General characteristics of the genre of hagiography in ancient Russian literature. Life as a genre of Old Russian literature Everyday genre in Old Russian literature
Description of the video lesson
Old Russian literature- literature of the East Slavic principalities from the moment of the creation of statehood in Rus' until the Mongol-Tatar invasion.
Without it, it is impossible to understand the work of modern writers, the history of the Fatherland. The main law of ancient Russian literature is truth, the truth about outstanding personalities, which were the great Russian princes.
“What is this single and huge building, on the construction of which dozens of generations of Russian scribes worked for seven hundred years - unknown or known to us only by their modest names and about whom almost no biographical data has been preserved, and not even autographs remain?”- asks Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, a researcher of the literature of Ancient Rus'. And he notes in his research: it has one theme - the meaning of human life, one plot - world history.
Life- this is a description of the life of a saint. The hero of the life follows the instructions of Christ in his life and, going through many trials, becomes a saint.
The hagiography strictly adheres to the composition: an introduction that tells the reasons for writing the work; the main part contains a description of the life of the saint, his death and miracles. The life ends with the glorification of the ideal hero as an example of high morality. The authors did not reveal their names, emphasizing their modesty and humility. But these were educated and talented people. Without them, we would never have learned about the life of the Christian and politician Alexander Nevsky.
Work "The Tale of the Life of Alexander Nevsky" was written in Vladimir, where the prince was buried, in the Nativity Monastery. Academician Dmitry Likhachev assumed that Metropolitan Kirill took part in the creation of the work.
IN "The Lives of Alexander Nevsky" the image of a true patriot of Russia is presented, who not only prayed to God for the freedom of the Fatherland, but also, with arms in hand, valiantly defended it from envious people and enemies. With a small squad, trusting in the help of God, Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, on June 15, 1240, attacked the Swedish knights who had invaded the northwestern lands of Rus', and won an absolute victory. The battle took place at the mouth of the Neva River, which is why Prince Alexander was named Nevsky.
Since 1241, there was a war with the Lithuanian knights who captured the Pskov and Novgorod lands. The decisive battle took place on April 5, 1242 on the ice of Lake Peipus. The battle ended with the defeat of the enemy. The battle went down in history as the Battle of the Ice.
Alexander Nevsky not only fought, but also took care of the civilians of the Russian land, maintained good relations with the Khan of the Golden Horde, believing that the strength of Rus' lies in its defense, and not in its offensive.
The author of the hagiographic story proves that, despite the subjugation of the Russian principalities to the Mongol-Tatars, princes, courageous and wise warriors remained in Rus', whose greatness is recognized even by their enemies: “I went through countries and peoples and never saw such a king among kings, nor a prince among princes.”
At the end of his life, after describing the exploits of Alexander Nevsky, a miracle occurs: “When the holy body was laid in the tomb, then Sebastian the steward and Cyril the Metropolitan wanted to unclench his hand in order to insert a spiritual letter. He, as if alive, extended his hand and accepted the letter...”
In 1547, Prince Alexander Nevsky was canonized for his devotion to God: “I believe, and that’s enough... Neither land nor gold can buy faith!”, for a life filled with dangers and battles, for deep faith in the Russian people: “Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword”.
Ancient written literature is divided into secular and ecclesiastical. The latter gained special distribution and development after Christianity began to occupy an increasingly strong position among other world religions.
Ancient Rus' acquired its written language along with spiritual books that were brought from Byzantium by Greek priests. And the first Slavic alphabet, as you know, was developed by the Solun brothers, Cyril and Methodius. Therefore, it was church texts that became the source of knowledge from which our ancestors comprehended book wisdom. The genres of ancient religious literature included psalms, lives, prayers and sermons, church legends, teachings and stories. Some of them, for example the story, were subsequently transformed into the genres of secular works. Others remained strictly within church boundaries. Let's figure out what life is. The definition of the concept is as follows: these are works dedicated to describing the lives and deeds of saints. We are not talking only about the apostles who continued the preaching work of Christ after his death. The heroes of hagiographic texts were martyrs who became famous for their highly moral behavior and suffered for their faith.
Characteristic features of hagiography as a genre
From this follows the first distinctive sign of what living is. The definition included some clarification: firstly, it was made about a real person. The author of the work had to adhere to the framework of this biography, but pay attention precisely to those facts that would indicate the special holiness, chosenness and asceticism of the saint. Secondly, what is a life (definition): this is a story compiled to glorify a saint for the edification of all believers and non-believers, so that they are inspired by a positive example.
An obligatory part of the narrative was messages about the miraculous power that God endowed with his most faithful servants. Thanks to God's mercy, they were able to heal, support the suffering, and perform the feat of humility and asceticism. This is how the authors painted the image of an ideal person, but, as a result, many biographical information and details of private life were omitted. And finally, another distinctive feature of the genre: style and language. There are many rhetorical exclamations, appeals, words and expressions with biblical symbolism.
Based on the above, what is living? The definition can be formulated as follows: it is an ancient genre of written literature (as opposed to oral folk art) on a religious theme, glorifying the deeds of Christian saints and martyrs.
Lives of the Saints
Hagiographies have long been the most popular in ancient Rus'. They were written according to strict canons and, in fact, revealed the meaning of human life. One of the most striking examples of the genre is “The Life of St. Sergius of Radonezh,” set forth by Epiphanius the Wise. Here there is everything that should be in literary texts of this type: the hero comes from a pious family of righteous people, obedient to the will of the Lord. God's providence, faith and prayers support the hero from childhood. He meekly endures trials and trusts only in God's mercy. Having realized the importance of faith, the hero spends his conscious life in spiritual labors, not caring about the material side of existence. The basis of his existence is fasting, prayer, taming the flesh, fighting the unclean, and asceticism. The lives of Russian saints emphasized that their characters were not afraid of death, gradually prepared for it and accepted their departure with joy, as this allowed their souls to meet God and the angels. The work ended, as it began, with glorification and praise of the Lord, Christ and the Holy Spirit, as well as the righteous man himself - the venerable one.
List of hagiographic works of Russian literature
Peruvian Russian authors own about 156 texts related to the genre of hagiography. The first of them are associated with the names of princes Boris and Gleb, treacherously killed by their own brother. They also became the first Russian Christian martyrs-passion-bearers, canonized by the Orthodox Church and considered intercessors of the state. Next, the lives of Prince Vladimir, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy and many other prominent representatives of the Russian land were created. A special place in this series is occupied by the biography of Archpriest Avvakum, the rebellious leader of the Old Believers, written by himself during his stay in the Pustozersky prison (17th century). In fact, this is the first autobiography, the birth of a new literary genre.
Life, hagiography is one of the main epic genres of church literature, which flourished in the Middle Ages. The object of the image is a life - a feat of faith performed by a historical person or group of persons (martyrs of the faith, church or government figures). Most often, the whole life of a saint becomes a feat of faith; sometimes only that part of it is described in the life, which constitutes the feat of faith, or only one act is the object of depiction. Hence, there are two main genre subtypes of hagiography: martyrium (martyrdom) - describing the martyrdom and death of a saint, hagiography of bios - telling about the entire life path from birth to death. A special subtype of life is the patericon novella (see). The origins of the hagiographic genre lie in ancient times: in myth, ancient biography (Plutarch), funeral oration, fairy tale, Hellenistic novel. However, the hagiographic genre itself is formed under the influence of the Gospel (the story of the earthly life of Christ) and the Acts of the Apostles. Life in South Slavic translations came to Rus' from Byzantium along with the adoption of Christianity in the 10th century. Soon, their own translations of Byzantine Lives appeared, and then the genre was mastered by Old Russian spiritual writers (the first Russian Lives - the Legend and Reading of Boris and Gleb, the Life of Theodosius of Pechersk, 11th century; Life from the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon of the first third of the 13th century).
Purpose of the life
The main purpose of the life is edifying, didactic: the life and deeds of the saint are considered as an example to follow, his suffering as a sign of Divine chosenness. Based on the Holy Scriptures, life usually poses and answers from a Christian perspective the central questions of human existence: what determines a person’s fate? How free is he in his choice? What is the hidden meaning of suffering? How should one approach suffering? Solving the problem of freedom and necessity from a Christian perspective, life often depicts a situation where a saint can avoid torture, but consciously does not do this; on the contrary, he gives himself into the hands of the tormentors. The first Russian holy prince-martyrs Boris and Gleb voluntarily and consciously accepted death, although (this is demonstrated by both the anonymous author of the Tale of Boris and Gleb and Nestor, the author of the Reading of Boris and Gleb) death could have been avoided. A whole group of lives stands out with clearly entertaining plots: love and hatred, separations and meetings, miracles and adventures, manifestations of extraordinary human qualities (J. Eustathius Placidy, J. Alexy, the man of God, J. Galaktion and Epistimia, etc.). Capturing the feat of a particular person, the life can simultaneously tell about the founding of a monastery or the history of the construction of a temple or the appearance of relics (relics). The founding of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery is narrated in the life of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the events of historical life, the princely strife are also narrated in hagiographic monuments dedicated to Boris and Gleb; about the time of the invasion of the Livonian Order and complex political relations with the Horde - the life of Alexander Nevsky; the tragic events caused by the Tatar Mongol conquest are spoken of in the lives dedicated to the princes killed in the Horde (J. Mikhail of Chernigov, 13th century and J. Mikhail-Tverskoy, early 14th century).
The canon, that is, the examples of the genre established by church and literary tradition, determines the artistic structure of life: the principle of generalization when creating the image of a saint; type of narrator, rules of construction (composition, set of topoi), own verbal stencils. Often such independent genres as vision, miracle, praise, and lament are included in the life. The author of the life is focused on showing the pious life of the saint, whom he knew either personally or from oral or written testimony. Based on the requirements of the genre, the author had to admit all his “foolishness,” emphasizing in the introduction that he was too insignificant to describe the life of a person marked by God. On the one hand, the narrator’s view of his “hero” is the view of an ordinary person at an extraordinary person, on the other hand, it is objective, and the narrator is not an entirely ordinary person. A bookish person could undertake the compilation of a life, not only knowledgeable in the works of his predecessors and possessing a literary gift, but also able to interpret Divine Providence through analogies, mainly from the Holy Scriptures.
