Everyday literature as a special genre of ancient Russian literature. Life as a genre of ancient Russian literature. Test on ancient Russian literature (2024)

“Morality is the same in all ages and for all people. By reading about the obsolete in detail, we can find a lot for ourselves.” . These words of Academician D.S. Likhachev make us think about what spiritual literature can bestow on the modern reader, what we can discover in it for ourselves.

Spiritual literature is a special layer of Russian culture and, in particular, literature.

The very definition - “spiritual” - indicates its purpose: to create the spirit in a person (that which encourages action, to activity), to educate morally, to show an ideal. Old Russian literature put forward Jesus Christ as an ideal. The heroes of the hagiographic genre follow his example.

Life is one of the most stable and traditional genres of Russian literature. The first translations of hagiographic works were delivered from Byzantium and appeared in Rus' along with the Bible and other Christian books at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th century. In the same 11th century, the genre of hagiography established itself in the literature of Kievan Rus.

It was then that original hagiographic works were created, the heroes of which were born on Russian soil and made it proud of other countries professing Christianity. These are the prince-brothers Boris and Gleb, who at the cost of their lives did not violate the commandment “thou shalt not kill” and did not take up arms against their brother Svyatopolk; Rev. Theodosius of Pechersk, church leader and author of teachings; princes - devotees of Christianity Olga, Vladimir, Alexander Nevsky.

The composition of a correct life should be three-fold: introduction, story about the life and deeds of the saint from birth to death, praise; quite often a description of miracles was added to the life.

A high theme - a story about the life of a person serving people and God - determines the image of the author in his life and the style of narration. The author's emotionality and excitement color the entire narrative in lyrical tones and create a special, solemnly sublime mood. The narrative style is high, solemn, full of quotations from the Holy Scriptures.

So, the canonical features of life:

- this is the biography of a saint;
– compiled after the death of the righteous;
– the narration is told from a third person;
– the composition is built according to a strict scheme;
– way of portraying the hero – idealization;
– the hero’s inner world is not depicted in development, he is a chosen one from the moment of birth;
– space and time are conditional;
– in the depiction of the saint, whenever possible, all individual character traits, in particular, accidents, were eliminated;
– the tone of the narration is solemn, serious;
– the language of life is bookish, with an abundance of Church Slavonicisms;
– the plot is the spiritual feat of the saint.

Thus, the spiritual ideals of Ancient Rus' found expression in a strict hagiographic form, thought out to detail, polished over centuries.

The creators of the biographies were not tasked with showing the individual character of the saint. He was a bearer of Christian virtues, and nothing more. But when the lives of Russian saints were created, their images were still alive in the memory of descendants, and the authors often deviated from this scheme, endowing the hero with bright individual human traits, thereby “humanizing” the image of the saint, bringing him closer to the reader. As it developed, ancient Russian literature more and more often went beyond church boundaries, while maintaining its high spiritual spirit, moral height and instructiveness. This happened with the genre of hagiography.

Three original lives have reached us, compiled according to these canons: two lives of princes Boris and Gleb and the Life of Theodosius of Pechersk.

Already in our time, Andrei Rublev, Ambrose of Optina, Ksenia of Petersburg have been canonized and recognized as saints, and their lives have been written. Recently, the lives of the elders have been published: Archpriest Nicholas (Guryanov), Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov).

In 2004, the publishing house of the Novo-Tikhvin Convent in Yekaterinburg published the book “The Life and Miracles of the Holy Righteous Simeon of Verkhoturye, the Wonderworker.” This life is built according to the laws of the genre; you can find traditional canonical features in it.

First of all, this is a biography of Saint Simeon, compiled after the death of the righteous man (as it should be in accordance with the laws of the genre). But if earlier space and time were depicted in lives conventionally, then in this work they are real and concrete. True, the year of Simeon’s birth is not precisely indicated, but he was presumably born around 1607. He was born and first lived in the European part of Russia. His parents belonged to the noble class. Unfortunately, neither their names nor their occupations are known. “Probably, the parents of the saint of God were God-fearing people and had great zeal for raising good morals and true faith in their son. The entire subsequent life of the righteous testifies to this.” .

As in traditional hagiographies, the way to portray the hero is through idealization: “From an early age, Simeon felt an aversion to earthly goods and the inevitable worries of life. From a young age, he strove for the thought of God and soul-saving works, but the environment was an obstacle to this good deed. Wanting to find solitude for more convenient performance of deeds of piety, and also avoiding temptations and turmoil alien to his soul, righteous Simeon decided to leave his homeland, wealth, nobility and retire to more secluded places.” . His choice fell on Siberia, which had recently been annexed to Russia and was still little known to the Russian people.

