LIFE (Greek βίος, Latin vita), a genre of church literature, a biography of a saint. The area of literature, to which the totality of life belongs, is called "hagiography". Life is usually divided into groups according to the following criteria: the rank of holiness (hagiological type) of the depicted person; features of the narrative form; the lengthy or short character of the description of the saint's life. In accordance with the ranks of holiness, the lives are divided into martyr's, the lives of the Equal-to-the-Apostles saints, the venerable (the life of the holy monks), the life of the holy wives, the life of the holy fools (known only in Orthodox hagiography), the saints (the life of the saints - hierarchs of the Church), as well as the lay saints ; among the latter, the life of the holy rulers is singled out (in the Slavic tradition, the life of the holy princes). This classification is not rigorous, because. a saint can simultaneously belong to several hagiological types (a martyr or a missionary can be a saint at the same time, a holy wife can be a martyr and/or a nun, etc.). According to the peculiarities of the narrative form, hagiobiographies are distinguished, in which the life of a saint from birth to death is described in detail, and martyria (from the Greek μαρτύριον - torment; in Western catholic traditions were called passio), describing the martyrdom of the saints for the confession of faith, but not containing a story about their life as a whole. By the nature of the description of the life of the holy life can be lengthy and short. The lengthy lives were intended for reading in monasteries at a meal on the day of the saint's memory, for cell and home reading (in the Orthodox Greek and Slavic traditions, they are usually called menaias, since they were included in the Cheti-Minei). Brief lives were compiled for reading at the service (in the Orthodox Greek tradition, they were part of the collections of Synaxar and Menologia; in Ancient Russia, they were part of the Prologue collection created on the basis of the Synaxar, which continued to be called Synaksar among the Orthodox southern Slavs).
From the point of view of the authority and reliability of the reported information, the lives of some saints in the church tradition are usually divided into canonical and apocryphal; the canonical and apocryphal lives of the great martyrs George, Nikita Gotha, Theodore Tyron are known. Lives were often created by witnesses of the lives of saints or from eyewitness accounts. The purpose of life is to preserve the memory of the saints, to edify those who read, to glorify the saint at divine services. According to the materials of the life, services to the saints were usually compiled. The writing of the life was often timed to coincide with the moment of the canonization of the saints, or served as a preparation for the canonization.
In contrast to secular biography, life describes in the person of a saint, first of all, the manifestation of the Divine principle; the images of saints in their lives are usually not individualized; life - the "verbal icon" of the saint (V. O. Klyuchevsky). The life is characterized by a set of compositional and stylistic "common places" (topoi): the author's prayer to God with a request for help and recognition of his sinfulness and "unlearnedness"; information about the saint's parents; miracles accompanying his birth; baptism, naming a name endowed with a symbolic meaning and foreshadowing the exploits of a saint; his childhood refusal to play with peers; turning to God; going to a monastery; demonic temptations; knowledge of the day of one's death and pious death; intravital and posthumous miracles (healing of the blind, paralyzed, demon-possessed, etc.). AT different types hagiography has its own set of topoi.
The formation of life was partly influenced by various traditions. It absorbed some features of ancient biography, the ancient novel, folklore genres and mythological representations (for example, the motif of snake fighting in the life of the Great Martyr George).
The earliest lives are those of martyrdom. The initiative but to compile the first collections of martyr lives that have not come down to us is attributed to the Roman popes Clement I and Fabian, later a martyrology was compiled, without sufficient grounds attributed to Jerome the Blessed, another collection was written by the English monk Bede the Venerable. In the 9th century in the Latin West, martyrologists were Flor, Hraban Moor, Vandelbert, Uzuard, in the 10th century - Notker Zaika. On the Greek the unpreserved martyrology of Eusebius of Caesarea was compiled, and his book on the Palestinian martyrs is also known. The "History of the Persian Martyrs" was compiled around 410 by Bishop Marufa of Targit.
The most ancient venerable life is the life of Anthony the Great, written by Athanasius the Great. In the 5th century, life in the East was written by Gerontius the Presbyter, Kallinikos, Theodoret of Cyrus. Hagiographic tales about the monks of a certain area were combined into special collections - patericons (Egyptian patericon - “Lavsaik” by Palladius, Sinai patericon - “Spiritual Meadow” by John Moskh).