The life could be read in the temple(special short lives as part of the collections - Prologues (Greek Synaxarea) - were read during the service on the 6th song of the canon), at the monastic meal and at home. The lengthy hagiographies, as well as the short ones in the Prologues, were distributed by month in Byzantium in collections that came with the adoption of Christianity in Rus' - Menaia-Chetyah. In the 16th century, Metropolitan Macarius united all the lives written by that time, recognized by the church, into a common code called the Great Menaion-Chetia. In the 17th-18th century, following Metropolitan Macarius, largely following his work, Ivan Milyutin, German Tulupov, and Dimitri Rostovsky compiled their own versions of the life codes - the Chetyih-Menya. Dmitry Rostovsky not only relies on the experience of his great predecessor, Metropolitan Macarius, but also edits the Chet’i-Mi nei anew, turning to different ones, incl. to Latin sources. Over time, the genre developed and could acquire local features, for example, in regional literature.
In the 17th century, the medieval genre of hagiography began to undergo significant changes: it became possible to write an autobiographical hagiography (“The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”) or a combination of a hagiography and a biographical story (“The Life of Juliania Lazarevskaya”). In church practice, the life as a biography of an ascetic - a locally revered saint or canonized by the church - is preserved until modern times (“Tales of the life and exploits of Father Seraphim of blessed memory” - Seraphim of Sarov (1760-1833), canonized by the Russian Church in 1903). Genre features of life can be used in modern literature: F. M. Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov” (1879-80), L. N. Tolstoy “Father Sergius” (1890-98), N. S. Leskov “The Councilors” (1872 ), L.N. Andreev “The Life of Vasily of Fivey” (1904), I.A. Bunin “Matthew the Perspicious” (1916), “Saint Eustathius” (1915), Ch. Aitmatov “The Scaffold” (1986).
LIFE, hagiography came from Greek hagios - holy and grapho, which translated means - I write.
VOLGOGRAD STATE INSTITUTE
ARTS AND CULTURE
DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY STUDIES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Literature abstract on the topic:
“Life as a genre of ancient Russian literature”
Volgograd 2002
Introduction
Every nation remembers and knows its history. In stories, legends, and songs, information and memories of the past were preserved and passed on from generation to generation.
The general rise of Rus' in the 11th century, the creation of centers of writing and literacy, the emergence of a whole galaxy of educated people of their time in the princely-boyar, church-monastic environment determined the development of ancient Russian literature.
“Russian literature is almost a thousand years old. This is one of the most ancient literatures in Europe. It is older than French, English, and German literature. Its beginning dates back to the second half of the 10th century. Of this great millennium, more than seven hundred years belong to the period commonly called
"ancient Russian literature"
Old Russian literature can be considered as literature of one theme and one plot. This plot is world history, and this theme is the meaning of human life,” writes D. S. Likhachev.1
Old Russian literature up to the 17th century. does not know or hardly knows the conventional characters. The names of the characters are historical:
Boris and Gleb, Feodosia Pechersky, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy,
Sergius of Radonezh, Stefan of Perm...
Just as we talk about the epic in folk art, we can talk about the epic in ancient Russian literature. An epic is not a simple sum of epics and historical songs. The epics are plot-related. They paint us a whole epic era in the life of the Russian people. The era is fantastic, but at the same time historical. This era is the time of the reign of Vladimir Krasnoe
Sun. The action of many plots is transferred here, which obviously existed before, and in some cases arose later. Another epic time is the time of independence of Novgorod. Historical songs depict to us, if not a single era, then, in any case, a single course of events: the 16th and 17th centuries. predominantly.
Ancient Russian literature is an epic telling the history of the universe and the history of Rus'.
None of the works of Ancient Rus' - translated or original - stands apart. They all complement each other in the picture of the world they create. Each story is a complete whole, and at the same time it is connected with others. This is only one chapter of the history of the world.
The works were built according to the “enfilade principle”. The life was supplemented over the centuries with services to the saint and descriptions of his posthumous miracles. It could grow with additional stories about the saint. Several lives of the same saint could be combined into a new single work.
Such a fate is not uncommon for literary works of Ancient Rus': many of the stories over time begin to be perceived as historical, as documents or narratives about Russian history.
Russian scribes also act in the hagiographic genre: in the 11th - early 12th centuries. the lives of Anthony of Pechersk were written (it has not survived), Theodosius
Pechersky, two versions of the lives of Boris and Gleb. In these lives, Russian authors, undoubtedly familiar with the hagiographic canon and with the best examples of Byzantine hagiography, show, as we will see later, enviable independence and display high literary skill.
Life as a genre of ancient Russian literature.
In the XI - early XII centuries. the first Russian lives were created: two lives of Boris and
Gleb, “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk”, “The Life of Anthony of Pechersk” (not preserved until modern times). Their writing was not only a literary fact, but also an important link in the ideological policy of the Russian state.
At this time, the Russian princes persistently sought from the Patriarch of Constantinople the rights to canonize their own Russian saints, which would significantly increase the authority of the Russian Church. The creation of a life was an indispensable condition for the canonization of a saint.
We will look here at one of the lives of Boris and Gleb - “Reading about the life and destruction” of Boris and Gleb and “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk”. Both lives were written by Nestor. A comparison of them is especially interesting, since they represent two hagiographic types - the life-martyria (the story of the martyrdom of the saint) and the monastic life, which tells about the entire life path of the righteous man, his piety, asceticism, the miracles he performed, etc. Nestor, Of course, he took into account the requirements of the Byzantine hagiographic canon. There is no doubt that he knew translated Byzantine Lives. But at the same time, he showed such artistic independence, such extraordinary talent that the creation of these two masterpieces makes him one of the outstanding ancient Russian writers.
Features of the genre of the lives of the first Russian saints.
“Reading about Boris and Gleb” opens with a lengthy introduction, which sets out the entire history of the human race: the creation of Adam and Eve, their fall, the “idolatry” of people is exposed, we remember how Christ, who came to save the human race, taught and was crucified, how they began to preach the new teaching of the apostles and the new faith triumphed. Only
Rus' remained “in the first [former] idolatrous charm [remained pagan].” Vladimir baptized Rus', and this act is depicted as a general triumph and joy: people rushing to accept Christianity rejoice, and not one of them resists or even “verbs” “contrary” to the will of the prince, Vladimir himself rejoices, seeing the “warm faith” newly converted Christians. This is the background story of the villainous murder of Boris and Gleb by Svyatopolk. Svyatopolk thinks and acts according to the machinations of the devil. The “historiographical” introduction to life corresponds to the ideas about the unity of the world historical process: the events that took place in Rus' are only a special case of the eternal struggle between God and the devil, and for every situation, for every action, Nestor looks for an analogy, a prototype in past history. Therefore, Vladimir’s decision to baptize
Rus' leads to a comparison of him with Eustathius Placis (the Byzantine saint, whose life was discussed above) on the basis that Vladimir, as the “ancient Placis,” God “had no way of inducing spon (in this case, illness),” after which the prince decided be baptized. Vladimir is also compared with
Constantine the Great, whom Christian historiography revered as the emperor who proclaimed Christianity as the state religion
Byzantium. Nestor compares Boris with the biblical Joseph, who suffered because of the envy of his brothers, etc.
The features of the genre of hagiography can be judged by comparing it with the chronicle.
The characters are traditional. The chronicle says nothing about the childhood and youth of Boris and Gleb. Nestor, in accordance with the requirements of the hagiographic canon, narrates how, as a youth, Boris constantly read
“the lives and torments of the saints” and dreamed of being worthy of the same martyrdom.
The chronicle does not mention Boris's marriage. Nestor has a traditional motive - the future saint seeks to avoid marriage and marries only at the insistence of his father: “not for the sake of bodily lust,” but “for the sake of the king’s law and the obedience of his father.”
Further, the plots of the life and the chronicle coincide. But how different both monuments are in their interpretation of events! The chronicle says that Vladimir sends Boris with his warriors against the Pechenegs, the “Reading” speaks abstractly about certain “military” (that is, enemies, adversary), in the chronicle Boris returns to Kiev, since he did not “find” (did not meet) enemy army,
During the “reading,” the enemies take flight, since they do not dare to “stand against the blessed one.”
Living human relationships are visible in the chronicle: Svyatopolk attracts the people of Kiev to his side by giving them gifts (“estate”), they are taken reluctantly, since in Boris’s army there are the same people of Kiev (“their brothers”) and - as is completely natural in the real conditions of that time, the people of Kiev feared a fratricidal war: Svyatopolk could rouse the people of Kiev against their relatives who had gone on a campaign with Boris. Finally, let us remember the nature of Svyatopolk’s promises (“I will give you to the fire”) or his negotiations with
"high-city boyars." All these episodes in the chronicle story look very lifelike; in “Reading” they are completely absent. This reveals the tendency toward abstraction dictated by the canon of literary etiquette.
The hagiographer strives to avoid specificity, live dialogue, names
(remember - the chronicle mentions the Alta River, Vyshgorod, Putsha - apparently the elder of the Vyshgorod residents, etc.) and even lively intonations in dialogues and monologues.
When the murder of Boris and then Gleb is described, the doomed princes only pray, and pray ritually: either quoting psalms, or
- contrary to any real plausibility - they rush the killers
“finish your business.”
Using the example of "Reading" we can judge the characteristic features of the hagiographic canon - this is cold rationality, conscious detachment from specific facts, names, realities, theatricality and artificial pathos of dramatic episodes, the presence (and inevitable formal construction) of such elements of the life of the saint, about which the hagiographer did not have the slightest information: an example of this is the description of childhood
Boris and Gleb in "Reading".