When talking about Simeon's further life, the authors of the life name specific places and dates. Saint Simeon settled in the village of Merkushino, located on the banks of the Tura River, fifty miles from the fortified city of Verkhoturye. Verkhoturye was founded in 1598, shortly before the arrival of the righteous Simeon in Siberia. And the village of Merkushino was founded at the beginning of the 17th century.

In the description of the village of Merkushino one can see some signs of the traditional hagiographic genre: the use of epithets and metaphors makes the narrative more expressive, vivid, and gives liveliness to the language. “The village of Merkushino was distinguished by its majestically beautiful location. Here the bizarre curves of Tura, water meadows, hills, vast valleys and dense forests are united, seeming to be a barrier to all vanity. And the most amazing thing is that all this could be captured at one glance.” .

In general, the language of the work is bookish, the narration is told in the third person, it is distinguished by its leisurely presentation, calm intonation - just as it was in other lives. There are also outdated words here: verst, mob, idol temples, dust, etc. But in the language of life there are almost no Church Slavonic words; it is simple and understandable to the reader of the 21st century.

The new approach of the authors of the life of Simeon was also manifested in the fact that, while telling about the life of the righteous man, they talk about the historical era of the 16th century, and about the morals of people, and about their way of life. Here, for example, is a description of the life of peasants in the village of Merkushino: “The huts then mostly consisted of one room where the whole family lived. Everyone dined at one large table under the icons in the red corner, ate from a common bowl, most often cabbage soup and porridge, scooped them up in turns, starting with the eldest in the family. At night, everyone went to bed on benches near the walls, and those who did not have enough space lay down on the floor.” . Of course, for a person from the noble class, such an existence would be a difficult burden to bear. But righteous Simeon, despite his noble origin and, consequently, demanding tastes and habits, did not disdain life in peasant houses.

Talking about Simeon's life in Merkushino, hagiographers talk about his activities and prayers. Living in Merkushino, Simeon did not have a permanent home, but moved from house to house. This was facilitated by the occupation with which the righteous man supported his existence. This occupation was tailoring. Of all types of clothing, Simeon sewed mainly “fur coats with stripes,” and while working on other people’s clothes, “he thought about the clothing of his soul, about the clothing of dispassion and chastity.” . With special love, he worked for poor people, from whom he usually refused to take payment for his work. He considered the shelter and food that he enjoyed from his owners while working to be quite sufficient remuneration for himself.

Another favorite pastime of Simeon was fishing. To do this, he went to a secluded place with a fishing rod in his hands. There, sitting under a spreading fir tree on the bank of the Tura, he “reflected on the greatness of the Creator.”

According to tradition, the inner world of a person is not depicted in development; the hero is ideal, since he is the chosen one from the moment of birth. The authors constantly emphasize these ideal features. To avoid payment for his work, righteous Simeon, without finishing his sewing a little, often left home early in the morning without the knowledge of his owners and settled in a new place. For this, he was often subjected to insults and even beatings, but the righteous man, not having a high opinion of himself, endured them patiently, as if they were well deserved.

He showed moderation in fishing: he caught fish only for daily food.

In ancient lives, when depicting a saint, all individual character traits, particulars, were eliminated. The same cannot be said about the image of Simeon. Before us, however, is not an abstract ideal, but an earthly sufferer, a living person. We can imagine his personality, character: “The humble, quiet appearance of the saint of God, his meek, respectful behavior with everyone, his simple and wise word made an amazing impression, no doubt softening the hardness of many hearts.” .

The composition of the life meets the requirements of the genre. Concluding the description of Simeon's life path, the authors summarize. The narration of the hero’s death is distinguished by calm intonation and leisurely presentation (as was the case in ancient lives): “Suffering from a stomach illness, probably from strict abstinence, righteous Simeon departed to the Lord at a fairly young age. This happened between 1642 and 1650. Residents of the village of Merkushino, who had deep respect for the righteous man, buried him with honor at the newly built parish Church of St. Michael the Archangel.” . The authors of the life claim that, unlike most of the holy elders, Simeon died young: “The feat of the Merkushinsky saint of God, unnoticed by many during his life, and even ridiculed by some, was an exceptional phenomenon. By diligently fulfilling the Gospel commandments, Saint Simeon was cleansed of passions and restored his soul to Godlikeness in a relatively short life - he departed to the Kingdom of Heaven at the age of 35-40, although many great saints of God achieved such purification of the heart only in the decline of their lives.” Summing up his life, the authors again emphasize the ideality of the hero: “he was a wondrous saint of God.” .