In Byzantine hagiography, two directions coexisted - "folk", distinguished by the simplicity of language and adherence to everyday specifics, and "literary", focused on book style, abstracted from the image of everyday realities, gravitating towards parable. The “folk” direction includes the lives of John the Merciful and Simeon the Holy Fool, compiled by Leonty of Cyprus. In the 2nd half of the 10th century in Byzantium, the previously written lives were rewritten in an abstract rhetorical style by Simeon Metaphrastus (in total, he edited 148 lives, among them the lives of the Virgin, Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, Dionysius the Areopagite).
The first Latin life is the life of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, written by the deacon Pontius (mid-3rd century). The life was written by Rufin of Aquileia, John Cassian the Roman, Gregory of Tours, and others. Artistic features are enhanced in the lives created by Walafrid Strabo (St. Blaitmakk, St. Mamma). By the 11th century, the canons of depicting the life of saints were finally developed in Latin literature; in the 12th century, the hagiographies were dominated by descriptions of miracles. In the 11th-13th centuries, codes of life - legends - were created. The most famous and readable was the legend of the Dominican monk Yakov Voraginsky "Golden Legend" (13th century), which included 180 lives; the collection "Catalogue of Saints" was compiled in the 14th century by Peter Natalibus (died 1382). The publication of the corpus of the Latin life ("Acta Sanctorum") was begun in 1643 by the Bollandist society (the publication continues to this day).
The oldest Russian lives date back to the turn of the 11th-12th centuries: “Reading about Boris and Gleb”; the life of Theodosius of the Caves, compiled by Nestor, as well as the "Tale of Boris and Gleb" by an unknown author. The lives compiled at the end of the 14th - 1st quarter of the 15th century by Epiphanius the Wise (Sergius of Radonezh, Stefan, Bishop of Perm) are written in a sophisticated style, which is characterized by a variety of rhetorical devices (the style of "weaving words"). In the middle of the 16th century, a corpus of translated and original lives was collected by Metropolitan Macarius in the collection "Great Menaion". A new edition of the translated and original lives, also combined in the collection of the Menaion, belongs to Metropolitan Dimitry of Rostov. Canonization by the Russian Church at the turn of the 20th-21st century a large number saints (mainly martyrs who suffered in the 20th century) became the reason for the active development of Russian hagiography in the last 2 decades and the compilation of numerous new lives, mostly based on documentary materials.
Lit .: Klyuchevsky V. O. Old Russian Lives of the Saints as a historical source. M., 1871. M., 1989; Brown R. Society and the holy in late antiquity. Berk., 1989; Toporov VN Holiness and saints in Russian spiritual culture. M., 1995-1998. T. 1-2; Podskalski G. Christianity and theological literature in Kievan Rus(988-1237). 2nd ed. SPb., 1996; World of Lives: Collection of materials of the conference (Moscow, October 3-5, 2001). M., 2002; Fedotov G.P. Saints of Ancient Russia. M., 2003; Russian hagiography: research, publications, controversy. SPb., 2005.
LIFE, -i, pl. -i, -iy, cf. 1. The same as life (in 2 and 3 meanings) (old). Mirnoye 2. In the old days: narrative genre - a description of life (persons canonized by the church). Lives of the Saints. || adj. hagiographic, -th, -th (to 2 meanings). Hagiographic literature.
Watch value LIFE in other dictionaries
life- lives, cf. 1. The story of the life of a person recognized by believers as a saint (lit. church). Lives of the Saints. || The same as a biography (bookish obsolete). 2. The same as life (book obsolete, ........
Dictionary Ushakov
Life Wed.- 1. The story of the life of a man who is ranked by the church as a saint. 2. Same as: biography. 3. Same as: life (3).
Explanatory Dictionary of Efremova
life- -I; cf.
1. Biography of a smth. saint, ascetic, etc.; their lives and deeds. Lives of the Saints. J. Theodosius of the Caves.
2. Expand. = Life (2, 4-5 digits); life. Carefree Well.
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Explanatory Dictionary of Kuznetsov
Life of Saint Alexis- (c. 1050) - one of the first monuments of French writing, an anonymous poem about a Roman ascetic monk. She gave rise to numerous translations and adaptations into various new European languages.
Big encyclopedic dictionary
life- (Gen 6.9; 37.2; Jer 32.37; 1 Pet 3.1,2,16; 1 Tim 4.12; 2 Tim 3.10) - life, way of life.