In addition to the life written by Nestor, the anonymous life of the same saints is also known - “The Legend and Passion and Praise of Boris and Gleb.”
The position of those researchers who see in the anonymous “The Tale of Boris and Gleb” a monument created after the “Reading” seems very convincing; in their opinion, the author of the “Tale” is trying to overcome the schematic and conventional nature of traditional life, to fill it with living details, drawing them, in particular, from the original hagiography version, which has come down to us as part of the chronicle. The emotionality in “The Tale” is subtler and sincere, despite the conventionality of the situation: Boris and Gleb here too resignedly surrender themselves into the hands of the killers and here they manage to pray for a long time, literally at the moment when the killer’s sword is already raised over them, etc., but at the same time, their replicas are warmed by some kind of sincere warmth and seem more natural. Analyzing the “Legend,” the famous researcher of ancient Russian literature I. P. Eremin drew attention to the following line:
Gleb, in the face of the murderers, “suffering his body” (trembling, weakening), asks for mercy. He asks, as children ask: “Don’t let me... Don’t let me!” (Here
“actions” - touch). He doesn't understand why and why he has to die...
Gleb's defenseless youth is in its way very elegant and touching. This is one of the most “watercolor” images of ancient Russian literature.” In "Reading" the same
Gleb does not express his emotions in any way - he thinks (he hopes that he will be taken to his brother and that, having seen Gleb’s innocence, he will not “destroy” him), he prays, and rather dispassionately. Even when the murderer “took Saint Gleb as an honest head,” he “silently, like a lamb, kindly, with his whole mind in the name of God and looking up to the sky, praying.” However, this is by no means evidence of Nestor’s inability to convey living feelings: in the same scene he describes, for example, the experiences of Gleb’s soldiers and servants. When the prince orders him to be left in a boat in the middle of the river, the warriors “sting at the saint and often look around, wanting to see what the saint wants to be,” and the youths in his ship, at the sight of the murderers, “lay down their oars, sadly lamenting and crying for the saint.” As we see, their behavior is much more natural, and, therefore, the dispassion with which Gleb prepares to accept death is just a tribute to literary etiquette.
"The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk"
After “Reading about Boris and Gleb” Nestor writes “The Life of Theodosius
Pechersky" - a monk and then abbot of the famous Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. This life is very different from the one discussed above in the great psychologism of the characters, the abundance of living realistic details, the verisimilitude and naturalness of the lines and dialogues. If in the lives of Boris and
Gleb (especially in “Reading”) the canon triumphs over the vitality of the situations described, while in “The Life of Theodosius,” on the contrary, miracles and fantastic visions are described so clearly and convincingly that the reader seems to see with his own eyes what is happening and cannot help but “believe” it .
It is unlikely that these differences are only the result of Nestor’s increased literary skill or a consequence of a change in his attitude towards the hagiographic canon.
The reasons here are probably different. Firstly, these are different types of lives.
The Life of Boris and Gleb is a life-martyrium, that is, a story about the martyrdom of a saint; This main theme also determined the artistic structure of such a life, the sharp contrast of good and evil, the martyr and his tormentors, dictated the special tension and “poster-like” directness of the climactic murder scene: it should be painfully long and moralizing to the extreme. Therefore, in martyrdoms, as a rule, the torture of the martyr is described in detail, and death occurs as if in several stages, so that the reader empathizes with the hero longer. At the same time, the hero addresses lengthy prayers to God, which reveal his steadfastness and humility and expose the full gravity of the crime of his killers.
“The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk” is a typical monastic life, a story about a pious, meek, hardworking righteous man, whose whole life is a continuous feat. It contains many everyday collisions: scenes of communication between the saint and monks, laymen, princes, sinners; In addition, in the lives of this type, an obligatory component is the miracles that the saint performs - and this introduces an element of plot entertainment into the life, requiring considerable skill from the author so that the miracle is described effectively and believably.
Medieval hagiographers were well aware that the effect of a miracle is especially well achieved by combining purely realistic everyday details with a description of the action of otherworldly forces - the appearance of angels, dirty tricks perpetrated by demons, visions, etc.
The composition of the “Life” is traditional: there is a lengthy introduction and a story about the saint’s childhood. But already in this story about the birth, childhood and adolescence of Theodosius, an involuntary clash of traditional cliches and life’s truth occurs. It is traditional to mention the piety of parents
Theodosius, the scene of naming the baby is significant: the priest names him “Theodosius” (which means “given to God”), since he foresaw with the “eyes of his heart” that he “wants to be given to God from childhood.” It is traditional to mention how the boy Feodosia “went to the Church of God all day long” and did not approach his peers playing on the street. However, the image of Theodosius’s mother is completely unconventional, full of undeniable individuality. She was physically strong, with a rough, masculine voice; passionately loving her son, she nevertheless cannot come to terms with the fact that he, a youth from a very wealthy family, does not think of inheriting her villages and “slaves”, that he wears shabby clothes, flatly refusing to put on “light” and clean ones, and thereby brings reproach to the family by spending time in prayer or baking prosphora. The mother stops at nothing to break her son’s exalted piety (this is the paradox - parents
Theodosius is presented by the hagiographer as pious and God-fearing people!), she brutally beats him, puts him on a chain, and tears off the chains from the boy’s body.
When Theodosius manages to go to Kyiv in the hope of taking monastic vows in one of the monasteries there, the mother announces a large reward to anyone who will show her the whereabouts of her son. She finally discovers him in a cave, where he labors together with Anthony and Nikon (from this abode of hermits the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery later grows). And here she resorts to cunning: she demands that Anthony show her his son, threatening that otherwise she will “destroy” herself “before the doors of the oven.” But, seeing Theodosius, whose face “has changed from his much work and self-restraint,” the woman can no longer be angry: she, hugging her son, “crying bitterly,” begs him to return home and do whatever he wants there (“according to her will”). . Theodosius is adamant, and at his insistence the mother takes monastic vows in one of the nunneries. However, we understand that this is not so much the result of conviction in the correctness of his chosen path to God, but rather the act of a desperate woman who realized that only by becoming a nun would she be able to at least occasionally see her son.
The character of Theodosius himself is also complex. He possesses all the traditional virtues of an ascetic: meek, hardworking, adamant in mortification of the flesh, full of mercy, but when a princely feud occurs in Kyiv (Svyatoslav expels his brother from the grand-ducal throne -
Izyaslav Yaroslavich), Feodosia is actively involved in a purely mundane political struggle and boldly denounces Svyatoslav.
But the most remarkable thing in the “Life” is the description of monastic life and especially the miracles performed by Theodosius. It was here that the “charm of simplicity and fiction” of the legends about the Kyiv miracle workers, which I admired so much, manifested itself
A. S. Pushkin1.
Here is one of these miracles performed by Theodosius. The elder of the bakers comes to him, then already the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, and reports that there is no flour left and there is nothing to bake bread for the brothers. Feodosia sends the baker: “Go, look in the bottom, there is food, how little flour you will find in it...” But the baker remembers that he swept the bottom and swept into the corner a small pile of bran - about three or four handfuls, and therefore answers with conviction
Feodosia:
“I speak the truth to you, father, for I am the very dung of the bitch, and there is nothing in it, unless it is a small cut in one coal.” But Theodosius, recalling the omnipotence of God and citing a similar example from the Bible, sends the baker again to see if there is flour in the bottom. He goes to the pantry, approaches the bottom and sees that the bottom, previously empty, is full of flour.
Everything in this episode is artistically convincing: both the liveliness of the dialogue and the effect of a miracle, enhanced precisely thanks to skillfully found details: the baker remembers that there are three or four handfuls of bran left - this is a concrete visible image and an equally visible image of a bottom filled with flour: there is so much of it that it even spills over the wall onto the ground.
The next episode is very picturesque. Feodosia was delayed on some business with the prince and must return to the monastery. The prince orders that
Theodosius was given a lift by a certain youth in a cart. The same, seeing the monk in “wretched clothes” (Theodosius, and being abbot, dressed so modestly that those who did not know him took him for a monastery cook), boldly addresses him:
“Blacker! You're apart all day, and it's difficult
[here you are idle all day, and I work]. I can't ride a horse. But let’s do this [let’s do this]: yes, I will lie down on a cart, but you can ride a horse.” Feodosia agrees. But as you get closer to the monastery, you meet more and more people who know Theodosius. They respectfully bow to him, and the boy gradually begins to worry: who is this well-known monk, although in shabby clothes? He is completely horrified when he sees with what honor Theodosius is greeted by the monastery brethren. However, the abbot does not reproach the driver and even orders him to be fed and paid.
Let us not guess whether such a case happened with Theodosius himself. Undoubtedly, another thing is that Nestor could and was able to describe such collisions, he was a writer of great talent, and the convention that we encounter in the works of ancient Russian literature is not a consequence of inability or special medieval thinking. When we talk about the very understanding of the phenomena of reality, we should only talk about special artistic thinking, that is, about ideas about how this reality should be depicted in monuments of certain literary genres.
Over the next centuries, many dozens of different lives will be written - eloquent and simply primitive and formal or, on the contrary, vital and sincere. We will have to talk about some of them later. 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 became 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 in 1420) entered the history of literature primarily as the author of two extensive lives - “The Life of Stephen of Perm” (the bishop of Perm, who baptized the Komi and created an alphabet for them in their native language), written at the end of the 14th century, and "The Life of Sergius of Radonezh", created in 1417-1418.