Then, in accordance with the composition of the genre, posthumous miracles are described. After death, Simeon’s body turned out to be incorrupt: in 1692, the coffin with Simeon’s body suddenly began to “rise from the ground and appeared on top of the grave. Through the cracks of its lid one could see the imperishable remains. Soon, streams of miraculous power flowed abundantly from the saint’s relics.”

Cases of healings are described below. For example, the Nerchinsk governor Anthony Savelov had a sick servant Grigory (he could hardly move). The governor, going to his place of service in Nerchinsk, took with him a servant, who asked permission on the way to stop in Merkushino to the tomb of the righteous man. After the funeral service, Gregory, taking some earth from the coffin, wiped his hands and feet with it, and then stood up and began to walk.

Another example: the Siberian governor Andrei Fedorovich Naryshkin had a servant Ilya Golovachev, whose eyes hurt, so that he could not even bear the light. The soil from the grave of Simeon the Righteous also helped him.

There are many such examples in the book. The authors took these historical details from the manuscript of Metropolitan Ignatius of Tobolsk and Siberia - “The Tale of the Known and Testified about the manifestation of honest relics and partly the legend about the miracles of the holy and righteous Simeon, the new Siberian wonderworker.” It was Bishop Ignatius who led the examination of the relics of Simeon in 1695.

The life also describes the further fate of Simeon's relics. In 1704 they were moved from the village of Merkushino to the Verkhotursky St. Nicholas Monastery. An interesting fact about miracles during this procession is given in the life. The transfer took place on September 12, 1704. The solemn procession headed from Merkushino to Verkhoturye. Following the relics, the crippled holy fool Kosma crawled on his knees. When he was tired, he turned with prayer to the righteous man as if he were alive: “Brother Simeon, let us rest.” And the procession immediately stopped, since the raku could not be moved for some time. Along the route of the religious procession, in memory of these wonderful stops, several chapels were subsequently erected, which still exist today.

A detailed story about the ordeal of Simeon's relics after the October Revolution, about their transfer to the N. Tagil Museum of Local Lore, then to Yekaterinburg, about the fate of the people involved in these events - all this makes up the second part of Simeon's life. In addition, the book includes appendices containing descriptions of cases of help and appearances of Simeon of Verkhoturye to the suffering. These testimonies were left with gratitude by people who lived not only in ancient times, but also in our time, seemingly far from miracles.

This structure of the book, of course, does not correspond to the traditions of the genre. However, in general, in the life of Simeon (especially in its first part), the canonical features of the life are undoubtedly visible, although elements of innovation are also observed.

You can believe or not believe the miracles described in the lives. But stories about the lives of the righteous, about their service to people in our time are not only necessary, but also interesting.

Nowadays, reading such instructive works is very important. “For people of our century, far from ideally serving the world and people, who rarely look into themselves, who think more about the present than about the eternal, the heroes of hagiographic works seem strange. But, turning over the pages of Russian lives, readers gradually discover the brightest, most intimate ideals.” .

List of used literature.

1. The life and miracles of the holy righteous Simeon of Verkhoturye, the miracle worker. – Publishing house MPRO Novo-Tikhvinsky convent of the Ekaterinburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2004.
2. Likhachev D.S. Man in the literature of Ancient Rus'. – M., 1970.
3. Okhotnikova V.I. Old Russian literature. – M.: Education, 2002.

VOLGOGRAD STATE INSTITUTE

ARTS AND CULTURE

DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY STUDIES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abstract on literature

on the topic of:

“Life as a genre of ancient Russian literature”

Volgograd 2002

Introduction

Every nation remembers and knows its history. In stories, legends, and songs, information and memories of the past were preserved and passed on from generation to generation.

The general rise of Rus' in the 11th century, the creation of centers of writing and literacy, the emergence of a whole galaxy of educated people of their time in the princely-boyar, church-monastic environment determined the development of ancient Russian literature.

“Russian literature is almost a thousand years old. This is one of the most ancient literatures in Europe. It is older than French, English, and German literature. Its beginning dates back to the second half of the 10th century. Of this great millennium, more than seven hundred years belong to the period that is commonly called “ancient Russian literature”

Old Russian literature can be considered as literature of one theme and one plot. This plot is world history, and this theme is the meaning of human life,” writes D. S. Likhachev.