Historical dictionary
Life of Alexander Nevsky- biography of the Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal books. Alexander Yaroslavich, compiled in con. 13th c. in the Nativity monastery in Vladimir on the basis of the monastery .....
Soviet historical encyclopedia
Life, hagiography is one of the main epic genres of church literature, which flourished in the Middle Ages. The object of the image is life - a feat of faith performed by a historical person or group of persons (martyrs of the faith, church or statesmen). Most often, the whole life of a saint becomes the feat of faith, sometimes only that part of it, which constitutes the feat of faith, is described in the life, or only one act turns out to be the object of the image. Hence the two main genre subtypes of life: martyry (martyrdom) - describing the martyrdom and death of a saint, bios life - telling about everything life path from birth to death. A special subspecies of life is a patericon short story (see). The origins of the hagiographic genre lie in ancient times: in myth, ancient biography (Plutarch), funeral speech, 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. The life in South Slavic translations came to Russia 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 ancient Russian spiritual writers (the first Russian lives - the Tale and Reading about Boris and Gleb, the life of Theodosius of the Caves, 11th century; the life from the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon of the first third of the 13th century).
Destination life
The main purpose of life is edifying, didactic: the life and deeds of the saint are regarded as an example to follow, his suffering as a sign of Divine chosenness. Based on the Holy Scriptures, life usually raises and answers from Christian positions the central questions of human existence: what predetermines the fate of a person? How free is he in his choice? What is the hidden meaning of suffering? How should suffering be treated? Solving the problem of freedom and necessity from a Christian standpoint, life often depicts a situation where a saint can avoid torment, but does not consciously do this, on the contrary, he puts himself in the hands of tormentors. The first Russian holy princes-martyrs Boris and Gleb voluntarily and consciously accept death, although (this is demonstrated by both the anonymous author of the Tale of Boris and Gleb and Nestor, the author of the Reading about Boris and Gleb) death could have been avoided. A whole group of lives stands out with clearly entertaining plots: love and hate, separations and meetings, miracles and adventures, the manifestation of extraordinary human qualities (J. Eustathius Plakida, J. Alexy, a man of God, J. Galaktion and Epistimius, etc.). Capturing the feat of a particular person, life can also tell at the same time about the foundation of the monastery or the history of the construction of the temple or the appearance of relics (relics). The foundation 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 told 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; about the tragic events caused by the Tatars Mongol conquest, it is said in the life dedicated to the princes killed in the Horde (Zh. Mikhail of Chernigovsky, 13th century and Zh. Mikhail-Tverskoy, early 14th century).
The canon, that is, the examples of the genre fixed by church and literary tradition, determines the artistic structure of the life: the principle of generalization when creating the image of a saint; type of narrator, construction rules (composition, set of topoi), own verbal templates. Often life includes such independent genres as vision, miracle, praise, lamentation. The author of the life is focused on showing the pious life of a saint whom he knew either personally or from oral or written testimonies. Based on the requirements of the genre, the author had to admit all his "unreason", emphasizing in the introduction that he is too insignificant to describe the life of a man marked by God. On the one hand, the narrator's view of his "hero" is the view of an ordinary person on an extraordinary personality, on the other hand, objectively, and the narrator is not an ordinary person. A bookish person, not only well-versed in the works of his predecessors, possessing a literary gift, but also able to interpret Divine Providence by analogies, mainly from Holy Scripture, could undertake the compilation of a life.
Life could be read in the temple(special brief lives as part of collections - Prologues (Greek Synaxarei) - were read during the service on the 6th song of the canon), at the monastery meal and at home. Lengthy lives, as well as short ones in the Prologues, were distributed by months in Byzantium in collections that came with the adoption of Christianity to Russia - Menaion-Cheti. 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-Chetii. In the 17th-18th century, following Metropolitan Macarius, largely following his work, Ivan Milyutin, German Tulupov, Dimitry Rostovsky compiled their own versions of the codes of life - the Menaion of the Fourth. Dm.Rostovsky not only relies on the experience of his great predecessor, Metropolitan Macarius, but also edits Chet'i-Mi nei anew, referring to different ones, incl. to Latin sources. Over time, the genre developed and could acquire local features, for example, in regional literatures.