The basic principle from which Epiphanius proceeds in his work
The wise thing is that the hagiographer, describing the life of a saint, must by all means show the exclusivity of his hero, the greatness of his feat, the detachment of his actions from everything ordinary, earthly. Hence the desire for an emotional, bright, decorated language that differs from everyday speech. The Lives of Epiphanius are filled with quotations from the Holy Scriptures, for the feat of his heroes should find analogies in biblical history. They are characterized by the author's demonstrative desire to declare his creative impotence, the futility of his attempts to find the necessary verbal equivalent of the high phenomenon depicted. But it is precisely this imitation that allows Epiphanius to demonstrate all his literary skill, to stun the reader with an endless series of epithets or synonymous metaphors, or, by creating long chains of cognate words, to force him to think about the erased meaning of the concepts they denote. This technique is called “weaving words.”
Illustrating the writing style of Epiphanius the Wise, researchers most often turn to his “Life of Stephen of Perm”, and within this life - to the famous praise of Stephen, in which the art of “weaving words”
(by the way, this is exactly what it is called here) finds, perhaps, its most vivid expression. Let us cite a fragment from this praise, paying attention to the play on the word “word”, and to a series of parallel grammatical constructions: “Yes, and I, many sinners and foolish, following the words of your praises, weave the word and multiply the word, and honor with the word, and from the words Collecting praise, and acquiring, and weaving in, I again say: what will I call you: guide (leader) for the lost, finder for the lost, mentor for the deceived, guide for the blinded mind, cleanser for the defiled, seeker for the wasteful, guardian for the military, comforter for the sad, feeder for the hungry, giver for the needy. .."
Epiphanius strings together a long garland of epithets, as if trying to characterize the saint more fully and accurately. However, this accuracy is by no means the accuracy of concreteness, but a search for metaphorical, symbolic equivalents to essentially determine the only quality of a saint - his absolute perfection in everything.
In hagiography of the XIV-XV centuries. The principle of abstraction is also becoming widespread, when from the work “everyday, political, military, economic terminology, job titles, specific natural phenomena of a given country are expelled whenever possible...” The writer resorts to periphrases, using expressions like “a certain nobleman”,
“ruler of that city”, etc. The names of episodic characters are also eliminated, they are simply referred to as “someone’s husband”, “someone’s wife”, while the additions “someone”, “someone”, “one” serve to remove the phenomenon from the surrounding everyday life situation, from a specific historical environment"1.
The hagiographic principles of Epiphanius found their continuation in his work
Pachomia Logotheta. Pachomius Logothetes. Pachomius, a Serb by origin, came to Rus' no later than 1438. In the 40s-80s. XV century and his work accounts for: he owns no less than ten lives, many words of praise, services to the saints and other works. Pachomius, according to V.O.
Klyuchevsky, “nowhere did he discover significant literary talent... but he... gave Russian hagiography many examples of that even, somewhat cold and monotonous style, which was easier to imitate with the most limited degree of reading”2.
This rhetorical style of writing by Pachomius, his plot simplification and traditionalism can be illustrated with at least this example. Nestor very vividly and naturally described the circumstances of Theodosius’s tonsure
Pechersky, as Anthony dissuaded him, reminding the young man of the difficulties awaiting him on the path of monastic asceticism, as his mother was trying in every way to return Theodosius to worldly life. A similar situation exists in the “Life of Cyril Belozersky”, written by Pachomius. The young man Kozma is brought up by his uncle, a rich and eminent man (he is a okolnik of the Grand Duke). The uncle wants to make Kozma treasurer, but the young man longs to become a monk. And so “if it happened that Abbot Stefan of Makhrishchi came, a man who was accomplished in virtue, we all know great things for the sake of life. Having seen this coming, Kozma flows with joy to him... and falls at his honest feet, shedding tears from his eyes and tells him his thoughts, and at the same time begs him to place the monastic image on her. “For thee, oh sacred head, I have longed for a long time, but now God vouchsafe me to see your venerable shrine, but I pray for the Lord’s sake, do not reject me, a sinner and indecent...”
The elder is “touched,” consoles Kozma and tonsures him as a monk (giving him the name Kirill). The scene is label and cold: virtues are glorified
Stefan, Kozma pathetically begs him, the abbot willingly meets his request. Then Stefan goes to Timofey, Kozma-Kirill’s uncle, to inform him about his nephew’s tonsure. But here, too, the conflict is only barely outlined, not depicted. Timothy, having heard about what had happened, “heavily listened to the word, and was filled with sorrow and some annoying utterance to Stephen.” He leaves offended, but Timothy, ashamed of his pious wife, immediately repents “about the words spoken to Stephen,” returns him and asks for forgiveness.
In a word, in “standard” eloquent expressions a standard situation is depicted, which is in no way correlated with the specific characters of a given life. We will not find here any attempts to evoke the reader’s empathy with the help of any vital details, subtly noticed nuances (and not general forms of expression) of human feelings. Attention to feelings, emotions, which require an appropriate style for their expression, the emotions of the characters and, no less, the emotions of the author himself, is undeniable.
But this, as mentioned above, is not yet a genuine insight into human character, it is only declared attention to it, a kind of
“abstract psychologism” (term by D. S. Likhachev). And at the same time, the very fact of increased interest in human spiritual life is in itself significant. The style of the second South Slavic influence, which found its embodiment initially in the lives (and only later in the historical narrative), D. S. Likhachev proposed to call
“expressive-emotional style”1.
At the beginning of the 15th century. under the pen of Pachomius Logothetes, as we remember, a new hagiographic canon was created - eloquent, “ornamented” lives, in which lively “realistic” features gave way to beautiful, but dry periphrases. But along with this, lives of a completely different type appear, boldly breaking traditions, touching with their sincerity and ease.
This is, for example, “The Life of Mikhail Klopsky.” "Life of Michael
Klopsky." The very beginning of this life is unusual. Instead of the traditional beginning, the hagiographer’s story about the birth, childhood and tonsure of the future saint, this life begins, as it were, from the middle, and from an unexpected and mysterious scene. The monks of the Trinity on Klopa (near Novgorod) monastery were in the church at prayer. Priest Macarius, returning to his cell, discovers that the cell is unlocked, and an old man unknown to him is sitting in it, rewriting the book of the apostolic acts. The priest, “alarmed,” returned to the church, called the abbot and the brethren, and together with them returned to the cell. But the cell is already locked from the inside, and the unknown elder continues to write. When they start questioning him, he answers very strangely: he repeats word for word every question asked of him. The monks could not even find out his name. The elder visits church with the rest of the monks, prays with them, and the abbot decides: “Be an elder with us, live with us.” The rest of the life is a description of the miracles performed by Michael (his name is reported by the prince who visited the monastery). Even the story about the “repose” of Michael is surprisingly simple, with everyday details; there is no traditional praise for the saint.
The unusualness of the “Life of Mikhail Klopsky”, created in the age of creations
Pachomia Logothetes, however, should not surprise us. The point here is not only the original talent of its author, but also the fact that the author of the life is a Novgorodian, he continues in his work the traditions of Novgorod hagiography, which, like all the literature of Novgorod, was distinguished by greater spontaneity, unpretentiousness, simplicity (in the good sense of this words), compared, for example, with the literature of Moscow or Vladimir-Suzdal
Rus'.
However, the “realism” of the life, its entertaining plot, the liveliness of the scenes and dialogues - all this was so contrary to the hagiographic canon that already in the next century the life had to be reworked. Let us compare only one episode - the description of the death of Michael in the original version of the 15th century. and in the alteration of the 16th century.
In the original edition we read: “And Michael fell ill in the month of December on Savin’s day, going to church. And he stood on the right side of the church, in the courtyard, opposite Theodosius’s tomb. And the abbot and the elders began to say to him: “Why,
Mikhail, are you not standing in the church, but standing in the courtyard?” And he said to them: “I want to lie down.” ... Yes, he took with him a censer and temyan [incense - incense], and went to his cell. And the abbot sent him nets and threads from the meal. And they opened the door, Azhio Temyan Xia is smoking [Temyan is still smoking], but he is not in his stomach [he has died]. And they began to look for places, the ground was frozen, where to put it. And remembering the mob to the abbot, try the place where Mikhail stood. When I looked at it from that place, the earth was already melting. And they buried him honestly.”
This casual, lively story has undergone a drastic revision.
So, to the question of the abbot and the brethren why he prays in the courtyard, Mikhail now answers like this: “Behold my peace for ever and ever, for the imam will dwell here.” The episode when he goes to his cell is also revised: “And he burns the censer, and having put incense on the coals, he goes into his cell, and the brethren are amazed, having seen the saint so exhausted, and again receiving so much strength. The abbot goes to the meal and sends food to the saint, commanding him to eat.
She came from the abbot and went into the saint’s cell, and having seen him go to the Lord, her hand bent in the shape of a cross, and in the image of one sleeping and emitting a lot of fragrance.” The following describes the crying at the burial
Mikhail; Moreover, he is mourned not only by the monks and the archbishop “with the entire sacred cathedral,” but also by the entire people: people rush to the funeral, “like rapids of the river, tears flowing incessantly.” In a word, the life takes on, under the pen of the new editor Vasily Tuchkov, exactly the form in which, for example, Pachomius Logofet would have created it.
These attempts to move away from the canons, to let the breath of life into literature, to decide on literary fiction, to renounce straightforward didactics were manifested not only in hagiographies.
The genre of hagiographic literature continued to develop in the 17th – 18th centuries:
“The Tale of a Luxurious Life and Fun”, “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum” 1672,
“The Life of Patriarch Joachim Savelov” 1690, “The Life of Simon Volomsky”, end
XVII century, “Life of Alexander Nevsky”
The autobiographical moment is consolidated in different ways in the 17th century: here is the life of the mother, compiled by her son (“The Tale of Uliani Osorgina”), and
“The ABC”, compiled on behalf of a “naked and poor man”, and “A Noble Message to an Enemy”, and the autobiographies themselves - Avvakum and Epiphany, written simultaneously in the same earthen prison in Pustozersk and representing a kind of diptych. “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum” is the first autobiographical work of Russian literature, in which Archpriest Avvakum himself spoke about himself and his long-suffering life.
