, which was based on rivalry based on material interests and clashes due to the monastery’s intervention in inter-princely relations. At first, the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery tried to defend its independence and treated the princes positively only insofar as they favored its growth. Otherwise, he was at enmity with them. If Vsevolod and his son Vladimir Monomakh, who patronized the monastery, are depicted sympathetically in the patericon, then a different attitude is reflected in it, for example, towards Izyaslav Yaroslavich, his son Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and grandson Mstislav Svyatopolkovich. Thus, to characterize the attitude of the patericon to Svyatopolk Izyaslavich, the story about Prokhor the Wonderworker is very indicative.

Svyatopolk Izyaslavich was a cruel and unmerciful prince. Difficult situation Under him, the Kiev people were aggravated by attacks by the Polovtsians, civil strife, robberies and famine. At the same time, merchants from Galich and Przemysl with salt were not allowed into Kyiv, and the entire Russian land was left without salt; Kyiv merchants, taking advantage of this, greatly raised the price for it. One of the monks of the Pechersk Monastery, Prokhor, who possessed the miraculous art of making bread from quinoa and turning ash into salt, comes to the aid of the population. The merchants complained to Svyatopolk that Prokhor, by distributing salt to the people of Kiev, was depriving them of profit. Svyatopolk ordered to take the salt from Prokhor and take it to the prince’s court, hoping that he himself would enrich himself by selling it at a high price. But as soon as the salt was removed from the monastery, it immediately turned into ash again. After holding it for three days, Svyatopolk ordered it to be thrown away, and then the ash again turned into salt. The story ends with the message that Svyatopolk, having learned about Prokhor’s miracles, was ashamed and, going to the Pechersky Monastery, reconciled with Abbot John, under whose command Prokhor was. Previously, the narrator adds, Svyatopolk was at enmity with John, who accused him of greed and cruelty, and even imprisoned the abbot in Turov, but then, fearing “the uprising of the Christ-loving prince Vladimir Monomakh,” he soon returned the abbot with honor to the Pechersky Monastery. Thus, in the story, simultaneously with the expression of dislike for Svyatopolk, sympathy for Vladimir Monomakh is emphasized.

Or here’s a story about Fyodor and Vasily. Fedor was once a rich man. But, reflecting on the fact that death awaited him, and that wealth could not secure his future life, he decided to take monastic vows at the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, and distributed his property to the poor. He settled in a cave where a Varangian treasure was once buried, which is why this cave was called Varangian. But then Fyodor began to repent of having lost the wealth and joys of worldly life. Next to him lived the pious monk Vasily, who raised him in the spirit of monastic virtue and discipline, trying to distract him from worldly thoughts. For some time, Vasily exerted a beneficial influence on Fedor. But when Vasily once left the monastery for three months, the devil came into his own. He appears to Fyodor, first in the form of Vasily, and then in an angelic form, shows him the location of the Varangian treasure, teaches him to dig it up and go with it to another monastery. When Fedor, having found the treasure, is about to leave the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, Vasily returns and keeps him from such an act. Fyodor again buries the treasure he dug into the ground and turns to God with a prayer to grant him oblivion of the place where the gold is hidden, so that he will not be tempted to dig it up again. And it happened as Fedor asked. The demon, thus, was put to shame: he turns into a small imp, which Fyodor very skillfully tames. So, for example, one day he forces him to grind five carts of grain; another time he tells the demon to bring it to high mountain wood for construction. The demon became Fedor's obedient tool. But then the following happens in Fyodor’s life: the devil in the form of Vasily appeared to the adviser of Prince Mstislav and, wanting to take revenge on Fyodor, told him that he was hiding a treasure in the cave. Mstislav, who himself wanted to take possession of the treasure, forcibly brings Fyodor to him and demands that he tell him where the gold is. Fyodor sincerely says that he does not remember, for God granted him - at his request - oblivion of this place. And Mstislav orders the monk to be put in chains, does not give him food or water for three days and then tortures him. He also tortures Vasily, who was called as a witness. Both monks bravely endure the torture and denounce the prince. Mstislav shoots an arrow at Vasily, which Vasily removes from his body and predicts that Mstislav himself will be wounded by this arrow. Fyodor and Vasily die at night, but after some time Mstislav, wounded in a collision with Prince Igor Davidovich, dies.

