Hagiographic literature as a historical source. Abstract: Hagiographic literature of Russia

abstract

Topic: Hagiographic literature of Russia

Introduction

1 Development of the hagiographic genre

1.1 The appearance of the first hagiographic literature

1.2 Canons of ancient Russian hagiography

2 Hagiographic literature of Russia

3 Saints of ancient Russia

3.1 "The Tale of Boris and Gleb"

3.2 "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves"

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

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

Hagiographic literature (hagiography, from Greek hagios - saint and ... graph), a type of church literature - biographies of saints - which for medieval Russian people were an important type of reading.

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

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

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

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

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

All of the above does not raise doubts about the relevance of this topic.

The purpose of the work: a comprehensive study and analysis of the hagiographic literature of Russia.

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

1 Development of the hagiographic genre

1.1 The appearance of the first hagiographic literature

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

Under Domitian and Diocletian, a significant part of the records perished in a fire, so that when Eusebius (died in 340) undertook to compile a complete collection of legends about ancient martyrs, he did not find sufficient material for that in the literature of martyr acts, but had to do searches in the archives of institutions, judging the martyrs. The later, more complete collection and critical edition of the Acts of the Martyrs belongs to the Benedictine Ruinart.

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

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

More extensive is the literature of the second kind of "lives of the saints" - the saints and others. The oldest collection of such tales is Dorotheus, ep. Tire (died 362), - the legend of the 70 apostles.

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

A prologue is a book containing the lives of the saints, together with instructions regarding celebrations in their honor. Among the Greeks, these collections are called synaxaries. The oldest of them is an anonymous synaxarion in the manuscript of Bishop Porfiry Uspensky of 1249. Our Russian prologues are adaptations of Emperor Basil's synaxarium, with some additions.

The Menaion are collections of lengthy tales about the saints in the feasts, arranged by month. They are service and menaia-chetia: in the first they are important for the biography of the saints, the designation of the names of the authors over the hymns. The handwritten menaias contain more information about the saints than the printed ones. These "monthly menaias" or service were the first collections of "lives of the saints" that became known in Russia at the very time of its adoption of Christianity and the introduction of Divine services.

In the pre-Mongolian period, the Russian Church already had a full circle of menaias, prologues and synaxareas. Then patericons appeared in Russian literature - special collections of the lives of the saints. Translated patericons are known in the manuscripts: Sinai (“Limonar” by Mosch), alphabetic, skete (several types; see the description of the rkp. Undolsky and Tsarsky), Egyptian (Lavsaik Palladia). Following the model of these eastern patericons, in Russia the "Paterik of Kiev-Pechersk" was compiled, the beginning of which was laid by Simon, Bishop. Vladimir, and Kiev-Pechersk monk Polycarp.

Finally, the last common source for the lives of the saints of the whole church is calendars and monastics. The beginnings of calendars date back to the earliest times of the church. From the testimony of Asterius of Amasia (died 410), it can be seen that in the 4th century. they were so full that they contained names for all the days of the year.

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

This also includes brief records about the saints (saints) in the church charters of Jerusalem, Studium and Constantinople. The saints are the same calendars, but the details of the story are close to the synaxaries and exist separately from the Gospels and charters.

From the beginning of the 15th century, Epiphanius and the Serb Pachomius created a new school in northern Russia - a school of artificially decorated, extensive life. They - especially Pachomius - created a stable literary canon, a magnificent "weaving of words", which Russian scribes strive to imitate until the end of the 17th century. In the era of Macarius, when many ancient unskillful hagiographic records were being rewritten, the works of Pachomius were entered into the Chet'i Menaion intact.

The vast majority of these hagiographic monuments are strictly dependent on their models. There are lives almost entirely written off from the most ancient ones; others develop platitudes while refraining from precise biographical data. This is how hagiographers willy-nilly act, separated from the saint by a long period of time - sometimes centuries, when even folk tradition dries up. But here, too, the general law of hagiographic style operates, similar to the law of icon painting: it requires the subordination of the particular to the general, the dissolution of the human face in the heavenly glorified face.

1.2 Canons of ancient Russian hagiography

The adoption of Christianity in Russia led to the subordination of not only religious, but also everyday life of people to Christian tradition, custom, new rituals, ceremonial or (according to D. Slikhachev) etiquette. By literary etiquette and literary canon, the scientist understood "the most typical medieval conditionally normative connection between content and form."

The life of a saint is, first of all, a description of the ascetic's path to salvation, such as his holiness, and not a documentary fixation of his earthly life, not a literary biography. Life received a special purpose - it became a type of church teaching. At the same time, hagiography differed from mere teaching: in the hagiographical genre, what is important is not an abstract analysis, not a generalized moral edification, but the depiction of special moments in the earthly life of a saint. The selection of biographical features took place not arbitrarily, but purposefully: for the author of the life, only that which fit into the general scheme of the Christian ideal was important. Everything that did not fit into the established scheme of the saint's biographical features was ignored or reduced in the text of his life.

The Old Russian hagiographic canon is a three-part model of hagiographic narration:

1) a lengthy preface;

2) a specially selected series of biographical features, confirming the holiness of the ascetic;

3) words of praise to the saint;

4) the fourth part of the life, adjacent to the main text, appears later in connection with the establishment of a special cult of saints.

Christian dogmas suggest the immortality of the saint after the completion of his earthly life - he becomes an "intercessor for the living" before God. The afterlife of the saint: incorruption and the miracle-working of his relics - and become the content of the fourth part of the hagiographic text. Moreover, in this sense, the hagiographic genre has an open ending: the hagiographic text is fundamentally incomplete, since the posthumous miracles of the saint are endless. Therefore, "every life of a saint has never represented a complete creation."

In addition to the obligatory tripartite structure and posthumous miracles, the hagiographic genre also developed numerous standard motifs that are reproduced in the hagiographic texts of almost all saints. Such standard motives include the birth of a saint from pious parents, indifference to children's games, reading divine books, refusing marriage, leaving the world, monasticism, founding a monastery, predicting the date of one's own death, pious death, posthumous miracles and incorruptibility of relics. Similar motifs stand out in hagiographic works different types and different eras.