Speaking about the work of Archpriest Avvakum, A. N. Tolstoy wrote: “These were the brilliant “life” and “epistles” of the rebel, frantic Archpriest Avvakum, who ended his literary career with terrible torture and execution in
Pustozersk. Avvakum’s speech is all about gesture, the canon is shattered, you physically feel the presence of the narrator, his gestures, his voice.”
Conclusion:
Having studied the poetics of individual works of ancient Russian literature, we came to a conclusion about the features of the genre of hagiography.
Life is a genre of ancient Russian literature that describes the life of a saint.
There are different hagiographic types in this genre:
. hagiography-martyria (story of the martyrdom of a saint)
. monastic life (story about the entire life path of a righteous man, his piety, asceticism, miracles he performed, etc.)
The characteristic features of the hagiographic canon are cold rationality, conscious detachment from specific facts, names, realities, theatricality and artificial pathos of dramatic episodes, the presence of elements of the saint’s life about which the hagiographer did not have the slightest information.
The moment of miracle, revelation is very important for the genre of monastic life
(the ability to learn is a gift from God). It is a miracle that brings movement and development to the biography of a saint.
The genre of hagiography is gradually undergoing changes. The authors depart from the canons, letting the breath of life into literature, decide on literary fiction (“The Lives of Mikhail Klopsky”), speak a simple “peasant” language
(“The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”).
Bibliography:
1. Likhachev D. S. Great Heritage. Classic works of literature
2. Eremin I. P. Literature of Ancient Rus' (studies and characteristics). M.-L.,
1966, p. 132-143.
3. Likhachev D. S. Human literature of Ancient Rus'. M., 1970, p. 65.
4.Eremin I.P. Literature of Ancient Rus' (studies and characteristics). M.-L.,
1966, p. 21-22.
5. Pushkin A. S. Complete. collection op. M., 1941, vol. XIV, p. 163.
6. Likhachev D. S. Culture of Rus' during the time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphany
The Wise. M.-L., 1962, p. 53-54.
7. Klyuchevsky V.O. Old Russian lives of saints as a historical source. M.,
1871, p. 166.
1 Likhachev D.S. Great Heritage. Classic works of literature
Ancient Rus'. M., 1975, p. 19.
1 Pushkin A. S. Complete. collection op. M., 1941, vol. XIV, p. 163.
1 Likhachev D.S. Culture of Rus' during the time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise.
M.-L., 1962, p. 53-54.
2 Klyuchevsky V.O. Old Russian lives of saints as a historical source. M.,
1871, p. 166.
1 Likhachev D.S. Man in the literature of Ancient Rus'. M., 1970, p. 65
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Test on ancient Russian literature
Topic: The originality of the genre of Russian hagiography and its evolution (development) in the works of ancient Russian literature. Genre of life.
1927 group 3rd year students
correspondence department
Faculty of Education
Perepechina Irina Dmitrievna.
Test plan
Introduction
Life - as a genre of ancient Russian literature
Genre of hagiographic literature in the 14th-16th centuries
Conclusion
Literature
1. Introduction
Every nation remembers and knows its history.
In stories, legends, and songs, memories of the past of their homeland were preserved and passed on from one generation to another.
The general rise of Rus' in the 9th century, the creation of centers of writing and literacy, the emergence of a number of educated people of their time in the princely-boyar, church-monastic environment determined the development of Old Russian literature.
“Russian literature goes back a thousand years. It is the oldest literature in the world, older than French, English, and German.
It originated in the second half of the 10th century. And of this huge millennium, more than seven hundred years belong to the period called “Old Russian literature.” And this literature is considered as literature of one theme and one plot. D.S. Likhachev wrote about this period: “This plot is world history, and this theme is the meaning of human life.”
The main feature of Old Russian literature is that there are no conventional characters in it. The names of the characters are all historical: Boris and Gleb, Theodosius of Pechorsky, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Sergius of Radonezh, Stefan of Perm...
Just as the epic exists in folk art, we can say that it also exists in ancient Russian literature. Epic is the entire work of ancient Russian writers, interconnected in plot. The works of this period show us a whole epic era in the life of the Russian people. The era is fantastic and historical at the same time. The era is the time of the reign of Vladimir the Red Sun. Many works were written at this time. Another epic time was the independence of Novgorod.
Historical songs depict to us a single course of events: the 16th and 17th centuries.
Ancient Russian literature is an epic that talks about the history of Rus'. None of the works of Ancient Rus' - translated or original - stands apart. All of them organically complement each other in the created picture of the world. Each story is a complete whole, and at the same time, it is connected with others. All ancient Russian works were built according to the “enfilade principle”.
The life was supplemented over time with services to the saint and descriptions of his posthumous miracles. It necessarily contained additional stories about the saint. Sometimes several lives of the same saint were combined into a new single work.
Many of the stories of Ancient Rus' began to be perceived as historical, as a documentary narrative of Russian history.
The hagiographic genre is the genre of writing the lives of saints. In the 11th and early 12th centuries, the lives of Anthony of Pechersk, which has not survived, Theodosius of Pechersk, and 2 versions of the lives of Boris and Gleb were written. In these lives, the authors demonstrate independence and high literary skill.
2. Life as a genre of ancient Russian literature
In the 11th and early 12th centuries, the first lives were created: 2 lives of Boris and Gleb, the Life of Theodosius of Pechersk, Anthony of Pechersk (not preserved to this day).
Their writing was an important step in the ideological policy of the Russian state.
At the time when these lives were created, the Russian princes persistently sought from the Patriarch of Constantinople the right to canonize their own Russian saints, as this would increase the authority of the Russian Church.
The first and important condition for the canonization of a saint was the creation of a life of this saint.
Here we give an example of the lives of Boris and Gleb, Theodosius of Pechersk.
Both lives were written by Nestor.
These lives belong to 2 hagiographic types - the martyrium life (the story of the martyrdom of the saint) and the monastic life, which tells about the entire life path of the righteous man, his piety, asceticism, the miracles he performed, etc.
When writing his life, Nestor took into account all the requirements that apply to the hagiographic canon. Of course, he was familiar with translated Byzantine lives, but he showed such artistic independence that he became one of the outstanding ancient Russian writers.
Features of the genre of the lives of the first Russian saints.
"Reading about Boris and Gleb" begins with an introduction to the history of the entire human race: the creation of Adam and Eve, their fall, the denunciation of the “idolatry” of people, the recollection of the teaching and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, who came to save the entire human race, how the apostles began to preach the new teaching and how a new faith triumphed.
Nestor spoke about the details of the baptism of Rus' by Prince Vladimir. And he described this act as the most joyful and solemn: all Russian people are in a hurry to accept Christianity, and not one of them resists or even speaks against the will of the prince himself, and Vladimir himself rejoices, as he sees the “new faith” of newly converted Christians. So, this is how the events that occurred before the villainous murder of Boris and Gleb by Svyatopolk are described. Nestor showed that Svyatopolk was acting according to the machinations of the devil.
A historical introduction to the life is necessary in order to show the unity of the world historical process: the events that happened in Russia are only a special case of the struggle between God and the devil, and for any action that Nestor talks about, he looks for an analogy, a prototype in past history.
Nestor compares Boris with the biblical Joseph, who also suffered due to the envy of his brothers.
If you compare the life with the chronicle, you can see that the chronicle says nothing about the childhood and youth of Boris and Gleb.
In his life, according to the rule of the hagiographical genre, Nestor tells how, as a youth, Boris constantly read the lives and torments of the saints and dreamed of being awarded the same martyrdom. In the chronicle there is no mention of Boris's marriage, and in his life Boris seeks to avoid marriage, but marries only at the insistence of his father. Living human relationships are visible in the chronicle: Svyatopolk attracts the people of Kiev to his side by giving them gifts (“estate”), they are taken reluctantly, because the same Kievans are in Boris’s army, and they are afraid of a fratricidal war: Svyatopolk can raise the people of Kiev against their relatives who went on a campaign with Boris. All these episodes in the chronicle look vivid and vital, but in “Reading” they are completely absent.
The life shows that Gleb does not understand why he must die. Gleb's defenseless youth is very graceful and touching. Even when the murderer “took Saint Gleb as an honest head,” he “was silent, like a lamb, kindly, with his whole mind in the name of God and looking up to the sky in prayer.”
Here is another feature of the hagiographic genre - abstraction, avoidance of concreteness, live dialogue, names, even live intonations in dialogues and monologues.
The description of the murder of Boris and Gleb also lacks bright colors; only prayer is shown, and a ritual one at that; they rush the killers to “finish their job.”
So, let's summarize: The hagiographic genre is characterized by cold rationality, conscious detachment from specific facts, names, realities, theatricality and artificial pathos of dramatic episodes. The presence of such elements in describing the life of the saint as his childhood, youth, piety, the severity in which he kept himself, asceticism, fasting, constant reading of psalms, prayers to the Almighty.
Life of Theodosius of Pechersk.
This life was written by Nestor after the life of Boris and Gleb.
Who is Theodosius of Pechersk? This is a monk, and then he becomes the abbot of the famous Kiev-Pechersk monastery.
This life differs from the one we discussed above in the greater psychologism of the characters, the abundance of living realistic details, the verisimilitude and naturalness of the lines and dialogues.
If in the previous life the canon triumphs over the vitality of the situations described, then in this work miracles and fantastic visions are described very clearly and so convincingly that when the reader reads what happens on these pages, he cannot help but believe what he is reading about . Moreover, it seems to him that he saw everything described in the work with his own eyes. It can be said that these differences are not only the result of Nestor's increased skill. The reason is probably that these are different types of lives. 1 life, which we considered, is the life-martyrium, that is, the story of the martyrdom of a saint. This main theme determined the artistic structure of the life, the opposition of good and evil, and dictated special tension in the description of the martyrs and his tormentors, since the climax scene should be painfully long and moralizing to the extreme. Therefore, in this type of hagiography-martyrium, as a rule, the torture of the martyr is described, and his death occurs, as it were, in several stages, so that the reader empathizes with the hero longer.