“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” touchingly tells how the young prince Rostislav Vsevolodovich drowned in the Stugna River while crossing it. The author of the Lay shows clear affection for this prince. He feels sorry for him and his grief-stricken mother, who mourns her son, evoking the sympathy of flowers and trees. The same Prince Rostislav appears in a completely different coloring in the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon in the story about the wonderworker Gregory. Once, it is said there, Gregory went to the banks of the Dnieper to wash a vessel that had caught some unclean animal. At this time, Rostislav was passing by along with his brother Vladimir Monomakh, intending to pray at the Pechersky Monastery before setting off against the Polovtsians. Rostislav's squad treated Grigory rudely and began to mock him. Then Gregory, angry, said: “Because you curse at me, you will all drown along with your prince.” Rostislav, indignant, shouted: “How can I drown when I swim so well!” - and ordered to tie a stone around Gregory’s neck and drown him in the Dnieper. Gregory drowned. The angry Rostislav did not enter the Pechersky Monastery to pray, while his brother, Vladimir Monomakh, prayed in the monastery and took a blessing there. What happened? What happened was what is told in the “Tale of Igor’s Campaign” with sympathy, and in the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon - with obvious gloating: Rostislav, along with his youths, retreating before the Polovtsians, drowned in Stugna, and Vladimir Monomakh was saved for his respect for Pechersk monastery

As we see, heavy retribution falls on the head of the prince, who even belonged to the family of Prince Vsevolod, revered by the Pechersk monks, but who abused the monastery and its monk.

A sympathetic attitude towards Vladimir Monomakh also appears in other stories of the patericon, for example about the icon painter Alimpia and about the unpaid doctor Agapit. In the first of these stories, in addition, along with the positive and negative aspects of monastic life, they are revealed mainly in the selfishness of some monks.

Speaking about the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon (in a letter to P. A. Pletnev in April 1831), Pushkin admired in it “the charm of simplicity and invention.” Pushkin's review of the patericon can be illustrated by at least the legend of Mark the Pechernik, who dug caves to bury dead monks in them.

One day, Mark, while digging a cave, became exhausted and did not finish digging it to the end, and when they brought the dead man, his coffin could not fit in it. There was a murmur among the monks, because, as the story says, they could not “clean up” the dead man, that is, ritualize him and pour oil on him, “the place was too narrow.” Mark apologized to the brethren: “Forgive me, my fathers, for my wickedness, I did not finish.” The monks began to scold him even more. Then Mark turned to the dead man himself with the following request: “It’s tight, brother, so strengthen yourself, take the oil and pour it on yourself.” And a miracle happened: the dead man stretched out his hand, poured oil on himself, and his coffin was placed in a narrow cave.

Another time, after the death of one monk, his friend came to the place where there should have been a cave for the deceased and asked Mark when it would be ready. Mark replied: “Brother, go to the deceased and tell him to wait until the morning while I dig up the grave.” The monk says that he cannot ask his friend to wait to die, since he is already dead. Mark stands his ground: “You see, the place is not finished, go and say: stay one more day, die in the morning, and the place will be ready.” The one who came had to obey. He went to the deceased and conveyed Mark’s request to him. Everyone was surprised at her, but the dead man regained his sight, his spirit returned, and he remained alive day and night, but did not say anything. In the morning, the monk, making sure that the place for the burial of his friend was ready, returned to the dead man and said: “Leave your temporary stomach and move into the eternal, for the place to receive your body is ready.” The revived dead man immediately died again and was laid in the cave that Mark had dug for him.

The following story is also interesting, based on the literal understanding of the word, on an accurate understanding of its etymology and being related to fairy tale motifs. It talks about how the monk Theophilus, who wanted to carefully consider his virtues, acquired a special jug in which he collected all the tears that he had ever shed during prayer. And so, when he came last hour, an angel appeared to him with a fragrant jug, where, it turns out, were collected not the tears that the monk himself collected, but those that he literally shed (past the jug). These tears, not taken into account by Theophilus, which he did not collect, were the only ones that turned out to be pleasing to God.

This is how the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon combined a politically tendentious story with a church legend, in other cases going back to oral poetic motives .

Topic: Hagiographic literature of Rus'

Introduction

1.2 Canons of Old Russian hagiography

2 Hagiographic literature of Rus'

3 Saints of ancient Rus'

3.1 “The Tale of Boris and Gleb”

3.2 “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk”

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

The study of Russian holiness in its history and its religious phenomenology is now one of the urgent tasks of our Christian revival.

Hagiography (hagiography, from the Greek hagios - saint and...graphy), a type of church literature - biographies of saints - which were an important type of reading for medieval Russians.

Lives of Saints - biographies of clergy and secular persons canonized by the Christian Church. From the first days of its existence, the Christian Church carefully collects information about the life and activities of its ascetics and reports them for general edification. The lives of saints constitute perhaps the most extensive section of Christian literature.

Over the centuries of its existence, Russian hagiography has gone through different forms, known different styles and was formed in close dependence on the Greek, rhetorically developed and decorated hagiography.

Among the best writers of Ancient Rus', Nestor the Chronicler, Epiphanius the Wise and Pachomius Logothet devoted their pens to the glorification of saints.

All of the above leaves no doubt about the relevance of this topic.

Purpose of the work: a comprehensive study and analysis of the hagiographic literature of Rus'.