In the 17th century, the medieval genre of life began to undergo significant changes: it became possible to write an autobiographical life (“The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”) or a combination of a life and a biographical story (“The Life of Julian Lazarevskaya”). In church practice, 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 blessed memory of Father Seraphim" - Seraphim of Sarov (1760-1833), canonized by the Russian Church in 1903). Genre features of life can be used in contemporary literature: F.M. Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov" (1879-80), L.N. Tolstoy "Father Sergius" (1890-98), N.S. Leskov "Soboryane" (1872), L.N. Andreev "Life Basil of Thebes” (1904), I.A. Bunin “Matthew the Perspicacious” (1916), “Saint Eustathius” (1915), Ch. Aitmatov “The Block” (1986).
LIFE, hagiography came from Greek hagios - saint and grapho, which means - I write.
what is life
- Life#769; (bios (Greek), vita (lat.)) a literary genre of biography, biographies of famous bishops, patriarchs, monks-founders of monasteries, less often biographies of secular persons whom the church considered saints. The life was created after the death of the saint, after canonization.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifea life; lifestyle, behavior; subsistence.
sobor.vinchi.ru/pages/ostrov/chram_5.html - biography
- Biography, often about saints
- Description of the existence of the human race since the appearance of Jesus Christ
- If Zh. is mine, then this is what is around, and if Zh. is theirs, then it is fantastic.
- LIFE, in Christianity, is a genre of church literature that tells about the life of people who are canonized by the Church as saints. Lives were created according to rigid canons. A saint is born into a pious family, from childhood he avoids playing with children, prefers prayer, goes to a monastery, spends time in prayer, performs feats of piety, achieves love and recognition from the brethren and laity. He is marked by the Holy Spirit, he begins to work miracles, speaks with angels, then tells about his death and posthumous miracles.
Lives appeared in the Roman Empire in the first centuries of Christianity. Numerous lives told about the martyrdom of those people who, during the persecution of Christians, recognized the one God - Jesus Christ. Other lives told of Christians who voluntarily put themselves to the test.
The appearance of original lives in Russia was associated with the political struggle of Russia for the assertion of its church independence. In 1051, Prince Yaroslav the Wise began to insist on the canonization of his brothers Boris and Gleb.
Lives dedicated to prominent figures of the Church began to appear, for example, "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves", in which he spoke about an ascetic monk who went to the monastery against the will of his mother, who has a strong and unyielding character. Theodosius overcomes all trials and devotes himself to serving God.
An outstanding monument is "The Tale of the Life and Death of Euphrosyne". An unknown author glorifies the persistent ascetic, her desire to achieve knowledge and spiritual perfection.
The period of the struggle against the Mongol-Tatars and the Swedish-German intervention is marked by the writing of the lives of Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy and others. The scribe of the Vladimir Nativity Monastery wrote "The Life of Alexander Nevsky". The acts of the prince are comprehended in comparison with the biblical story, and this gives the biography a special majesty and monumentality. The image of a courageous warrior prince, a valiant commander and a wise politician is created in his life, the most significant events from his life are shown - the battle with the Swedes on the Neva, the liberation of Pskov, the Battle on the Ice. Alexander Yaroslavich is the focus best qualities famous heroes of the Old Testament history - Joseph, Samson, Solomon.
An outstanding Russian hagiographer of the first quarter of the 15th century. was Epiphanius the Wise, who wrote "The Life of Stephen of Perm" and "The Life of Sergius of Radonezh". The writer sought to show the greatness and beauty of the moral ideal of a person who puts the common cause above all else - the cause of strengthening the Russian state.
In the second half of the 16th century Russian writer Yermolai-Erasmus created "The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom", in which he tells the love story of a prince and a peasant girl. The author sympathizes with the heroine, admires her intelligence and nobility in the struggle against the boyars and nobles. The work with extraordinary power glorifies the strength and beauty of female love, which is able to overcome all life's hardships and triumph over death. In the story, a halo of holiness surrounds the ideal married life and the wise monocratic management of their principality.
The next step was taken by Archpriest Avvakum, who wrote his own life. In the 1640s, the question arose of holding church reform, which caused a powerful movement - a split, or Old Believers. The ideologist of the Old Believers was Archpriest Avvakum, who in 1672-1673 created his best creation - "The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, written by himself." The character of Avvakum is revealed both in terms of family and everyday life, and in his social and political life, the image of a persistent and courageous Russian person is recreated. - Life is a genre of church literature that describes the life and deeds of the saints.
Life as a genre of literature
Life ( bios(Greek), vita(lat.)) - biographies of saints. The life was created after the death of the saint, but not always after formal canonization. Life is characterized by strict content and structural restrictions (canon, literary etiquette), which greatly distinguishes them from secular biographies. The science of hagiography deals with the study of hagiographies.