Starting with the most ancient examples of hagiography, the martyr's prayer before death is usually cited and the vision of Christ or the Kingdom of Heaven revealed to the ascetic during his suffering is told. The repetition of standard motifs in various works of hagiography is due to the “Christocentricity of the very phenomenon of martyrdom: the martyr repeats the victory of Christ over death, bears witness to Christ and, becoming a “friend of God”, enters the Kingdom of Christ.” That is why the whole group of standard motifs refers to the content of itiya, reflects the path of salvation paved by the saints.

Not only verbal expression and a certain style become obligatory, but also the life situations which correspond to the idea of a holy life.

Already the life of one of the first Russian saints Boris and Gleb is subject to literary etiquette. The meekness and obedience of the brothers to the elder brother Svyatopolk are emphasized, that is, piety is a quality that primarily corresponds to the idea of a holy life. The same facts of the biography of the martyr princes that contradict him, the hagiographer either stipulates in a special way or hushed up.

The principle of similarity, which underlies the hagiographic canon, also becomes very important. The author of the life is always trying to find correspondence between the heroes of his story and the heroes of the Sacred History.

Thus, Vladimir I, who baptized Russia in the 10th century, is likened to Constantine the Great, who recognized Christianity as an equal religion in the 4th century; Boris - to Joseph the Beautiful, Gleb - to David, and Svyatopolk - to Cain.

The medieval writer recreates the behavior of the ideal hero, based on the canon, by analogy with the model already created before him, seeks to subordinate all the actions of the hagiographic hero to already known norms, compare them with the facts that took place in Sacred History, accompany the text of the life with quotes from the Holy Scripture that correspond to what is happening .

2 Hagiographic literature of Russia

The translated lives that first came to Russia were used for a dual purpose: for home reading (Menaia) and for worship (Prologues, Synaxaria).

This dual use led to the fact that each life was written in two versions: a short (prologue) and a long (menaine). The short version was read quickly in church, and the long version was then read aloud in the evenings by the whole family.

The prologue versions of the lives turned out to be so convenient that they won the sympathy of the clergy. (Now they would say - they became bestsellers.) They became shorter and shorter. It became possible to read several lives during one divine service.

Old Russian literature of the lives of the saints proper Russian begins with the biographies of individual saints. The model according to which the Russian “lives” were compiled was the Greek lives, such as Metaphrastus, i.e. whose task was to “praise” the saint, and the lack of information (for example, about the first years of the life of the saints) was made up for by commonplaces and rhetorical rantings. A series of miracles of the saint is a necessary part of life. In the story about the life itself and the exploits of the saints, there are often no signs of individuality at all. Exceptions from the general character of the original Russian "lives" before the 15th century. make up only the very first lives of “St. Boris and Gleb” and “Theodosius of the Caves” compiled by St. Nestor, the lives of Leonid of Rostov and the lives that appeared in the Rostov region in the 12th and 13th centuries, presenting an artless simple story, while the equally ancient lives of the Smolensk region belong to the Byzantine type of biographies .

In the XV century. Metropolitan Cyprian, who wrote the lives of Metropolitan Peter and several lives of Russian saints, included in his Book of Powers, began a series of compilers of the life. Another Russian hagiographer Pachomius Logofet compiled the lives and services of St. Sergius, life and service of St. Nikon, the life of St. Kirill Belozersky, word on the transfer of the relics of St. Peter and service to him; he also owns the lives of the holy archbishops of Novgorod Moses and John. In total, he wrote 10 lives, 6 legends, 18 canons and 4 laudatory words to the saints. Pachomius enjoyed great fame among his contemporaries and posterity, and was a model for other compilers of the lives of the saints. No less famous as the compiler of the life of the saints, Epiphanius the Wise, who first lived in the same monastery with St. Stephen of Perm, and then in the monastery of Sergius, who wrote the lives of both of these saints. He knew St. Scripture, Greek chronographs, paleus, ladder, patericons. He has even more ornateness than Pachomius.

The successors of these three writers introduce a new feature into their works - an autobiographical one, so that one can always recognize the author by the “lives” compiled by them. From urban centers, the work of Russian hagiography passes into the 16th century. in deserts and areas remote from cultural centers. The authors of these lives did not limit themselves to the facts of the life of the saint and panegyric to him, but tried to acquaint them with the church, social and state conditions, among which the activity of the saint arose and developed.

The lives of this time are, therefore, valuable primary sources of the cultural and everyday history of ancient Russia. The author, who lived in Moscow Russia, can always be distinguished, by trend, from the author of the Novgorod, Pskov and Rostov regions.

A new era in the history of Russian lives is the activity of the All-Russian Metropolitan Macarius. His time was especially rich in new "lives" of Russian saints, which is explained, on the one hand, by the intensive activity of this metropolitan in the canonization of saints, and, on the other hand, by the "great Menaion-Chetiimi" compiled by him. These Menaions, which included almost all the Russian hagiographies that existed by that time, are known in two editions: St. Sophia's and more complete - the Moscow Cathedral of 1552. A century later Macarius, in 1627-1632, the Menaion-Chetii of the monk of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery appeared German Tulupov, and in 1646-1654. - Menaion-Chetii of the priest of Sergiev Posad John Milyutin. These two collections differ from Makariyev in that they contain almost exclusively the lives and tales of Russian saints. Tulupov entered into his collection everything that he found on the part of Russian hagiography, in its entirety; Milyutin, using the works of Tulupov, shortened and altered the lives he had at hand, omitting prefaces from them, as well as words of praise.

The peculiarities of life and historical words of praise are united by the oldest monument of our literature - the rhetorically decorated "Memory and Praise to Prince Vladimir of Russia" (XI century) by monk Jacob. The work is dedicated to the solemn glorification of the Baptist of Russia, the proof of his God's chosenness. Jacob had access to the ancient chronicle that preceded The Tale of Bygone Years and the Primary Code, and used its unique information, which more accurately conveys the chronology of events during the time of Vladimir Svyatoslavich.

One of the first works of ancient Russian hagiography is The Life of Anthony of the Caves. Although it has not survived to our time, it can be argued that it was an outstanding work of its kind. The Life contained valuable historical and legendary information about the emergence of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, influenced the chronicle, served as the source of the Primary Code, and later was used in the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon.