At the same time, the hero always turns to God with prayers, which reveal such qualities as his steadfastness and humility and expose the crimes of his killers. “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk” is a typical monastic life, a story about a pious, meek, hardworking righteous man, whose whole life is a continuous feat. It contains many everyday descriptions of scenes of communication between the saint and monks, laymen, princes, and sinners. In hagiographies of this type, a prerequisite is the miracles that the saint performs, and this introduces an element of plot entertainment into the hagiography and requires special skill from the author so that the miracle is described effectively and believably.
Medieval hagiographers were well aware that the effect of a miracle is well achieved by combining only realistic everyday details with a description of the action of otherworldly forces - the appearance of angels, mischief perpetrated by demons, visions, etc.
The composition of the life is always the same:
Long introduction.
A story about the childhood of a saint
Mention of the piety of parents and the future saint himself.
The life of a saint is full of hardships and torment.
Death of a saint, miracles at the tomb.
However, in this work there are differences in the description of the saint’s childhood from other lives. The image of Theodosius's mother is completely unconventional, full of individuality. We read the following lines about her: she was physically strong, with a rough male voice; passionately loving her son, she could not come to terms with the fact that he, the heir of villages and slaves, does not think about this inheritance, walks around in shabby clothes, flatly refusing “bright and clean” clothes, thereby disgracing his family, and all his spends time in prayer and baking prosphoras. His mother tries by any means to break her son’s piety (although his parents are presented by the hagiographer as pious and God-fearing people!), she brutally beats her son, puts him on a chain, and tears off the chains from his body. Despite this, Theodosius manages to go to Kyiv in the hope of taking monastic vows in one of the monasteries there. His mother stops at nothing to find him: she promises a large reward to anyone who shows her the whereabouts of her son. Finally, she finds him in a cave, where he lives with another hermit Anthony and Nikon (from this abode the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery will later grow).
And here she resorts to a trick: she demands that Anthony show her his son, threatening suicide at his door. And when she sees Theodosius, she is no longer angry, hugs her son, cries, begging him to return home and do whatever he wants there, but Theodosius is adamant. At his insistence, the mother took monastic vows in one of the nunneries. The mother realized that this was the only way she could see her son at least occasionally, so she agreed to this.
The hagiograph also shows the character of the future saint: complex, possessing all the virtues of an ascetic: meek, hardworking, adamant in the mortification of the flesh, full of mercy, but when a princely feud occurs in the principality (Svyatoslav drives his brother Izyaslav off the throne), Theodosius is actively involved in a purely worldly struggle and boldly denounces Svyatoslav.
The most remarkable thing in the life is the description of monastic life and especially the miracles performed by Theodosius. Here is a description of one of the miracles: the elder over the bakers comes to him, then already the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, and reports that there is no more flour and there is nothing to bake bread for them from. In response, Theodosius sends him to look again in the chest. He goes to the pantry, approaches the bottom and sees that the bottom, previously empty, is full of flour. This episode contains both lively dialogue and the effect of a miracle, enhanced precisely thanks to skillfully found details: the baker remembers that there are 3 or 4 handfuls of bran left - this is a concretely visible image and an equally visible image of a bottom filled with flour: there is so much of it that it even spills over the wall onto the ground.
Another episode is also very interesting: Theodosius stayed with the prince and must return to his monastery. The prince orders that a certain youth give him a ride in a cart. He, seeing a modestly dressed man, boldly addresses him: “Chrnorizche!” Because you are apart all day, and you are hard (you are idle all the days, and I am working). I can’t ride a horse.” Theodosius agrees. But as you get closer to the monastery, you meet more and more people who know Theodosius. They respectfully bow to him, and this youth begins to worry: who is this wretched monk? He is completely horrified when he sees how the monastic brethren greet his fellow traveler with honor. However, the abbot does not reproach the driver and even orders him to be fed and paid. We cannot say for sure whether such cases occurred with Theodosius. Only one thing is certain: Nestor knew how to describe such interesting incidents with the saint; he was a writer of great talent.
Over the next centuries, many dozens of different lives will be written - eloquent and simple, primitive and formal, vital and sincere. 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.
3. The genre of hagiographic literature in the 14th-16th centuries
The genre of hagiographic literature became widespread in ancient Russian literature: “The Life of Tsarevich Peter of Ordynsky, Rostov (13th century)”, “The Life of Procopius of Ustyug” (14th century).
Epiphanius the Wise(died in 1420) entered the history of literature as the author of 2 lives - “The Life of Stephen of Perm” (the bishop of Perm, who baptized the Komi and created an alphabet for them in their native language), written at the end of the 14th century, and “The Life of Sergius of Radonezh” , created in 1417-1418.
THE LIFE OF REVEREND SERGIUS OF RADONEZH
Where does Epiphanius begin his life?
About four versts from the anciently glorious, but now humble Rostov the Great, on a flat open area on the way to Yaroslavl, a small monastery in the name of the Most Holy Trinity was secluded - the provincial Varnitsky Monastery. Here was the estate of the parents of Sergius, the noble and noble boyars of Rostov Cyril and Maria; this was their home; This is where they lived, preferring the solitude of rural nature to the bustle of city life at the princely court. Kirill and Maria were kind and godly people. Speaking about them, Blessed Epiphanius notes that the Lord did not allow Sergius to be born of unrighteous parents. It was fitting for such a child, which, according to God’s dispensation, would subsequently serve for the spiritual benefit and salvation of many, to have saintly parents, so that good would come from good and better would be added to better, so that the praise of both the one born and those who gave birth would mutually increase to the glory of God.
Cyril and Maria already had a son, Stephen, when God gave them another son - the future founder of the Trinity Lavra, the beauty of the Orthodox Church and the indestructible support of their native land. Long before the birth of this holy baby, the wondrous Providence of God had already given a sign about him that this would be the great chosen one of God and the holy branch of the blessed root.
One Sunday, his pious mother came to church for the Divine Liturpy and humbly stood, according to the custom of that time, in the vestibule of the church, along with the other wives. The liturgy began; They had already sung the thrice-holy hymn, and now, not long before the reading of the Holy Gospel, suddenly, in the midst of general silence and reverent silence, the baby cried out in her womb, so that many paid attention to this cry.
When they began to sing the Cherubic Song, the baby cried out another time, and this time so loudly that his voice could be heard throughout the entire church. It is clear that his mother was frightened, and the women standing near her began to talk among themselves, what could this extraordinary cry of the baby mean?
Meanwhile, the liturgy continued. The priest exclaimed: “Let us take notice! holy to holies!
At this exclamation, the baby screamed a third time, and the embarrassed mother almost fell from fear: she began to cry... Then women surrounded her and, perhaps wanting to help her calm the crying child, they began to ask: “Where is your baby? Why is he screaming so loudly? But Mary, in emotional agitation, shedding tears, could hardly say to them: “I don’t have a baby; ask someone else."
The women began to look around, and not seeing the baby anywhere, they again pestered Mary with the same question. Then she was forced to tell them frankly that she really did not have a baby in her arms, but she was carrying him in her womb...
These are the lines that precede the life, already pointing to the miracle that happened to the future saint.
The reverent writer of the life of Sergius, the Venerable Epiphanius, accompanies his narration of this extraordinary incident with the following reflection: “it is worthy of surprise,” he says, that the baby, being in the womb of its mother, did not cry out somewhere outside the church, in a secluded place where there was no one, - but precisely in front of the people, as if so that many would hear him and become reliable witnesses of this circumstance. It is also remarkable that he shouted not just quietly, but to the whole church, as if making it clear to everyone that he would serve God from childhood. Another interesting fact is that he did not proclaim once or twice, but precisely three times, showing that he would be a true disciple of the Holy Trinity, since the triple number is preferred to any other number, because everywhere and always this number is the source and beginning of everything good and saving."
After the incident described, the mother became even more attentive to her condition. Always having in mind that she was carrying in her womb a baby who would be the chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit, Mary, during the rest of her pregnancy, prepared to meet in him the future ascetic of piety and abstinence. Thus, the God-fearing mother of the holy child remained in strict fasting and frequent heartfelt prayer; so the child herself, the blessed fruit of her womb, even before his birth, was in some way already purified and sanctified by fasting and prayer.
And so righteous Mary, together with her husband, made the following promise: if God gives them a son, then dedicate him to the service of God. This meant that they, for their part, promised to do everything they could so that the will of God would be fulfilled on their future child, that God’s secret predestination about him would be fulfilled, to which they already had some indication.
On May 3, 1319, in the house of boyar Kirill there was general joy and joy: God gave Mary a son. They named him Bartholomew because he was born on the day of Bartholomew. At the baptism of their son, Cyril and Maria told the priest about that incident in the church, and he, as well versed in the Holy Scriptures, showed them many examples from the Old and New Testaments, when God’s chosen ones, even from their mother’s womb, were destined to serve God.
Meanwhile, the mother, and then others, again began to notice something unusual in the baby: when the mother happened to be satisfied with meat food, the baby did not take her nipples; the same thing was repeated, and without any reason, on Wednesdays and Fridays: so on these days the baby was completely left without food. Brought back by fasting in the womb of the mother, the baby, even at birth, seemed to demand fasting from the mother. And the mother, indeed, began to observe the fast even more strictly: she completely abandoned meat food, and the baby, except for Wednesdays and Fridays, always fed on mother’s milk after that. One day, Mary gave the baby into the arms of another woman so that she could feed him at her breast; but the child did not want to take the breasts of someone else’s mother; the same thing happened with other nurses... “The good branch of the good root,” says Blessed Epiphanius, fed only on the pure milk of the one who gave birth to it. So this baby from his mother’s womb knew God, in the very swaddling clothes he learned the truths, in the very cradle he got used to fasting and, together with his mother’s milk, learned to abstain... Being by nature still a baby, he already began fasting above nature; from infancy he was a child of purity, nourished not so much by milk as by piety, and chosen by God even before birth”...