Old Russian literature up to the 17th century. does not know or hardly knows the conventional characters. The names of the characters are historical:

Boris and Gleb, Theodosius of Pechersky, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Sergius of Radonezh, Stefan of Perm...

Just as we talk about the epic in folk art, we can talk about the epic in ancient Russian literature. An epic is not a simple sum of epics and historical songs. The epics are plot-related. They paint us a whole epic era in the life of the Russian people. The era is fantastic, but at the same time historical. This era is the time of the reign of Vladimir the Red Sun. The action of many plots is transferred here, which obviously existed before, and in some cases arose later. Another epic time is the time of independence of Novgorod. Historical songs depict to us, if not a single era, then, in any case, a single course of events: the 16th and 17th centuries. predominantly.

Ancient Russian literature is an epic telling the history of the universe and the history of Rus'.

None of the works of Ancient Rus' - translated or original - stands alone. They all complement each other in the picture of the world they create. Each story is a complete whole, and at the same time it is connected with others. This is only one chapter of the history of the world.

The works were built according to the “enfilade principle”. The life was supplemented over the centuries with services to the saint and descriptions of his posthumous miracles. It could grow with additional stories about the saint. Several lives of the same saint could be combined into a new single work.

Such a fate is not uncommon for literary works of Ancient Rus': many of the stories over time begin to be perceived as historical, as documents or narratives about Russian history.

Russian scribes also appear in the hagiographic genre: in the 11th - early 12th centuries. the lives of Anthony of Pechersk (it has not survived), Theodosius of Pechersk, and two versions of the lives of Boris and Gleb were written. In these lives, Russian authors, undoubtedly familiar with the hagiographic canon and with the best examples of Byzantine hagiography, show, as we will see later, enviable independence and display high literary skill.

Life as a genre of ancient Russian literature.

In the XI - early XII centuries. the first Russian lives were created: two lives of Boris and Gleb, “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk”, “The Life of Anthony of Pechersk” (not preserved until modern times). Their writing was not only a literary fact, but also an important link in the ideological policy of the Russian state.

At this time, the Russian princes persistently sought from the Patriarch of Constantinople the rights to canonize their own Russian saints, which would significantly increase the authority of the Russian Church. The creation of a life was an indispensable condition for the canonization of a saint.

We will look here at one of the lives of Boris and Gleb - “Reading about the life and destruction” of Boris and Gleb and “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk”. Both lives were written by Nestor. Comparing them is especially interesting since they represent two hagiographic types - hagiography-martyria(the story of the martyrdom of the saint) and monastic life, which tells about the entire life path of the righteous man, his piety, asceticism, the miracles he performed, etc. Nestor, of course, took into account the requirements of the Byzantine

hagiographic canon. There is no doubt that he knew translated Byzantine Lives. But at the same time, he showed such artistic independence, such extraordinary talent that the creation of these two masterpieces makes him one of the outstanding ancient Russian writers.

Features of the genre of the lives of the first Russian saints.

“Reading about Boris and Gleb” opens with a lengthy introduction, which sets out the entire history of the human race: the creation of Adam and Eve, their fall, the “idolatry” of people is exposed, we remember how Christ, who came to save the human race, taught and was crucified, how they began to preach the new teaching of the apostles and the new faith triumphed. Only Rus' remained “in the first [former] idolatrous charm [remained pagan].” Vladimir baptized Rus', and this act is depicted as a general triumph and joy: people rushing to accept Christianity rejoice, and not one of them resists or even “verbs” “contrary” to the will of the prince, Vladimir himself rejoices, seeing the “warm faith” newly converted Christians. This is the background story of the villainous murder of Boris and Gleb by Svyatopolk. Svyatopolk thinks and acts according to the machinations of the devil. "Historiographic"

The introduction to life corresponds to the ideas about the unity of the world historical process: the events that took place in Rus' are only a special case of the eternal struggle between God and the devil, and for every situation, for every action, Nestor looks for an analogy, a prototype in past history. Therefore, Vladimir’s decision to baptize Rus' leads to a comparison of him with Eustathius Placis (the Byzantine saint, whose life was discussed above) on the basis that Vladimir, as the “ancient Placis,” God “had no way of inducing spon (in this case, illness)” after which the prince decided to be baptized. Vladimir is also compared with Constantine the Great, whom Christian historiography revered as the emperor who proclaimed Christianity the state religion of Byzantium. Nestor compares Boris with the biblical Joseph, who suffered because of the envy of his brothers, etc.