The lives of the Kiev-Pechersk monk Nestor (not earlier than 1057 - the beginning of the 12th century), created on the basis of Byzantine hagiography, are distinguished by outstanding literary merit. His "Reading about the life of Boris and Gleb" along with other monuments of the XI-XII centuries. (more dramatic and emotional "The Tale of Boris and Gleb" and its continuation "The Tale of the Miracles of Roman and David") form a widespread cycle about the bloody internecine war of the sons of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich for the throne of Kyiv. Boris and Gleb (in baptism Roman and David) are depicted as martyrs not so much of a religious as of a political idea. Preferring death in 1015 to the fight against their older brother Svyatopolk, who seized power in Kyiv after the death of his father, they assert with all their behavior and death the triumph of brotherly love and the need for submission. junior princes the eldest in the family to preserve the unity of the Russian land. The passion-bearing princes Boris and Gleb, the first canonized saints in Russia, became her heavenly patrons and defenders.

After the Reading, Nestor created a detailed biography of Theodosius of the Caves, based on the memoirs of his contemporaries, which became a model in the genre of the venerable life. The work contains precious information about monastic life and customs, about the attitude of ordinary laymen, boyars and the Grand Duke towards the monks. Later, "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves" was included in the "Kiev-Pechersk Patericon" - the last major work of pre-Mongolian Rus.

Even in the XI-XII centuries. in the Kiev-Pechersk monastery, legends were written about its history and the ascetics of piety who labored in it, reflected in the "Tale of Bygone Years" under 1051 and 1074. In the 20s-30s. XIII century begins to take shape "Kiev-Pechersk Patericon" - a collection of brief stories about the history of this monastery, its monks, their ascetic life and spiritual exploits. The monument was based on the epistles and accompanying paterikov stories of two Kiev-Pechersk monks: Simon, who became the first bishop of Vladimir and Suzdal in 1214, and Polycarp. The sources of their stories about the events of the XI - the first half of the XII century. monastic and tribal traditions, folk tales, the Kiev-Pechersk chronicle, the lives of Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves appeared. The formation of the patericon genre took place at the intersection of oral and written traditions: folklore, hagiography, annals, oratorical prose.

"Kiev-Pechersk Patericon" is one of the most beloved books of Orthodox Russia. For centuries it has been read and rewritten willingly. 300 years, before the appearance of the "Volokolamsk Patericon" in 30-40 years. XVI century., It remained the only original monument of this genre in ancient Russian literature.

The Russian Lives of the Saints are distinguished by great sobriety. When the hagiographer did not have enough accurate traditions about the life of a saint, he, without giving free rein to his imagination, usually developed meager reminiscences by “rhetorically weaving words” or inserted them into the most general, typical frame of the corresponding hagiological rank.

The restraint of Russian hagiography is especially striking in comparison with the medieval hagiographies of the Latin West. Even the miracles necessary in the life of a saint are given very sparingly just for the most revered Russian saints who have received modern biographies: Theodosius of the Caves, Sergius of Radonezh, Joseph Volotsky.

3 Saints of ancient Russia

3.1 "The Tale of Boris and Gleb"

The appearance of the original hagiographic literature in Russia was associated with the general political struggle to assert its religious independence, the desire to emphasize that the Russian land has its own representatives and intercessors before God. Surrounding the personality of the prince with an aura of holiness, the lives contributed to the political strengthening of the foundations of the feudal system.

An example of the ancient Russian princely life is the anonymous "Tale of Boris and Gleb", created, apparently, at the end of the 11th-beginning of the 12th century. The Tale is based on the historical fact that Svyatopolk killed his younger brothers Boris and Gleb in 1015. When in the 40s of the 11th century. Yaroslav achieved the canonization of the murdered brothers by the Byzantine church, it took the creation of a special work that would glorify the feat of the martyrs and the avenger for their death, Yaroslav. Based on the chronicle story at the end of the 11th century. and was written by an unknown author "The Tale of Boris and Gleb."

The author of The Tale retains historical specificity, setting out in detail all the ups and downs associated with the villainous murder of Boris and Gleb. Like the chronicle, the "Tale" sharply condemns the murderer - the "cursed" Svyatopolk and opposes fratricidal strife, defending the patriotic idea of \u200b\u200bthe unity of the "Russian great country".

The historicism of the narrative of the "Tale" compares favorably with the Byzantine martyrs. It carries an important political idea of tribal seniority in the system of princely inheritance. The "Tale" is subordinated to the task of strengthening the feudal legal order, glorifying vassal fidelity: Boris and Gleb cannot break loyalty to their older brother, who replaces their father. Boris refuses the offer of his warriors to seize Kyiv by force. Gleb, warned by his sister Predslava about the impending murder, voluntarily goes to his death. Also glorified is the feat of vassal fidelity of the servant of Boris - the lad George, who covers the prince with his body.

The "Tale" does not follow the traditional compositional scheme of life, which usually describes the whole life of the ascetic - from his birth to death. It outlines only one episode from the life of its heroes - their villainous murder. Boris and Gleb are portrayed as ideal Christian martyr heroes. They voluntarily accept the "martyr's crown".

The glorification of this Christian feat is sustained in the manner of hagiographic literature. The author equips the narrative with abundant monologues - the cries of the heroes, their prayers, which serve as a means of expressing their pious feelings. The monologues of Boris and Gleb are not devoid of imagery, drama and lyricism. Such, for example, is Boris’s lamentation for his dead father: “Alas for me, the light of my eyes, the radiance and dawn of my face, the breeze of my anguish, the punishment of my misunderstanding! Alas, my father and lord! Who will I run to? To whom will I take? Where can I be satisfied with such a good teaching and the testimony of your mind? Alas for me, alas for me. What a dream of my light, I don’t exist that! .. ”This monologue uses rhetorical questions and exclamations characteristic of church oratorical prose, and at the same time, here the figurativeness of folk lamentation, which gives it a certain tone, allows you to more clearly express the feeling of filial grief . Gleb's tearful appeal to his killers is filled with deep drama: “Don't reap me, I haven't eaten from life! You won’t reap class, you’ve not already eaten, you won’t bear the milk of laziness! You will not cut the vines, not up to the end of life, but the fruit of the property!

Pious reflections, prayers, laments that are put into the mouths of Boris and Gleb serve as a means of revealing inner world heroes, their psychological mood. Heroes pronounce many monologues “in their minds and thinking”, “say in their hearts”. These internal monologues are the product of the author's imagination. They convey pious feelings, thoughts of ideal heroes. The monologues include quotations from the Psalter, Paremiion.