More extensive is the literature of the "Lives of the Saints" of the second kind - the saints and others. The oldest collection of such tales is Dorotheus, ep. Tire (†362), - the legend of the 70 apostles. Of the others, the most remarkable are: "Lives of honest monks" by Patriarch Timothy of Alexandria († 385); then follow the collections of Palladius, Lausaik (“Historia Lausaica, s. paradisus de vitis patrum”; the original text is in the edition of Renat Lawrence, “Historia ch r istiana veterum Patrum”, as well as in “Opera Maursii”, Florence,, vol. VIII ; there is also a Russian translation, ); Theodoret of Kirrsky () - “Φιλόθεος ιστορία” (in the named edition of Renat, as well as in the complete works of Theodoret; in Russian translation - in “The Works of the Holy Fathers”, published by the Moscow Spiritual Academy and earlier separately); John Moscha (Λειμωνάριον, in Rosweig's Vitae patrum, Antv., vol. X; Russian ed. - "Lemonar, that is, a flower garden", M.,). In the West, the main writers of this kind in the patriotic period were Rufinus of Aquileia ("Vitae patrum s. historiae eremiticae"); John Cassian ("Collationes patrum in Scythia"); Gregory, Bishop Tursky († 594), who wrote a number of hagiographic works (“Gloria martyrum”, “Gloria confessorum”, “Vitae patrum”), Grigory Dvoeslov (“Dialogi” - Russian translation “Conversation about J. Italian Fathers” in “Orthodox Interlocutor ”; see the research on this by A. Ponomarev, St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg) and others.
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. Among such hagiographers, the first place is occupied by Simeon Metaphrastus, a dignitary of the Byzantine court, who lived, one by one, in the 9th, according to others in the 10th or 12th century. He published in 681 "Lives of the Saints", which constitute the most common primary source for subsequent writers of this kind, not only in the East, but also in the West (Jacob Voraginsky, archbishop of Genoa, † - "Legenda aurea sanctorum", and Peter Natalibus, † - "Catalogus Sanctorum"). Subsequent editions take a more critical direction: Bonina Mombricia, Legendarium s. acta sanctorum" (); Aloysia Lippomana, ep. Veronsky, "Vitae sanctorum" (1551-1560); Lawrence Surius, Carthusian of Cologne, "Vitae sanctorum orientis et occidentis" (); George Vizell, "Hagiologium s. de sanctis ecclesiae"; Ambrose Flaccus, "Fastorum sanctorum libri XII"; Renata Lawrence de la Barre - "Historia christiana veterum patrum"; C. Baronia, "Annales ecclesiast."; Rosweida - "Vitae patrum"; Rader, "Viridarium sanctorum ex minaeis graccis" (). Finally, the famous Antwerp Jesuit Bolland comes forward with his activities; in the city he published the 1st volume of the Acta Sanctorum in Antwerp. For 130 years, the Bollandists published 49 volumes containing the Lives of the Saints from January 1 to October 7; two more volumes appeared by the year. In the city, the Bollandist Institute was closed.
Three years later, the enterprise was resumed again, and another new volume appeared in the city. During the conquest of Belgium by the French, the Bollandist monastery was sold, and they themselves moved to Westphalia with their collections, and after the Restoration they published six more volumes. Last works significantly inferior in dignity to the works of the first Bollandists both in terms of the vastness of erudition and due to the lack of strict criticism. Müller's Martyrologium mentioned above is a good abridgement of the Bollandist edition and can serve as a reference book for it. A complete index to this edition was compiled by Potast ("Bibliotheca historia medii aevi", B.,). All the lives of the saints, known with separate titles, are numbered by Fabricius in the Bibliotheca Graeca, Gamb., 1705-1718; second edition Gamb., 1798-1809). Individuals in the West continued to publish the lives of the saints at the same time as the Bollandist corporation. Of these, the following deserve mention: Abbé Commanuel, "Nouvelles vies de saints pour tous le jours" (); Balier, "Vie des saints" (strictly critical work), Arnaud d'Andilly, "Les vies des pè res des déserts d'Orient" (). Among the newest Western editions of the Lives of the Saints, the compositions deserve attention. Stadler and Geim, written in dictionary form: "Heiligen Lexicon", (s.).