The features of the genre of hagiography can be judged by comparing it with the chronicle.

The characters are traditional. The chronicle says nothing about the childhood and youth of Boris and Gleb. Nestor, in accordance with the requirements of the hagiographical canon, narrates how, as a youth, Boris constantly read “the lives and torments of the saints” and dreamed of being awarded the same martyrdom.

The chronicle does not mention Boris's marriage. Nestor has it

traditional motive - the future saint seeks to avoid marriage and marries only at the insistence of his father: “not for the sake of bodily lust,” but “for the sake of the king’s law and the obedience of his father.”

Further, the plots of the life and the chronicle coincide. But how different both monuments are in their interpretation of events! The chronicle says that Vladimir sends Boris with his warriors against the Pechenegs, the “Reading” speaks abstractly about certain “military” (that is, enemies, adversary), in the chronicle Boris returns to Kiev, since he did not “find” (did not meet) enemy army, in “Reading” the enemies take flight, since they do not dare to “stand against the blessed one.”

Living human relationships are visible in the chronicle: Svyatopolk attracts the people of Kiev to his side by giving them gifts (“estate”), they are taken reluctantly, since in Boris’s army there are the same people of Kiev (“their brothers”) and - as is completely natural in the real conditions of that time, the people of Kiev feared a fratricidal war: Svyatopolk could rouse the people of Kiev against their relatives who had gone on a campaign with Boris. Finally, let us remember the nature of Svyatopolk’s promises (“I will give you to the fire”) or his negotiations with

"high-city boyars." All these episodes in the chronicle story look very lifelike; in “Reading” they are completely absent. This reveals the tendency, dictated by the canon of literary etiquette, to abstraction.

The hagiographer strives to avoid specificity, lively dialogue, names (remember - the chronicle mentions the Alta River, Vyshgorod, Putsha - apparently the elder of the Vyshgorod residents, etc.) and even lively intonations in dialogues and monologues.

When the murder of Boris, and then Gleb, is described, the doomed princes only pray, and they pray ritually: either quoting psalms, or - contrary to any plausibility in life - they hurry the killers to “finish their work.”

Using the example of "Reading" we can judge the characteristic features of the hagiographic canon - this is cold rationality, conscious detachment from specific facts, names, realities, theatricality and artificial pathos of dramatic episodes, the presence (and inevitable formal construction) of such elements of the life of the saint, about which the hagiographer did not have the slightest information: an example of this is the description of the childhood years of Boris and Gleb in “Reading”.

In addition to the life written by Nestor, the anonymous life of the same saints is also known - “The Legend and Passion and Praise of Boris and Gleb.”

The position of those researchers who see in the anonymous “The Tale of Boris and Gleb” a monument created after the “Reading” seems very convincing; in their opinion, the author of the “Tale” is trying to overcome the schematic and conventional nature of traditional life, to fill it with living details, drawing them, in particular, from the original hagiography version, which has come down to us as part of the chronicle. The emotionality in “The Tale” is subtler and sincere, despite the conventionality of the situation: Boris and Gleb here too resignedly surrender themselves into the hands of the killers and here they manage to pray for a long time, literally at the moment when the killer’s sword is already raised over them, etc., but at the same time their remarks are warmed by some kind of sincere warmth and seem more

natural. Analyzing the "Tale", a famous researcher

ancient Russian literature I. P. Eremin drew attention to the following stroke:

Gleb, in the face of the murderers, “suffering his body” (trembling, weakening), asks for mercy. He asks, as children ask: “Don’t let me... Don’t let me!” (here “actions” means touch). He does not understand what and why he must die... Gleb's defenseless youth is, in its way, very elegant and touching. This is one of the most “watercolor” images of ancient Russian literature.” In “Reading” the same Gleb does not express his emotions in any way - he thinks (he hopes that he will be taken to his brother and that, having seen Gleb’s innocence, he will not “destroy” him), he prays, and at the same time rather dispassionately. Even when the murderer “took Saint Gleb as an honest head,” he “silently, like a lamb, kindly, with his whole mind in the name of God and looking up to the sky in prayer.” However, this is by no means evidence of Nestor’s inability to convey living feelings: in the same scene he describes, for example, the experiences of Gleb’s soldiers and servants. When the prince orders him to be left in a boat in the middle of the river, the warriors “sting at the saint and often look around, wanting to see what the saint wants to be,” and the youths in his ship, at the sight of the murderers, “lay down their oars, sadly lamenting and crying for the saint.” As we see, their behavior is much more natural, and, therefore, the dispassion with which Gleb prepares to accept death is just a tribute to literary etiquette.