The psychological state of the characters is also given in the author's description. So, abandoned by the retinue, Boris "... in an ace and sadness, depressingly heart and climbed into his tent, crying with a crushed heart, and with a joyful soul, pitifully emitting a voice." Here the author is trying to show how two opposite feelings are combined in the soul of the hero: grief in connection with a premonition of death and the joy that an ideal hero-martyr should experience in anticipation of a martyr's end.

The lively immediacy of the manifestation of feelings constantly collides with the tactfulness. So, Gleb, seeing the ships at the mouth of the Smyadyn, sailing towards him, with youthful gullibility, "rejoiced in the soul" "and it would be nice to receive kisses from them." When the evil killers began to jump into Gleb's boat with naked swords sparkling like water, "abie oars from the hand of a degenerate, and rise from the fear of death." And now, having understood their evil intention, Gleb, with tears, “wearing” his body, prays to the killers: “Do not deite me, my dear and dragging brethren! Don't hurt me, you've done nothing wrong! Do not shave (touch) me, brethren and Lord, do not shy! Here we have before us the truth of life, which is then combined with an etiquette death prayer, befitting a saint.

Boris and Gleb are surrounded in the "Tale" with an aura of holiness. This goal is served not only by the exaltation and glorification of the Christian traits of their character, but also by the widespread use of religious fiction in the description of posthumous miracles. This typical technique of hagiographic literature is used by the author of the Tale in the final part of the narrative. The same purpose is served by the praise with which the Tale ends. In praise, the author uses traditional biblical comparisons, prayer appeals, resorts to quotations from books of "holy scripture".

The author tries to give a generalized description of the hero's appearance. It is built on the principle of mechanical combination of various positive moral qualities. This is the characterization of Boris: “The body was red, tall, face round, shoulders great, tnk in the loins, eyes of kindness, cheerful face, small beard and mustache, young be still, shining like a Caesar, strong body, decorated in every way, like a color his humility, in ratkh harbr, wise in light, and reasonable with everything, and the grace of God tsvetyaashe on him.

The heroes of Christian virtue, the ideal princes-martyrs in the "Tale" are opposed to a negative character - the "cursed" Svyatopolk. He is possessed by envy, pride, lust for power and a fierce hatred of his brothers. The author of the Tale sees the reason for these negative qualities of Svyatopolk in his origin: his mother was a blueberry, then she was stripped and taken as a wife by Yaropolk; after the murder of Yaropolk by Vladimir, she became the wife of the latter, and Svyatopolk descended from two fathers.

The characteristic of Svyatopolk is given according to the principle of antithesis with the characteristics of Boris and Gleb. He is the bearer of all negative human qualities. When depicting him, the author does not spare black colors. Svyatopolk is “cursed”, “cursed”, “second Cain”, whose thoughts are caught by the devil, he has “bad lips”, an “evil voice”. For the crime committed, Svyatopolk bears a worthy punishment. Defeated by Yaroslav panic fear he flees from the battlefield, “… weakening his bones, as if he were not strong enough for a gray-haired horse. And carry him on a stretcher." He constantly hears the clatter of the horses of Yaroslav chasing him: “Run! Get married again! Oh me! and you can’t stand in one place.” So succinctly, but very expressively, the author managed to reveal psychological condition negative hero. Svyatopolk suffers legal retribution: in the desert "between the Czechs and the Poles" he "corrects his stomach." And if the brothers killed by him “live forever”, being the “visor” and “affirmation” of the Russian land, and their bodies turn out to be incorruptible and emit a fragrance, then from the grave of Svyatopolk, which is “to this day”, “come ... evil stench to the testimony of a man."

Svyatopolk is opposed not only to the "earthly angels" and "heavenly people" Boris and Gleb, but also to the ideal earthly ruler Yaroslav, who avenged the death of his brothers. The author of the "Tale" emphasizes the piety of Yaroslav, putting into his mouth a prayer allegedly uttered by the prince before the battle with Svyatopolk. In addition, the battle with Svyatopolk takes place in the very place, on the Alta River, where Boris was killed, and this fact acquires a symbolic meaning.

With the victory of Yaroslav, "The Tale" connects the cessation of sedition, which emphasized its political topicality.

The dramatic nature of the narrative, the emotionality of the style of presentation, the political topicality of the Tale made it very popular in ancient Russian writing (it has come down to us in 170 lists).

However, the lengthy presentation of the material with the preservation of all historical details made the "Tale" unsuitable for liturgical purposes.

Especially for the church service in the 80s of the XI century. Nestor created "Reading about the life and destruction of the blessed martyr Boris and Gleb" in accordance with the requirements of the church canon. Based on Byzantine examples, he opens the "Reading" with an extensive rhetorical introduction, which acquires a journalistic character, echoing Hilarion's "Sermon on Law and Grace" in this respect.

The central part of the "Reading" is devoted to the hagiobiographies of Boris and Gleb. Unlike the Tale, Nestor omits specific historical details and gives his story a generalized character: the martyrdom of the brothers is the triumph of Christian humility over diabolical pride, which leads to enmity, internecine struggle. Without any hesitation, Boris and Gleb "with joy" accept martyrdom.

The “Reading” ends with a description of numerous miracles testifying to the glory of the martyrs, with praise and a prayerful appeal to the saints, Nestor retained the main political trend of the “Tale”: condemnation of fratricidal strife and recognition of the need for junior princes to unquestioningly obey the elders in the family.

3.2 "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves"

Another type of hero glorifies the "Life of Theodosius of the Caves", written by Nestor. Theodosius is a monk, one of the founders of the Kiev Caves Monastery, who devoted his life not only to the moral improvement of his soul, but also to the education of the monastic brethren and laity, including princes. The life has a characteristic three-part compositional structure: the author's introduction-preface, the central part - the story of the hero's deeds and the conclusion. The basis of the narrative part is an episode connected with the deeds of not only the main character, but also his associates (Barlaam, Isaiah, Ephraim, Nikon the Great, Stefan).

Nestor draws facts from oral sources, the stories of the “ancient fathers”, the cellar of the monastery Fedor, the monk Hilarion, the “carrier”, “a certain person”. Nestor has no doubts about the truth of these stories. Literally processing them, arranging them “in a row”, he subordinates the entire narrative to the single task of “praising” Theodosius, who “gives an image of himself”. In the temporal sequence of the events described, traces of the monastic oral chronicle are found. Most episodes of life have a complete plot.