A lot of Zh. is found in collections of mixed content, such as prologues, synaksari, menaia, patericons. Prologue name. a book containing the lives of the saints, together with instructions regarding celebrations in their honor. The Greeks called these collections. synaxaries. The oldest of them is an anonymous synaxarion in hand. ep. Porfiry of the Assumption; then follows the synaxarion of Emperor Basil - referring to the X table.; the text of the first part of it was published in the city of Uggel in the VI volume of his "Italia sacra"; the second part was found later by the Bollandists (for its description, see Archbishop Sergius' Monthly Book, I, 216). Other ancient prologues: Petrov - in hand. ep. Porfiry - contains the memory of saints for all days of the year, except for 2-7 and 24-27 days of March; Cleromontansky (otherwise Sigmuntov), almost similar to Petrov, contains the memory of saints for a whole year. Our Russian prologues are alterations of the synaxarion of Emperor Basil with some additions (see Prof. N.I. Petrova “On the origin and composition of the Slavic-Russian printed prologue”, Kyiv,). The Menaion are collections of lengthy tales about saints and feasts arranged by months. They are service and Menaion-Chetya: in the first they are important for the biographies of saints, the designation of the names of the authors above the hymns. The handwritten menaias contain more information about the saints than the printed ones (for more details on the meaning of these menaias, see Bishop Sergius' Monthly Book, I, 150).
These "monthly menaions", or service ones, 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 worship; they are followed by Greek prologues or synaxari. 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 Moskh), alphabetic, skete (several types; see the description of the rkp. Undolsky and Tsarsky), Egyptian (Lavsaik Palladia). On the model of these eastern patericons in Russia, the Paterikon of Kiev-Pechersk was compiled, the beginning of which was laid by Simon, ep. Vladimir, and the 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, as can be seen from the biographical information about St. Ignatius († 107), Polycarpe († 167), Cyprian († 258). From the testimony of Asterius of Amasia († 410) it can be seen that in the 4th c. they were so full that they contained names for all the days of the year. Monthly books in 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 months: Assemani with the Glagolitic Gospel, located in the Vatican library, and Savvin, ed. Sreznevsky in the city. This also includes brief notes about the saints under the church charters of Jerusalem, Studio 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.
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 composed were the Greek lives of the Metaphrast type, that is, they had the task of “praising” the saint, and the lack of information (for example, about the first years of the life of the saints) was filled common places and rhetorical speeches. A number of miracles of the saint - necessary component G. 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. constitute (according to Prof. Golubinsky) only the very first Zh., “St. Boris and Gleb" and "Theodosius of the Caves", compiled by Ven. Nestor, J. Leonty of Rostov (which Klyuchevsky refers to the time before the year) and J., who appeared in Rostov region in the 12th and 13th centuries. , representing an artless simple story, while the equally ancient Zh. of the Smolensk region (“Zh. St. Abraham”, etc.) belong to the Byzantine type of biographies. In the XV century. a number of compilers Zh. begins mitrop. Cyprian, who wrote J. Metrop. Petra (in new edition) and several Zh. Russian saints who were part of his “Book of Powers” (if this book was really compiled by him).
The biography and activities of the second Russian hagiographer, Pachomiy Logofet, are introduced in detail by the study of prof. Klyuchevsky "Old Russian Lives of the Saints, as a historical source", M.,). He compiled J. and the service of St. Sergius, Zh. and the service of St. Nikon, J. St. Kirill Belozersky, word on the transfer of the relics of St. Peter and service to him; to him, according to Klyuchevsky, belong to J. St. Novgorod archbishops 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 J. No less famous as the compiler of J. Epiphanius the Wise, who first lived in the same monastery with St. Stephen of Perm, and then in the monastery of Sergius, who wrote J. of both of these saints. He knew well the Holy Scriptures, Greek chronographs, palea, letvitsa, 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 in the 16th century. The authors of these Zh. 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 saint's activity arose and developed. Zh. of this time are, therefore, valuable primary sources of cultural and household history Ancient Russia.