The work consists of an introduction, 3 chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

1 Development of the hagiographic genre

1.1 The appearance of the first hagiographic literature

Under Domitian and Diocletian, a significant part of the records perished in the fire, so when Eusebius (died in 340) undertook the compilation of a complete collection of legends about the ancient martyrs, he did not find sufficient material for that in the literature of martyrdoms, but had to do research in the archives of institutions, who carried out the trial of the martyrs. A later, more complete collection and critical edition of the acts of the martyrs belongs to the Benedictine Ruinart.

From the 9th century a new feature appeared in the literature of the lives of saints - a tendentious (moralizing, partly political-social) direction, which decorated the story about a saint with fictions of fantasy.

More extensive is the literature of the second kind of “lives of the saints” - saints and others. The oldest collection of such tales is Dorothea, Bishop. Tyrian (died 362), - the legend of the 70 apostles.

Many lives of saints are found in collections of mixed content, such as: prologue, synaxari, menaion, patericon.

In the pre-Mongol period, a full circle of menaia, prologues and synaxarions already existed in the Russian church. Then patericons appear in Russian literature - special collections of the lives of saints. Translated patericons are known in the manuscripts: Sinaitic (“Limonar” by Mosch), alphabetic, monastery (several types; see description of the RKP. Undolsky and Tsarsky), Egyptian (Lavsaik Palladium). Based on the model of these eastern patericons, the “Kievo-Pechersk Patericon” was compiled in Russia, which began with Simon, bishop. Vladimir, and Kiev-Pechersk monk Polycarp.

Finally, the last common source for the lives of the saints of the entire church is calendars and month books. The beginnings of calendars date back to the very first times of the church. From the testimony of Asterius of Amasia (died 410) it is clear that in the 4th century. they were so complete that they contained names for all the days of the year.

Monthly words, under the Gospels and the Apostles, are divided into three kinds: of eastern origin, ancient Italian and Sicilian, and Slavic. Of the latter, the oldest is under the Ostromir Gospel (XII century). They are followed by monthly books: Assemani, with the Glagolitic Gospel, located in the Vatican Library, and Savvin, ed. Sreznevsky in 1868

This also includes brief notes about saints (saints) under the church statutes of Jerusalem, Studio and Constantinople. The Saints are the same calendars, but the details of the story are close to the synaxars and exist separately from the Gospels and statutes.

From the beginning of the 15th century, Epiphanius and the Serb Pachomius created a new school in northern Rus' - a school of artificially decorated, extensive life. They - especially Pachomius - created a stable literary canon, a magnificent “weaving of words”, which Russian scribes strive to imitate until the end of the 17th century. In the era of Macarius, when many ancient inexperienced hagiographic records were being redone, the works of Pachomius were included in the Chetya Menaion intact.

The vast majority of these hagiographic monuments are strictly dependent on their samples. There are lives almost entirely copied from the ancients; others develop generalities while eschewing precise biographical information. This is what hagiographers involuntarily do, separated from the saint by a long period of time - sometimes centuries, when the popular tradition dries up. But here, too, the general law of the hagiographic style, similar to the law of icon painting, operates: it requires the subordination of the particular to the general, the dissolution of the human face in the heavenly glorified face.

Household members, and those who came to their house. The combination of church idealization with everyday life inevitably led to the destruction of this idealization.” Likhachev begins the line of a new type of hagiography from “The Tale of Martha and Mary” and “The Tale of Ulyaniya Osoryina” literature XVII century, which was firmly connected with everyday life and found its most vivid embodiment in the “Life” of Archpriest Avakkum. Ideas F.I. Buslaeva and D.S. ...

In his writings, he uses symbolic comparisons, comparisons and metaphors, sometimes taking material from the natural world for this and giving, for example. in "The Word on new week according to the paste”, the first examples of landscape in Russian literature. In his other works, Kirill Turovsky resorts to dramatization of presentation, introducing techniques of dialogical construction of speech into the story. Elements of symbolic parallelism in...

Returns to the city, carrying his head in his hands, Saint John of Novgorod travels to Jerusalem on a demon, Clement of Rome ends up in Novgorod on a large stone. 2.3. The canonical structure of the hagiographic genre in the 12th-13th centuries The Lives of the Saints of the 17th century mark, in a certain sense, logical conclusion Old Russian hagiography, a gradual transition to a new period of Russian literature. ...

Nestor was one of the first Russian hagiographers, and the traditions of his work will be continued and developed in the works of his followers. The genre of hagiographic literature in the 14th – 16th centuries. The genre of hagiographic literature has become widespread in ancient Russian literature. “The Life of Tsarevich Peter of Ordynsky, Rostov (XIII century)”, “The Life of Procopius of Ustyug” (XIV). Epiphanius the Wise (died 1420...