Such, for example, is the description of the adolescent years of Theodosius, connected with his conflict with his mother. The mother puts all sorts of obstacles to the boy in order to prevent him from fulfilling his intention - to become a monk. The ascetic Christian ideal, which Theodosius aspires to, is faced with the hostile attitude of society and maternal love for her son. Nestor hyperbolically depicts the anger and rage of a loving mother, beating a rebellious child to exhaustion, putting iron on his legs. The clash with the mother ends with the victory of Theodosius, the triumph of heavenly love over earthly. The mother comes to terms with her son's act and becomes a nun herself, just to see him.

The episode with the "carriage" testifies to the attitude of the working people towards the life of the monks, who believe that the Chernorizians spend their days in idleness. Nestor opposes this idea with the image of the "works" of Theodosius and the Chernorizians surrounding him. He pays much attention to the economic activities of the abbot, his relationship with the brethren and the Grand Duke. Theodosius forces Izyaslav to reckon with the monastery charter, denounces Svyatoslav, who seized the throne of the grand duke and expelled Izyaslav.

"The Life of Theodosius of the Caves" contains rich material that makes it possible to judge the monastic life, economy, and the nature of the relationship between the hegumen and the prince. Closely connected with monastic life are the monologue motifs of life, reminiscent of folk bylichki.

Following the traditions of the Byzantine monastic life, Nestor consistently uses symbolic tropes in that work: Theodosius - “lamp”, “light”, “dawn”, “shepherd”, “shepherd of the verbal flock”.

"The Life of Theodosius of the Caves" can be defined as a hagiographic story, consisting of separate episodes, united by the main character and the narrator into a single whole. It differs from Byzantine works in its historicism, patriotic pathos and reflection of the peculiarities of the political and monastic life of the 11th century.

In the further development of Old Russian hagiography, it served as a model for the creation of the venerable lives of Abraham of Smolensk, Sergius of Radonezh, and others.

Conclusion

Thus, hagiographic literature is the lives of saints, biographies of spiritual and secular persons, canonized by the Christian Church, which for a medieval Russian person was an important type of reading.

Hagiographic literature came to Russia from Byzantium along with Orthodoxy, where, by the end of the 1st millennium, the canons of this literature were developed, the implementation of which was mandatory.

Lives are part of Church Tradition. Therefore, they must be theologically verified, since they have a doctrinal meaning. The inclusion of any episode from the available biographies of the saint in his life was considered in the light of the question: what does this act or this word teach. Halftones, nuances, things that could confuse ordinary believing people were removed from the lives; what might be called "little things in life" that are not important for eternity.

Russia was a reading country. Byzantine literature could not satisfy the need for reading for a long time, so the introduction of Russian princes as characters led to the birth of a purely Russian hagiographical genre. the historical fact of the murder of Svyatopolk of his younger brothers, in the 40s of the XI century. canonized by the Byzantine Church.

Old Russian literature of the lives of the saints differs from Byzantine works in its historicism, patriotic pathos, and reflection of the peculiarities of political or monastic life.

List of used literature

1. Kuskov V.V. History of ancient Russian literature. - M.: Higher school / V.V. Kuskov. - 2006. - 343 p.

2. Likhachev D.S. History of Russian literature X-XVII centuries. Proc. allowance for students ped. in-tov / D.S. Likhachev. - St. Petersburg: Aleteyya, 1997. - 508 p.

3. Picchio R. Old Russian literature / R. Picchio. - M.: Publishing House of Languages of Slavic Culture, 2002. - 352 p.

4. Rastyagaev A.V. The problem of the artistic canon of ancient Russian hagiography / A.V. Rastyagaev // Vestnik SamGU. Literary criticism. - Samara: SamGU, 2006. - No. 5/1 (45) - S. 86-91.

5. Priest Oleg Mitrov. Experience in Writing the Lives of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia / ROF "Memory of the Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church". - Moscow: Bulat Publishing House, 2004. - S. 24-27.

6. Speransky M.N. History of ancient Russian literature / M.N. Speransky. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house Lat, 2002. - 544 p.

The Lord humbled you, made you hungry, and fed you with manna,
to show you that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word,
proceeding from the mouth of God
Deuteronomy; 8.3

life (hagiography- from Greek. “life”, as well as the science that studies lives) is a genre of ancient Russian literature, a story about the life, suffering and pious deeds of people who are canonized by the church as saints. In the center of the life is the biography of the saint, an exalted image of a staunch fighter for the faith. The life comes from the ancient Roman martyrology, which told about Christian martyrs. Martyrology, in turn, developed under the influence of the Acts of the Apostles (the fifth book of the New Testament). It happened in Russia several conditional varieties of lives:
1) lives of the holy martyrs ("Life of Boris and Gleb")
2) lives of Christian ascetics ("The Life of Theodosius of the Caves", "The Life of Sergius of Radonezh", "The Life of Stefan of Perm")
3) the lives of holy fools ("Life of St. Basil the Blessed")
4) Lives of Orthodox Princes ("The Life of Alexander Nevsky")
5) legendary life stories ("The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom")
6) hagiography-autobiography ("The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, written by him himself").

Fragment of the painting by Mikhail Nesterov "Vision to the youth Bartholomew"
Sergius of Radonezh, in the world - Bartholomew(1314 - 1392), according to Epiphanius the Wise, was born in the village of Varnitsy near Rostov in the family of boyar Cyril and his wife Maria. At the age of seven, Bartholomew, along with his brothers Stefan and Peter, were given to learn to read and write, but the boy found it difficult to read and write. Acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures led the future saint to deep religiosity and the desire for monastic life. In 1328, the impoverished family moved to the city of Radonezh (now a village 55 km from Moscow). Early widowed Stefan, and soon Bartholomew became monks of the Khotkovo-Pokrovsky monastery. However, Bartholomew strove for a desert life and, having convinced Stefan, went with him to the remote Radonezh forest, where the brothers built a wooden church in the name of the Holy Trinity (1335). Stefan, unable to withstand the difficulties, soon left for the Epiphany Monastery in Moscow, and Bartholomew, having called Abbot Mitrofan to him, took monastic vows under the name of Sergius.