When Bartholomew was seven years old, his parents sent him to learn to read and write. His two brothers also studied with Bartholomew: the elder Stefan and the younger Peter. The brothers studied successfully, although Peter was not even six years old at that time, and Bartholomew was far behind them. The teacher punished him, his comrades reproached him and even laughed at him, his parents persuaded him; and he himself strained all the efforts of his childish mind, spent his nights over a book, and often, hiding from human gaze, somewhere in solitude, he wept bitterly about his inability, fervently and fervently prayed to the Lord God: “Give me, Lord.” , understand this letter; Teach me, O Lord, enlighten me and enlighten me!” But he was still not given a diploma.
Once his father sent him into the field to look for foals, which task was especially to the liking of the boy, who loved to retire from people. It was here that an extraordinary adventure happened to him.
In the field, under an oak tree, Bartholomew saw an unfamiliar elder-monk with the rank of presbyter; the reverent and angelic old man brought his prayers here to the omnipresent God and shed tears of heartfelt tenderness before the Omniscient. Having bowed to him, the modest youth respectfully stepped aside, not wanting to interrupt his conversation with God, and stood nearby, waiting for the end of the prayer. The elder finished his prayer; he looked with love at the good child, and, seeing in him with his spiritual eyes the chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit, he affectionately called him to himself, blessed him, kissed him fatherly and asked: “What do you need, child?”
“I was sent to learn to read and write,” Bartholomew said through tears, and most of all my soul would like to learn to read the word of God; but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t learn, I don’t understand what they’re explaining to me, and I’m very sad about it; pray to God for me, holy father, ask the Lord to reveal to me the teachings of the books: I believe that God will accept your prayers.”
The elder was touched by such speeches of the young boy; he saw his zeal, and admiring the beauty of the child’s soul reflected on his meek face, he raised his hands, raised his eyes to heaven, sighed to God from the depths of his heart and began to pray, asking the child for enlightenment from above... The elder concluded his inspired prayer with the sacred word: Amen, and carefully took out a small reliquary from his bosom. Having opened it, he took from there with three fingers a small particle of the holy prosphora, and, blessing Bartholomew with it, said: “Take this, child, and the snow; this is given to you as a sign of the grace of God and meaning the Holy Scripture. Do not look at the fact that the particle of the holy "The bread is so small: the sweetness of eating it is great."
Rejoicing with all his soul that God had brought him to meet such a holy elder, Bartholomew sweetly listened to his soul-helping instructions; like the seeds on the good soil, so the gracious words of the elder fell on his kind heart.
Meanwhile, as the elder said, it came true: a wonderful change happened to the boy. Whatever book he opened, he immediately began to read it without any difficulty, understanding the meaning of what he was reading. Thus, the gift of God, so unexpectedly sent down to him, acted in young Bartholomew and enlightened his mind. There is no need to say that after this incident he soon surpassed both his brothers and other comrades in learning.
With all his soul, Bartholomew loved church services and did not miss a single church service.
Epiphanius brings to the attention of readers that our ancestors did not know and did not like to read any books of secular content; lives of saints, patristic writings, various Paleys, collections, chronicles about the past destinies of their native land - these are the books that were favorite reading of that time. And Bartholomew read these books.
He soon realized that even in adolescence, passions begin to show their destructive power, which takes a lot of work to restrain; and whoever succumbs to their attraction even once in his youth and allows himself to be bound by vicious inclinations will find it even more difficult to overcome them. And so the prudent youth takes all measures to protect himself from their influence, and stops all the ways in which they are accustomed to finding access to a person’s heart. Then the holy youth imposes a strict fast on himself: on Wednesdays and Fridays he does not allow himself to eat anything, and on other days he eats only bread and water. He does not allow himself to even think about any other drinks, not to mention wine, for the rest of his life.
And the holy youth never even allowed himself to taste any sweet dishes or drinks. Thus, taming his young flesh with abstinence and labor to preserve mental and physical purity, he did not go beyond the will of his parents in any way: as a meek and obedient son, he was a true consolation for them.
“And a perfect monk was seen in him before the monastic image,” says Blessed Epiphanius, “his step was full of modesty and chastity. No one saw him laugh, and if sometimes a gentle smile appeared on his beautiful face, then it was restrained; and more often his face was thoughtful and serious; Tears were often visible in his eyes - witnesses of his heartfelt tenderness; The inspired psalms of David never left his lips. Always quiet and silent, meek and humble, he was affectionate and courteous with everyone, did not get irritated with anyone, and accepted random troubles from everyone with love. He wore poor clothes, and if he met a poor man, he willingly gave him his clothes.”
Here it is appropriate to say a few words about the state of the Russian land at the time we are describing, in order to know under what circumstances Bartholomew’s parents lived, and under what conditions Bartholomew himself was brought up.
Those were truly difficult times!.. The Tatar yoke lay on the shoulders of the Russian people as a heavy burden. No one dared to think about throwing off this hated yoke. The princes continually went to the Horde, either to bow to the then formidable Mongol khans, or to sue and compete among themselves, and how much noble princely blood was shed in the Golden Horde due to the envy and fratricidal hatred of the ambitious.
The Tatar yoke did not pass without a trace in national morality: “having forgotten the pride of the people,” says Karamzin, “we have learned the base tricks of slavery, replacing strength in the weak; deceiving the Tatars, they deceived each other even more; buying off the violence of the barbarians with money, they became selfish and insensitive to insults, to shame, subject to the insolence of foreign tyrants. From the time of Vasily Yaroslavich to Ivan Kalita (the most unfortunate period!) our fatherland looked more like a dark forest than a state: might seemed right; whoever could, robbed: not only strangers, but also his own; there was no safety either on the road or at home; theft has become a common plague of property”...
Yes, it was hard for the Russian land in those sorrowful times; It was difficult, impossible to defeat a strong enemy, and precisely because the Russian princes quarreled more and more among themselves - there was no unity, the entire vast Russian land was divided into pieces. And if they had not finally realized the need for this unity, who knows? - perhaps Orthodox Rus' would have completely perished, having fallen to the dominion of more dangerous enemies.
But God did not allow such a disaster to happen. Our high priests understood the danger before anyone else: they always told the princes that unanimity among them was necessary to save Russia from final destruction; Whenever possible, the saints always acted as peacemakers in princely strife, acting both with words of persuasion and with the power of spiritual authority. And the perspicacious Saint Peter laid a solid foundation for the unification of the Russian land, moving forever from Vladimir, on the Klyazma, to the then obscure town of Moscow, to the intelligent and pious Prince John Danilovich Kalita. This Prince began to persistently implement the idea of unifying the Russian land, outlined by his father, and annexed one after another the neighboring principalities to the Moscow one.
Of course, the righteous parents of Bartholomew did not escape these national sorrows. The once glorious and eminent boyar Kirill, even earlier than the events we described in Rostov, began to suffer poverty in his old age. Frequent trips to the Horde with his prince, heavy tributes and unbearable gifts to the Horde nobles, without which these travels were never complete, a severe famine that often devastated the Rostov region, and most of all, says the Monk Epiphanius, the great army or the invasion of Turalykovo in 1327 - all this together had an extremely unfavorable effect on his condition and almost brought him to poverty.
Bartholomew's parents decided to find another place to live. The opportunity soon presented itself. 12 versts from the Trinity Lavra, towards Moscow, there is the village of Gorodishche or Gorodok, which in ancient times bore the name of Radonezh. As soon as this became known in Rostov, many of its residents, hoping to find relief for themselves; pulled to Radonezh. Among such settlers, Epiphanius names Protasius of the thousand, George, son of Protopopov and his family, John and Theodore Tormasov, their relatives Duden and Onisim, a former Rostov nobleman, and later a deacon and disciple of Sergiev. Among them, Blessed Kirill moved with his entire family and settled in Radonezh near the Church of the Nativity of Christ.
Further, Epiphan describes Bartholomew's desire to go to a monastery, but his parents ask him to stay with them for now, and after their death he can go to a monastery. Bartholomew agrees and remains with them, still observing all fasts and leading an ascetic lifestyle.
After the death of his parents, he leaves people along with his brother Stefan, who has experienced grief in the family: his beloved wife has died, and he agrees to leave with his brother away from people.
The brothers leave their world and go into the very depths of the neighboring forests...
In those days, anyone who wanted a secluded life could freely go into the forest alone or with a friend, build a hut in any place or dig a cave and settle here. The brothers walked for a long time through the surrounding forests; Finally, they fell in love with one place, remote not only from dwellings, but also from human paths. This place was destined by God Himself for the establishment of a monastery: worthy people had seen above it before - some light, others fire, and others felt a fragrance. It was located about ten miles from Khotkov and represented a small square that rose above the neighboring area in the form of a poppy, which is why it was called Makovets or Makovitsa.
The brothers prayed fervently at the chosen place of desert life; betraying themselves into the hands of God, they called upon God’s blessing to the very place of their future exploits. Then they began to cut down the forest; with great difficulty they carried heavy logs on their, although accustomed to work, but still boyar shoulders; Little by little, the thicket of the forest thinned out, revealing a place where God later destined for the glorious Lavra of Sergius to flourish. The hermits first built themselves a hut from tree branches, and then a wretched cell; Finally, next to the cell, they placed a small church. All this was done by the hands of the laboring brothers themselves; they did not want to invite strangers, because bodily labor was a necessary condition for ascetic life itself.
When the church was ready for consecration, Bartholomew said to Stephen: “in the flesh you are my elder brother, and in the spirit - instead of a father; and so, tell me: in the name of which Saint should our church be consecrated? What will her patronal feast day be?”