"The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk"

After “Reading about Boris and Gleb,” Nestor writes “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk,” a monk and then abbot of the famous Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. This life is very different from the one discussed above in the great psychologism of the characters, the abundance of living realistic details, the verisimilitude and naturalness of the lines and dialogues. If in the lives of Boris and Gleb (especially in the “Reading”) the canon triumphs over the vitality of the situations described, then in the “Life of Theodosius,” on the contrary, miracles and fantastic visions are described so clearly and convincingly that the reader seems to see with his own eyes what is happening and cannot don't "believe" him.

It is unlikely that these differences are only the result of Nestor’s increased literary skill or a consequence of a change in his attitude towards the hagiographic canon.

The reasons here are probably different. Firstly, these are different types of lives. Life of Boris and Gleb - hagiography-martyrium, that is, the story of the martyrdom of the saint; this main theme determined the artistic structure of such a life, the sharp contrast between good and evil, the martyr and his tormentors, dictated the special tension and “poster-like” directness of the climactic murder scene: it should be painfully long and until

moralizing limit. Therefore, in martyrdoms, as a rule, the torture of the martyr is described in detail, and death occurs as if in several stages, so that the reader empathizes with the hero longer. At the same time, the hero addresses lengthy prayers to God, which reveal his steadfastness and humility and expose the full gravity of the crime of his killers.

“The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk” is typical monastic life, a story about a pious, meek, hardworking righteous man, whose whole life is a continuous feat. It contains many everyday collisions: scenes of communication between the saint and monks, laymen, princes, sinners; In addition, in the lives of this type, an obligatory component is the miracles that the saint performs - and this introduces an element of plot entertainment into the life, requiring considerable skill from the author so that the miracle is described effectively and believably. Medieval hagiographers were well aware that the effect of a miracle is especially well achieved by combining purely realistic everyday details with a description of the action of otherworldly forces - the appearance of angels, dirty tricks perpetrated by demons, visions, etc.

The composition of the “Life” is traditional: there is a lengthy introduction and a story about the saint’s childhood. But already in this story about the birth, childhood and adolescence of Theodosius, an involuntary clash of traditional cliches and life’s truth occurs. Traditionally, the piety of Theodosius’s parents is mentioned; the scene of naming the baby is significant: the priest names him “Theodosius” (which means “given to God”), since he foresaw with the “eyes of his heart” that he “wants to be given to God from childhood.” It is traditional to mention how the boy Feodosia “went to the Church of God all day long” and did not approach his peers playing on the street. However, the image of Theodosius’s mother is completely unconventional, full of undeniable individuality. She was physically strong, with a rough, masculine voice; passionately loving her son, she nevertheless cannot come to terms with the fact that he, a youth from a very wealthy family, does not think of inheriting her villages and “slaves”, that he wears shabby clothes, flatly refusing to put on “light” and clean ones, and thereby brings reproach to the family by spending time in prayer or baking prosphora. The mother stops at nothing to break her son’s exalted piety (this is the paradox - Theodosius’s parents are presented by the hagiographer as pious and God-fearing people!), she brutally beats him, puts him on a chain, and tears off the chains from the boy’s body. When Theodosius manages to go to Kyiv in the hope of taking monastic vows in one of the monasteries there, the mother announces a large reward to anyone who will show her the whereabouts of her son. She finally discovers him in a cave, where he labors together with Anthony and Nikon (from this abode of hermits the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery later grows). And here she resorts to cunning: she demands that Anthony show her his son, threatening that otherwise she will “destroy” herself “before the doors of the oven.” But, seeing Theodosius, whose face “has changed from his much work and self-restraint,” the woman can no longer be angry: she, hugging her son, “crying bitterly,” begs him to return home and do whatever he wants there (“according to her will”). . Theodosius is adamant, and at his insistence the mother takes monastic vows in one of the nunneries. However, we understand that this is not so much the result of conviction in the correctness of his chosen path to God, but rather the act of a desperate woman who realized that only by becoming a nun would she be able to at least occasionally see her son.

The character of Theodosius himself is also complex. He possesses all the traditional virtues of an ascetic: meek, hardworking, adamant in the mortification of the flesh, full of mercy, but when a princely feud occurs in Kiev (Svyatoslav drives his brother from the princely throne -

Izyaslav Yaroslavich), Feodosia is actively involved in a purely mundane political struggle and boldly denounces Svyatoslav.