St. Sergius in the Radonezh forest

Soon, deeply believing peasants and princes began to arrive at Sergius, and by 1345 the Trinity-Sergius Monastery was formed (now the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in the city of Sergiev Posad, 70 km from Moscow). Sergius taught his monks to live only by their own labor, not to accept alms from anyone, introduced strict rules of communal living in his monastery, which were subsequently adopted in all Russian monasteries. It was Sergius who managed to convince the Russian appanage princes to submit to the power of the Moscow prince Dimitri Ioannovich, thanks to which, by the time of the Battle of Kulikovo, Russia had significantly strengthened. On the eve of the battle, Dimitry Ioannovich (known as Dmitry Donskoy) went to Sergius to ask for blessings. Sergius blessed him, predicted victory and gave two monks Peresvet and Oslyabya to help. In 1389, Sergius sealed the spiritual testament of Dimitri Ivanovich, which legalized the transfer of princely power from father to eldest son.

Trinity-Sergius Lavra (Sergiev Posad)
On September 25, 1392, Sergius of Radonezh died, and thirty years later his relics were found incorrupt, and in 1452 he was canonized as a saint. The word "reverend" means the face of holiness of monks glorified for their ascetic life. The disciples of Sergius founded more than 40 monasteries.

Archpriest Avvakum
Archpriest Avvakum Petrovich(1620 - 1682) is known as one of the first and most consistent schismatics. Dissenters (Old Believers)- these are Orthodox Christians who opposed the church reform carried out in the 17th century by Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The task of the reform was to bring Russian church rites into line with Greek ones and to strengthen the connection between the autocracy and the clergy. For the preservation of the old rites, Avvakum and his supporters were ready to accept any suffering, because. in church reform they saw a threat to the originality of Russian Orthodoxy. On the part of the tsar, such rejection was regarded as a rebellion against the authorities, so the schismatics were subjected to severe persecution (except for Avvakum, the furrier Luka, Prince Ivan Khovansky, the noblewoman Theodosia Morozova, her sister Evdokia Urusova - all of them were martyred). The first wife of Tsar Alexei, Maria Ilyinichna, sympathized with the Old Believers and even at first managed to save the recalcitrant archpriest from execution.

Fragment of the painting by Vasily Surikov "Boyar Morozova"

Russian and Greek church leaders tried to convince Avvakum of the need for a reform, but to no avail. Avvakum was defrocked, anathematized and imprisoned first in the dungeon of the Nikolsky Monastery, and then spent 15 years in the earthen prison of Pustozersk, located on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. It was there that Avvakum wrote more than eighty of his works.

Habakkuk Dungeon

Avvakum based his autobiographical life on the idea of freedom of conscience and freedom of choice of beliefs. “My Christ,” writes Habakkuk, “did not order our apostles to teach in such a way as to bring them into faith with fire, with a whip, and with a gallows.” The archpriest calls himself a sinner, cries about his imperfection. This is the fundamental difference between the life of Avvakum and the life of the traditional: the image of the hero is not idealized here, he is characterized by errors and errors. Avvkaum's self-accusations by no means diminish his image: it is the result of fortitude and conscience. Avvakum's writings were secretly handed over by the guards of the Pustozero prison to the will, due to which the number of supporters of the archpriest multiplied. The official church was frightened by this, so on April 14, 1682, Habakkuk and three of his associates were burned.

Of the literature intended for reading, in ancient Russia, hagiographic or hagiographic literature (from the Greek auos - saint) was most widespread, through which the church sought to give its flock examples of the practical application of abstract Christian provisions. The conditional, idealized image of a Christian ascetic, whose life and activity took place in an atmosphere of legend and miracle, was the most suitable conductor of the ideology that the church was called to spread. The author of the life, the hagio-graph, pursued, first of all, the task of giving such an image of the saint, which would correspond to the established idea of an ideal church hero. Only such facts were taken from his life that corresponded to this idea, and everything that disagreed with him was hushed up. Moreover, in a number of cases, events were invented that did not take place in the life of the saint, but contributed to his glorification; it also happened that the facts told in the life of some popular church ascetic were attributed to another ascetic, about whose life very little was known. So, for example, in the practice of Russian original hagiography, there were cases when, when writing the life of some Russian saint, what was said about the Byzantine saint of the same name was borrowed. Such a free attitude to the factual material was a consequence of the fact that hagiography set itself the goal not of a reliable presentation of events, but of an instructive effect. The holy example of his life had to confirm the truth of the basic provisions of the Christian doctrine. Hence the elements of rhetoric and panegyricism, which are inherent in most works of hagiographic literature, hence the established thematic and stylistic pattern that defines the hagiographic genre.

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

From the inside, life is characterized in general by the same features that are inherent in secular narrative literature. It often contains the psychological characteristics of the characters, especially the main character, and for her, for the most part, his reflections are used; monologues are common, revealing the state of mind of the characters, all the time in the form of lyrical lamentation, lamentations; the dialogic form of speech is also common, serving to enliven the narrative and to dramatize it. In a number of cases, the hagiographer, digressing from the consistent presentation of the fate of the saint, indulges himself in reflections, often pathetically colored and supported by quotations from "holy Scripture". Finally, in some lives there is a portrait of the saint, schematically drawn by simply listing his main features.

The canonical form of life takes shape on the soil of Byzantium in the 4th century. Already at that time there was his most characteristic example - the life of Anthony the Great, written by Athanasius of Alexandria. The main theme of this life, artistically translated in the XIX century. Flaubert in his "The Temptation of St. Anthony" - the intense struggle of the saint with demons. The work of the compiler of the second half of the 10th century had a kind of final character in the field of hagiographic literature in Byzantium. Simeon Metafrast, which basically consolidated the tradition of the hagiographic stencil.

Translated lives have long circulated among us either in a common form or in a short one. The first existed separately or were part of the collections, the so-called "Fourth Menyas", that is, books intended for reading and arranging material according to the days of the month; the second, which was a short form of the saint, found a place for itself in the Prologues, or (in Greek) Synaxars, Minologies (the Russian name Prologue came about as a result of the fact that the Russian editor of the collection of the introductory article to the Synaxar - "ProHouo;" took for the title of the collection). "Father Menaia" existed in Russia, apparently already in the 11th century. (the oldest surviving Assumption list of the “Fourth Menaion” for May, written in Russia, dates back to the beginning of the 12th century.) “The Prologue” - in the 12th century. The latter included, on Russian soil, in addition, edifying legends-novels borrowed from the "Pateriki" (see below), and articles of an instructive nature. It arose, one must think, as a result of the cooperation of South Slavic and Russian church leaders, in a place where both could meet, most likely in Constantinople. Already in its early editions, in addition to the biographies of Greek and Yugoslav saints, there are "memory" of Russian saints - Boris and Gleb, Princess Olga, Prince Mstislav, Theodosius of the Caves. Later, on Russian soil, the "Prologue" is replenished with extensive material and becomes the most popular book in the hands of a religious reader. it is used in the fiction of the 19th - early 20th centuries - in the work of Herzen, Tolstoy, Leskov, and others. 2 .