Why are you asking me something that you know better than me? - the elder brother answered him. - You, of course, remember how more than once our late parents, in my presence, told you: “Be careful, child: you are no longer ours, but God’s; The Lord Himself chose you before your birth and gave a good sign about you when you cried out three times in your mother’s womb during the liturgy.” Both the presbyter who baptized you and the wonderful old man who visited us said then that this threefold proclamation of yours foreshadowed that you would be a disciple of the Most Holy Trinity; and so let our church be dedicated to the Most Holy Name of the Life-Giving Trinity; this will not be our thinking, but God’s will: let the name of the Lord be blessed here from now on and forever!”
The basic principle from which Epiphanius the Wise proceeds in his work is that the hagiographer, describing the life of a saint, must by all means show the exclusivity of his hero, the greatness of his feat, and detachment from everything earthly. Hence the desire for an emotional, bright, decorated language that differs from everyday speech. The Lives of Epiphanius are filled with quotations from the Holy Scriptures, because the feat of his heroes should find analogies in biblical history. With his work, Epiphanius demonstrated his true skill, stunned the reader with an endless series of epithets or synonymous metaphors, forcing the reader to think about the meaning of his work. This technique is called “weaving words.”
In the hagiography of the 14th-15th centuries, the principle of abstraction became widespread, when from the work “everyday, political, military, economic terminology, job titles, specific natural phenomena of a given country are expelled whenever possible...” The writer resorts to periphrases, using expressions like “a certain nobleman” , “lord of the degree”, etc.
The names of episodic characters are also eliminated, they are simply referred to as “someone’s husband”, “someone’s wife”, while adding “someone”, “someone”, “one” serve to remove the phenomenon from the surrounding everyday environment, from the specific historical environment.” The hagiographic principles of Epiphanius found their continuation in the works of Pachomius Logothetes.
Pachomius Logothetes.
Pachomius, a Serb by origin, arrived in Rus' no later than 1438. His work dates from the 40s to the 80s: he wrote at least 10 lives, many words of praise, services to the saints and other works.
Let us remember the life of Theodosius of Pechersk, how Anthony dissuaded him, reminding him of the difficulties awaiting him on the monastic path, how his mother tried by all means to return his mother to worldly life. A similar situation exists in the “Life of Kirill Belozersky”, written by Pachomius. The young man Kozma is brought up by his uncle, a rich and eminent man. The uncle wants to make Kozma treasurer, but the young man longs to become a monk. And then Abbot Stefan happened to arrive and the young man fell at his feet, shed tears, begged him to tonsure him as a monk, and he fulfilled the guy’s wish.
Then Stefan goes to Timofey, the guy’s uncle, to inform him about his nephew’s tonsure. The conflict is only barely outlined, not depicted. Timothy, having heard about what had happened, “heavily listened to the word, and at the same time was filled with sorrow and some annoying utterance to Stephen.” He leaves offended, but Timothy, ashamed of his pious wife, immediately repents “about the words spoken to Stephen,” returns him and asks for forgiveness. In a word, “standard” eloquent expressions depict a standard situation that is in no way correlated with the specific characters of a given life.
At the beginning of the 15th century, under the pen of Pachomius Logothetes, a new hagiographic canon was created - eloquent, “ornamented” lives, in which lively, “realistic” features gave way to beautiful, but dry periphrases. But along with this, lives of a different type appear, boldly breaking traditions, touching with their sincerity and ease. This is the Life of Mikhail Klopsky.
"The Life of Mikhail Klopsky."
The very beginning of life is unusual. Instead of the traditional beginning, the hagiographer’s story about the birth, childhood and tonsure of the future saint, this life begins from the middle, and from an unexpected and mysterious scene.
The monks of the Trinity on Klopa (near Novgorod) monastery were in the church at prayer. Priest Macarius, returning to his cell, discovers that the cell is unlocked, and an unknown elder is sitting in it and rewriting the book of the apostolic acts. The priest, “alarmed,” returned to the church, called the abbot and the brethren, and together with them returned to the cell. But the cell turned out to be locked from the inside, and the old man, unknown to him, continued to write. When asked, he answers very strangely: he repeats word for word every question asked of him. The monks could not even find out his name.
The elder visits church with the rest of the monks, prays with them, and the abbot decides: “Be an elder with us, live with us.” The rest of the life is a description of the miracles performed by Michael (his name is reported by the prince who visited the monastery). Even the story about the “repose” of Michael is surprisingly simple, with everyday details, and there is no traditional praise for the saint.
The unusual nature of the “Life of Michael Klopsky,” created in the century of the works of Pachomius Logofet, should not, however, surprise us. The point here is not only the originality of the author, but also the fact that the author of the life is a Novgorodian, he continues in his work the traditions of Novgorod hagiography, which, like all the literature of Novgorod of that time, was distinguished by spontaneity, unpretentiousness, simplicity, compared with the literature of Moscow or Vladimir-Suzdal Rus'.
However, the “realism” of the life, its entertaining plot, the liveliness of the scenes and dialogues - all this was so contrary to the hagiographic canon that already in the next century the life had to be reworked.
Let us compare only one episode - the description of the death of Michael in the 15th century and in the alteration of the 16th century. In the original edition we read: “And Michael fell ill in the month of December on Savin’s day, going to church. And he stood on the right side of the church, in the courtyard, opposite Theodosius’s tomb. And the abbot and the elders began to say to him: “Why, Mikhail, are you not standing in the church, but standing in the courtyard?” And he said to them, “I want to lie down.” Yes, he took with him the censer and the thyme (incense), and went to the cell. And the abbot sent nets and threads from the meal to him. And they opened the door, the thyme was still smoking, but he was gone (he had died). And they began to look for places, the ground was frozen, where to put it. And remembering the mob to the abbot, try the place where Mikhail stood. When I looked at it from that place, the earth was already melting. And they buried him honestly.” This casual, lively story has undergone a drastic revision. So, to the question of the abbot and the brethren why he prays in the courtyard, Mikhail now answers like this: “Behold my peace for ever and ever, for here the imam will dwell.” The episode when he goes to his cell is also revised: “And he burns the censer, and having placed incense on the coals, he goes into his cell, and the brethren marvel at those who saw the saint so much that he was exhausted, and then he received so much strength. The abbot goes to the meal and sends food to the saint, commanding him to eat. Having come from the abbot and entered the saint’s cell, and having seen him departed to the Lord, her hand was bent in the shape of a cross, and in the image of one sleeping and emitting a lot of fragrance.” The following describes the crying at the burial of Michael; Moreover, he is mourned not only by the monks and the archbishop “with the entire sacred cathedral,” but also by the entire people: people rush to the funeral, “like rapids of the river, tears flowing incessantly.” In a word, the life takes on, under the editorship of Vasily Tuchkov, exactly the form in which, for example, Pachomius Logofet would have created it. These attempts to move away from the canons, to let the breath of life into literature, to decide on literary fiction, to renounce straightforward didactics were manifested not only in hagiographies.
The genre of hagiographic literature continued to develop in the 17th and 18th centuries: “The Tale of a Luxurious Life and Joy”, “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum” (1672); “The Life of Patriarch Joachim Savelov” (1690), “The Life of Simon Volomsky”, late 17th century; "The Life of Alexander Nevsky." The autobiographical moment was consolidated in different ways in the 17th century: here is the life of the mother, compiled by her son (“The Tale of Uliani Osorgina”); and “ABC”, compiled on behalf of a “naked and poor man”; and “Noble Message to an Enemy”; and the autobiographies themselves - Avvakum and Epiphany, written simultaneously in the same earthen prison in Pustozersk and representing a kind of diptych.
“The Life of Archpriest Avvakum” is the first autobiographical work of Russian literature, in which Avvakum himself spoke about himself and his long-suffering life.
Speaking about the work of Archpriest Avvakum, A.N. Tolstoy wrote: “These were the brilliant “life” and “epistles” of the rebel, frantic Archpriest Avvakum, who ended his literary career with terrible torture and execution in Pustozersk. Avvakum’s speech is all about gesture, the canon is destroyed to smithereens, you physically feel the presence of the narrator, his gestures, his voice.”
4. Conclusion
Having studied the poetics of individual works of ancient Russian literature, we will draw a conclusion about the features of the genre of hagiography.
So, hagiography is a genre of ancient Russian literature that describes the life of a saint. In this genre, there are different hagiographic types: hagiography-martyria (the story of the martyrdom of a saint), monastic life (the story about the entire path of the righteous man, his piety, asceticism, the miracles he performed, etc.). The characteristic features of the hagiographic canon are:
Cold rationality
Conscious detachment from specific facts, names, realities
The theatricality and artificial pathos of dramatic episodes, the presence of such elements of the saint’s life that the hagiographer did not have the slightest information about.
The importance of the moment of miracle, revelation. It is a miracle that brings movement and development to the biography of a saint.
It must be said that the genre of hagiography does not stand still, it is gradually changing. The authors depart from the canons, letting the breath of life into literature, decide on literary fiction (“The Life of Mikhail Klopsky”), and speak simple language (“The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”).
Old Russian literature took shape and developed along with the growth of the general education of society.
Against this general cultural background, original and independently thinking writers, medieval publicists, and poets appeared.
5. Literature
D.S. Likhachev. Great legacy. Classic works of literature of Ancient Russia.-M., 1975, p.19
I.P. Eremin. Literature of Ancient Rus' (studies and characteristics). - M.-L., 1966, pp. 132-143
D.S. Likhachev. Man in the literature of Ancient Russia.-M., 1970, p.65.
I.P. Eremin. Literature of Ancient Rus' (studies and characteristics).-M.-L., 1966, pp. 21-22
V.O. Klyuchevsky. Old Russian lives of saints as a historical source. - M., 1871, p. 166.
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