But the most remarkable thing in the “Life” is the description of monastic life and especially the miracles performed by Theodosius. It was here that the “charm of simplicity and fiction” of the legends about the Kyiv miracle workers, which A. S. Pushkin admired so much, manifested itself.

Here is one of these miracles performed by Theodosius. The elder of the bakers comes to him, then already the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, and reports that there is no flour left and there is nothing to bake bread for the brothers. Theodosius sends the baker: “Go, look in the stump, how little flour you will find in it...” But the baker remembers that he swept the stump and swept into the corner a small pile of bran - about three or four handfuls, and therefore confidently answers Theodosius:

“I speak the truth to you, father, for I am the very dung of the bitch, and there is nothing in it, unless it is a small cut in one coal.” But Theodosius, recalling the omnipotence of God and citing a similar example from the Bible, sends the baker again to see if there is flour in the bottom. He goes to the pantry, approaches the bottom and sees that the bottom, previously empty, is full of flour.

Everything in this episode is artistically convincing: both the liveliness of the dialogue and the effect of a miracle, enhanced precisely thanks to skillfully found details: the baker remembers that there are three or four handfuls of bran left - this is a concrete visible image and an equally visible image of a bottom filled with flour: there is so much of it that it even spills over the wall onto the ground.

The next episode is very picturesque. Feodosia was delayed on some business with the prince and must return to the monastery. The prince orders that Theodosius be given a lift by a certain youth in a cart. The same, seeing the monk in “wretched clothes” (Theodosius, and being abbot, dressed so modestly that those who did not know him took him for a monastery cook), boldly addresses him:

“Blacker! Because you are apart all day, and I am hard [you are idle all the days, and I am working]. I can't ride a horse. But let’s do this [let’s do this]: yes, I will lie down on a cart, but you can ride a horse.” Feodosia agrees. But as you get closer to the monastery, you meet more and more people who know Theodosius. They respectfully bow to him, and the boy gradually begins to worry: who is this well-known monk, although in shabby clothes? He is completely horrified when he sees with what honor Theodosius is greeted by the monastery brethren. However, the abbot does not reproach the driver and even orders him to be fed and paid.

Let us not guess whether such a case happened with Theodosius himself. Undoubtedly, another thing is that Nestor could and was able to describe such collisions, he was a writer of great talent, and the convention that we encounter in the works of ancient Russian literature is not a consequence of inability or special medieval thinking. When we talk about the very understanding of the phenomena of reality, we should only talk about special artistic thinking, that is, about ideas about how this reality should be depicted in monuments of certain literary genres.

Over the next centuries, many dozens of different lives will be written - eloquent and simply primitive and formal or, on the contrary, vital and sincere. We will have to talk about some of them later. Nestor was one of the first Russian hagiographers, and the traditions of his work will be continued and developed in the works of his followers.

Genre of hagiographic literature in XIV -XVIcenturies.

The genre of hagiographic literature became widespread in ancient Russian literature. “The Life of Tsarevich Peter of Ordynsky, Rostov (XIII century)”, “The Life of Procopius of Ustyug” (XIV).

Epiphanius the Wise (died in 1420) entered the history of literature primarily as the author of two extensive lives - “The Life of Stephen of Perm” (the bishop of Perm, who baptized the Komi and created an alphabet for them in their native language), written at the end of the 14th century, and "The Life of Sergius of Radonezh", created in 1417-1418.

The basic principle from which Epiphanius the Wise proceeds in his work is that the hagiographer, describing the life of a saint, must by all means show the exclusivity of his hero, the greatness of his feat, the detachment of his actions from everything ordinary and earthly. Hence the desire for an emotional, bright, decorated language that differs from everyday speech. The Lives of Epiphanius are filled with quotations from the Holy Scriptures, for the feat of his heroes should find analogies in biblical history. They are characterized by the author's demonstrative desire to declare his creative impotence, the futility of his attempts to find the necessary verbal equivalent of the high phenomenon depicted. But it is precisely this imitation that allows Epiphanius to demonstrate all his literary skill, to stun the reader with an endless series of epithets or synonymous metaphors, or, by creating long chains of cognate words, to force him to think about the erased meaning of the concepts they denote. This technique is called “weaving words.”