In the XI-XII centuries. in separate lists, translated lives of Nicholas the Wonderworker, Anthony the Great, John Chrysostom, Savva the Sanctified, Basil the New, Andrei the Holy Fool, Alexei the Man of God, Vyacheslav the Czech (the latter of West Slavic origin) and others were known in Russia.

As an example of the hagiographical genre in its widespread form, let us take the life of Alexei the man of God according to the text of the manuscript of the XIV-XV centuries. one .

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

As it is easy to see, in the life of Alexei we find a number of essential moments of the life genre noted above: here is the origin of the saint from pious and noble parents, and his early inclination to learning, and neglect of the sweets of earthly life, and severe asceticism, and a blessed death, and, finally, posthumous miracles performed at the tomb of the saint. In the life there are both dialogic speech and lyrical lamentations-monologues. In the presentation itself there are elements of a decorated, rhetorical style, combined with the author's lyricism. Traditional in this life are the indication of the childlessness of the saint's parents before his birth, and the departure from the parental home, and the distribution of the saints of their property to the poor, and the evasion of human glory, etc. 2. The life of Alexei, like other monuments of ancient Russian literature and hagiography in particular, was subjected to editorial revisions until the 17th century, influenced a number of subsequent works of our original literature, and, finally, formed the basis of a popular spiritual verse.

Our great interest in the old days in the life of Alexei is explained by the fact that it tells about the life of a man who, by his disregard for everything that a rich, eminent nobility lived, aroused sympathy among those who did not belong to the top of society. Attracted in this life and its general lyrical tone.

On Russian soil ancient times there were also translated collections of short stories that told about some instructive episode from the life of a Christian ascetic. These collections, called "Pateriks" or "Otechniks", combined stories about ascetics and hermits who lived in a certain area or in a certain monastery, or about such events and various life cases, witnesses and eyewitnesses of which these hermits were. Elements of entertainment, anecdotism and naive superstition, which were peculiarly intertwined here with everyday episodes of a purely secular nature, contributed to the wide distribution of these stories, which absorbed material that sometimes goes back to pagan mythology. The Prologue absorbed a lot of paterinic legends and this largely determined its popularity.

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

Here is one story - about Mark - from the "Egyptian Patericon".

“This Mark,” says Palladius, “even in his youth knew by heart the writings of the Old and New Testaments; he was very meek and humble, like hardly anyone else. Once I went to him and, sitting at the door of his cells, began to listen to what he was saying or doing. Completely alone inside the cell, almost a hundred years old, who already had no teeth, he was still fighting with himself and with the devil and saying: “What else do you want, old man? And you drank wine, and used oil - what else do you require from me? Gray-haired glutton, glutton, you disgrace yourself. Then, turning to the devil, he said: “Finally, get away from me, devil, you have grown old with me in negligence. Under the pretext of bodily weakness, you forced me to consume wine and oil and made me a voluptuary. Is there anything else I owe you now? You have nothing more to take from me, get away from me, misanthrope." Then, as if jokingly, he would say to himself: “Come on, talker, gray-haired glutton, greedy old man, how long will I be with you?”

In the story "Paterik of Sinai" about the elder Gerasim and the lion, artistically processed by Leskov in modern times, it tells about the touching attachment of the lion to the monk Gerasim, who took out a splinter from the lion's paw that caused him severe pain. Leo after that, serving him, did not part with him, and when Gerasim died, he himself gave up the ghost on his grave, not being able to survive his death.

Entering the Prologue, the Patericon stories found access to the widest circle of readers and influenced some types of original book literature and partly oral literature.

abstract

Topic: Hagiographic literature of Russia

Introduction

1 Development of the hagiographic genre

1.1 The appearance of the first hagiographic literature

1.2 Canons of ancient Russian hagiography

2 Hagiographic literature of Russia

3 Saints of ancient Russia

3.1 "The Tale of Boris and Gleb"

3.2 "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves"

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

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

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

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

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

All of the above does not raise doubts about the relevance of this topic.

The purpose of the work: a comprehensive study and analysis of the hagiographic literature of Russia.

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

1 Development of the hagiographic genre

1.1 The appearance of the first hagiographic literature

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

1.2 Canons of ancient Russian hagiography

The Old Russian hagiographic canon is a three-part model of hagiographic narration:

1) a lengthy preface;

2) a specially selected series of biographical features, confirming the holiness of the ascetic;

3) words of praise to the saint;

4) the fourth part of the life, adjacent to the main text, appears later in connection with the establishment of a special cult of saints.

Not only verbal expression and a certain style become obligatory, but also life situations themselves, which correspond to the idea of a holy life.

2 Hagiographic literature of Russia

The translated lives that first came to Russia were used for a dual purpose: for home reading (Menaia) and for worship (Prologues, Synaxaria).

The lives of the Kiev-Pechersk monk Nestor (not earlier than 1057 - the beginning of the 12th century), created on the basis of Byzantine hagiography, are distinguished by outstanding literary merit. His "Reading about the life of Boris and Gleb" along with other monuments of the XI-XII centuries. (more dramatic and emotional "The Tale of Boris and Gleb" and its continuation "The Tale of the Miracles of Roman and David") form a widespread cycle about the bloody internecine war of the sons of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich for the throne of Kyiv. Boris and Gleb (in baptism Roman and David) are depicted as martyrs not so much of a religious as of a political idea. Preferring death in 1015 to the fight against their older brother Svyatopolk, who seized power in Kyiv after the death of his father, they assert with all their behavior and death the triumph of brotherly love and the need to subordinate the younger princes to the eldest in the family in order to preserve the unity of the Russian land. The passion-bearing princes Boris and Gleb, the first canonized saints in Russia, became her heavenly patrons and defenders.

3 Saints of ancient Russia

3.1 "The Tale of Boris and Gleb"

Pious reflections, prayers, laments that are put into the mouths of Boris and Gleb serve as a means of revealing the inner world of the characters, their psychological mood. Heroes pronounce many monologues “in their minds and thinking”, “say in their hearts”. These internal monologues are the product of the author's imagination. They convey pious feelings, thoughts of ideal heroes. The monologues include quotations from the Psalter, Paremiion.