The author, who lived in Moscow Russia, can always be distinguished by the trend from the author of the Novgorod, Pskov and Rostov regions. new era in the history of Russians, Zh. is the activity of the All-Russian Metropolitan Macarius. His time was especially plentiful with new "lives" of Russian saints, which is explained, on the one hand, by the intensive activity of this metropolitan in canonizing saints, and on the other hand, by the "great Menaion-Fourths" compiled by him. These Menaia, which included almost all the Russian Zh. available by that time, are known in two editions: the Sophia (manuscript of the St. Petersburg spirit. Acd.) and the more complete - the Moscow Cathedral of the city. the works of I. I. Savvaitov and M. O. Koyalovich, to publish only a few volumes, embracing the months of September and October. A century later, Macarius, in 1627-1632, the Menaion-Cheti of the monk of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery German Tulupov appeared, and in 1646-1654. - Menaion-Cheti of the priest of Sergiev Posad John Milyutin.
These two collections differ from Makariyev in that they include almost exclusively Zh. and legends about 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, reduced and altered the Zh., which he had at hand, omitting prefaces from them, as well as words of praise. What Macarius was for Northern Russia, Moscow, the Kiev-Pechersk archimandrites - Innokenty Gizel and Varlaam Yasinsky - wanted to be for Southern Russia, fulfilling the thought of the Kiev Metropolitan Peter Mohyla and partly using the materials he collected. But the political unrest of that time prevented this enterprise from being realized. Yasinsky, however, attracted to this case St. Demetrius, later the Metropolitan of Rostov, who, working for 20 years on the revision of Metaphrast, the great Fourth Menaion of Macarius and other benefits, compiled the Chetia Menaion, containing Zh. churches. Patriarch Joachim was distrustful of the work of Demetrius, noticing in it traces of the Catholic teaching on the virginity of the conception of the Mother of God; but the misunderstandings were cleared up, and Demetrius' work was finished.
For the first time, the Menaion of St. Demetrius in 1711-1718 In the city of Synod instructed the Kiev-Pechersk archim. Timothy Shcherbatsky, revision and correction of the work of Demetrius; after the death of Timothy, this assignment was completed by Archim. Joseph Mitkevich and Hierodeacon Nicodemus, and in a corrected form, the Menaion of the Saints were published in the city of Zh. Saints in the Menaion of Demetrius are arranged in calendar order: following the example of Macarius, there are also synaxari for the holidays, instructive words on the events of the life of the saint or the history of the holiday , belonging to the ancient church fathers, and partly compiled by Demetrius himself, historical discussions at the beginning of each quarter of the publication - about the primacy of the month of March in the year, about the indict, about the ancient Hellenic-Roman calendar. The sources used by the author are visible from the list of "teachers, writers, historians" attached before the first and second parts, and from quotes in individual cases (Metaphrastus is most common). Many articles are only a translation of the Greek Zh. or a repetition with correction of the Zh. language of Old Russian. There is also historical criticism in Chetyah-Minei, but in general their significance is not scientific, but ecclesiastical: written in artistic Church Slavonic speech, they still constitute favorite reading for the pious people who are looking for in "J. saints" of religious edification (for a more detailed assessment of the Menaia, see the work of V. Nechaev, corrected by A. V. Gorsky, - "St. Demetrius of Rostov", M., and I. A. Shlyapkin - "St. Demetrius", SPb.,). There are 156 of all individual Zh. ancient Russian saints, included and not included in the counted collections. Demetrius: "Selected Lives of the Saints, summarized according to the guide of the Menaion" (1860-68); A. N. Muravyov, “Lives of the Saints of the Russian Church, also Iberian and Slavic” (); Philaret, archbishop Chernigovsky, "Russian Saints"; "The Historical Dictionary of the Saints of the Russian Church" (1836-60); Protopopov, "Lives of the Saints" (M.,), etc.
More or less independent editions of the Lives of the Saints - Philaret, archbishop. Chernigovsky: a) "Historical Doctrine of the Church Fathers" (, new ed.), b) "Historical Review of Songsingers" (), c) "Saints of the South Slavs" () and d) "St. ascetics of the Eastern Church "(); "Athos Patericon" (1860-63); "High cover over Athos" (); "Ascetics of piety on Mount Sinai" (); I. Krylova, “The Lives of the Holy Apostles and the Legends of the Seventy Disciples of Christ” (M.,); Memorable stories about the life of St. blessed fathers "(translated from Greek,); archim. Ignatius, "Brief Biographies of Russian Saints" (); Iosseliani, "Lives of the Saints of the Georgian Church" (); M. Sabinina, "The Complete Biography of the Georgian Saints" (St. Petersburg, 1871-73).
Especially valuable works for Russian hagiography: Prot. D. Vershinsky, "Months of the Eastern Church" (