The author tries to give a generalized description of the hero's appearance. It is built on the principle of mechanical combination of various positive moral qualities. This is the characterization of Boris: “The body was red, tall, face round, shoulders great, tnk in the loins, eyes of kindness, cheerful face, small beard and mustache, young be still, shining like a Caesar, strong body, decorated in every way, like the color of the flower in his humility, in ratkh harbr, wise in light, and reasonable with everything, and the grace of God tsvetyaashe on him.

The characteristic of Svyatopolk is given according to the principle of antithesis with the characteristics of Boris and Gleb. He is the bearer of all negative human qualities. When depicting him, the author does not spare black colors. Svyatopolk is “cursed”, “cursed”, “second Cain”, whose thoughts are caught by the devil, he has “bad lips”, an “evil voice”. For the crime committed, Svyatopolk bears a worthy punishment. Defeated by Yaroslav, he flees from the battlefield in panic fear, “... weakening his bones, as if he were not strong enough for a gray-haired horse. And carry him on a stretcher." He constantly hears the clatter of the horses of Yaroslav chasing him: “Run! Get married again! Oh me! and you can’t stand in one place.” So succinctly, but very expressively, the author managed to reveal the psychological state of the negative hero. Svyatopolk suffers legal retribution: in the desert "between the Czechs and the Poles" he "corrects his stomach." And if the brothers killed by him “live forever”, being the “visor” and “affirmation” of the Russian land, and their bodies turn out to be incorruptible and emit a fragrance, then from the grave of Svyatopolk, which is “to this day”, “come ... the stench is evil at the testimony of a man.

With the victory of Yaroslav, "The Tale" connects the cessation of sedition, which emphasized its political topicality.

However, the lengthy presentation of the material with the preservation of all historical details made the "Tale" unsuitable for liturgical purposes.

3.2 "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves"

In the further development of Old Russian hagiography, it served as a model for the creation of the venerable lives of Abraham of Smolensk, Sergius of Radonezh, and others.

Conclusion

Russia was a reading country. For a long time, translated Byzantine literature could not satisfy the need for reading, therefore the introduction of Russian princes as characters led to the birth of a purely Russian hagiographical genre. Examples are Vladimir I, who baptized Russia in the 10th century, or The Tale of Boris and Gleb, which is based on the historical fact of Svyatopolk's murder of his younger brothers in the 40s of the 11th century. canonized by the Byzantine Church.

Old Russian literature of the lives of the saints differs from Byzantine works in its historicism, patriotic pathos, and reflection of the peculiarities of political or monastic life.

List of used literature

1. Kuskov V.V. History of ancient Russian literature. - M.: Higher school / V.V. Kuskov. - 2006. - 343 p.

2. Likhachev D.S. History of Russian literature X-XVII centuries. Proc. allowance for students ped. in-tov / D.S. Likhachev. - St. Petersburg: Aleteyya, 1997. - 508 p.

3. Picchio R. Old Russian literature / R. Picchio. - M.: Publishing House of Languages of Slavic Culture, 2002. - 352 p.

4. Rastyagaev A.V. The problem of the artistic canon of ancient Russian hagiography / A.V. Rastyagaev // Vestnik SamGU. Literary criticism. - Samara: SamGU, 2006. - No. 5/1 (45) - S. 86-91.

6. Speransky M.N. History of ancient Russian literature / M.N. Speransky. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house Lat, 2002. - 544 p.

Close to the "Tale of Peter and Fevronia" hagiographic story - about Peter, Prince of the Horde. And here in the center of the narrative is a legendary, non-historical character, and there is no theme of martyrdom and suffering for the faith. The hero of the Life is the pious Tatar prince Peter, to whom the apostles Peter and Paul appeared in a dream, were given two bags of gold and ordered to build a temple with this money.

To build a temple, Peter needs the permission of the local Rostov prince, but the prince treats Peter's request without much sympathy. The figure of this prince is generally very peculiar. He is not a villain at all - rather a positive character, but at the same time a prudent politician, clearly teasing the pious prince: “Vladyka will arrange a church for you, but I won’t give you a place. What will you do?"

Peter, referring to the command of the apostles, humbly agrees to buy from the prince, "how much your grace will excommunicate from this land." Hearing these words and seeing the bags in the hands of Peter, the prince decides to himself to benefit from the “horror” of Peter and the bishop (archbishop), shocked by the miracle: “You have how much to excommunicate from the horror of the lord, from the saints the apostle.”

Here is a clear game with the word "excommunicate", which in the first case has a modestly pious, and in the second - an openly cynical sense. The prince demands so many gold coins for the land for the temple, so that they could cover the entire plot ceded to Peter. Peter agrees, acquires a plot with a lake on it, digs it in with a moat and lays out so much money along the borders of his plot (taking it out of magic bags) that they fill wagons and chariots sent by the prince.

After the construction of the temple, Peter is going to return to his Horde, but the prince persuades him to marry in the Rostov land. And again, the motives of the prince’s behavior are frankly practical: “If this husband, the tsar’s tribe [a relative of the Khan], goes to the Horde, and our city will be sponsored ... Peter, if you want, we will have a bride for you?” After the death of Peter "in the depths of old age" on the land given to him by the prince, a monastery was built.

The rest of the Life is devoted to the fate of this monastery and the descendants of Peter the Orda and disputes between the monastery and the city of Rostov over the lake located on the monastery land. Like the story about the purchase of princely land by Peter, this story has a clearly folklore character.

The dispute about the lake begins with a kind of competition between city (Rostov) and monastic (Petrovsky) fish catchers: Even if they were playing, Petrovstia's catchers threw the net, then a lot of fish would be taken out, and the city of catchers, toiling a lot, would become impoverished.

Offended for their “catchers”, the descendants of the prince who gave the letter to Peter decide to deprive Peter’s descendants (owners of the monastery land) of the right to fish, referring to the fact that their ancestor ceded the land to Peter, but not the lake.

The resolution of this dispute again turns out to be typical of folklore, and the ambassador of the Tatar tsar acts as a fair judge. He asks the Rostov princes if they can remove water from the land given to Peter. “Our water is the fatherland, lord, but we cannot take it off, lord,” the princes answer. “If you cannot remove water from the earth, then what do you call your own? And this creation is the Most High God for the service of all people,” the ambassador decides.

History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983