Illustrating the writing style of Epiphanius the Wise, researchers most often turn to his “Life of Stephen of Perm”, and within this life - to the famous praise of Stephen, in which the art of “weaving words” (by the way, this is exactly what it is called here) finds, perhaps, the most striking expression. Let us cite a fragment from this praise, paying attention to the play on the word “word”, and to a series of parallel grammatical constructions: “And I, many sinners and foolish, following the words of your praises, weave the word and multiply the word, and honor with the word, and from the words Collecting praise, and acquiring, and weaving in, I again say: what will I call you: guide (leader) for the lost, finder for the lost, mentor for the deceived, guide for the blinded mind, cleanser for the defiled, seeker for the wasteful, guardian for the military, comforter for the sad, feeder for the hungry, giver for the needy. .."

Epiphanius strings together a long garland of epithets, as if trying to characterize the saint more fully and accurately. However, this accuracy is by no means the accuracy of concreteness, but a search for metaphorical, symbolic equivalents to determine, in essence, the only quality of a saint - his absolute perfection in everything.

In hagiography of the XIV-XV centuries. The principle of abstraction is also becoming widespread, when from the work “everyday, political, military, economic terminology, job titles, specific natural phenomena of a given country are expelled whenever possible...” The writer resorts to periphrases, using expressions such as “a certain nobleman”, “sovereign to that city”, etc. The names of episodic characters are also eliminated, they are referred to simply as “a certain husband”, “a certain wife”, while the additions “certain”, “certain”, “one” serve to remove the phenomenon from the surrounding everyday environment, from a specific historical environment."

The hagiographic principles of Epiphanius found their continuation in the works of Pachomius Logothetes. Pachomius Logothetes. Pachomius, a Serb by origin, came to Rus' no later than 1438. In the 40s-80s. XV century and his work accounts for: he owns no less than ten lives, many words of praise, services to the saints and other works. Pachomius, according to V. O. Klyuchevsky, “nowhere did he discover significant literary talent... but he... gave Russian hagiography many examples of that even, somewhat cold and monotonous style, which was easier to imitate with the most limited degree of reading.”

This rhetorical style of writing by Pachomius, his plot simplification and traditionalism can be illustrated with at least this example. Nestor very vividly and naturally described the circ*mstances of the tonsure of Theodosius of Pechersk, how Anthony dissuaded him, reminding the young man of the difficulties awaiting him on the path of monastic asceticism, how his mother was trying in every way to return Theodosius to worldly life. A similar situation exists in the “Life of Cyril Belozersky”, written by Pachomius. The young man Kozma is brought up by his uncle, a rich and eminent man (he is a okolnik of the Grand Duke). The uncle wants to make Kozma treasurer, but the young man longs to become a monk. And so “if it happened that Abbot Stefan of Makhrishchi came, a man who was accomplished in virtue, we all know great things for the sake of life. Having seen this coming, Kozma flows with joy to him... and falls at his honest feet, shedding tears from his eyes and tells him his thoughts, and at the same time begs him to place the monastic image on her. “For thee, oh sacred head, I have longed for a long time, but now God vouchsafe me to see this venerable shrine, but I pray for God’s sake, do not reject me, a sinner and indecent...” The elder is “touched,” consoles Kozma and tonsures him as a monk (giving him the name Cyril). The scene is formal and cold: Stefan’s virtues are glorified, Kozma pathetically begs him, the abbot willingly meets his request. Then Stefan goes to Timofey, Kozma-Kirill’s uncle, to inform him about his nephew’s tonsure. But here, too, the conflict is only barely outlined, not depicted. Timothy, having heard about what had happened, “heavily listened to the word, and was filled with sorrow and some annoying utterance to Stephen.” He leaves offended, but Timothy, ashamed of his pious wife, immediately repents “about the words spoken to Stephen,” returns him and asks for forgiveness.

In a word, in “standard” eloquent expressions a standard situation is depicted, which is in no way correlated with the specific characters of a given life. We will not find here any attempts to evoke the reader’s empathy with the help of any vital details, subtly noticed nuances (and not general forms of expression) of human feelings. Attention to feelings, emotions, which require an appropriate style for their expression, the emotions of the characters and, no less, the emotions of the author himself, is undeniable.

But this, as mentioned above, is not yet a genuine penetration into

human character is only a declared attention to it, a kind of “abstract psychologism” (the term of D. S. Likhachev). And at the same time, the very fact of increased interest in human spiritual life is in itself significant. The style of the second South Slavic influence, which found its embodiment initially in the lives (and only later in the historical narrative), D. S. Likhachev proposed to call

"expressive-emotional style".

At the beginning of the 15th century. under the pen of Pachomius Logothetes, as we remember,

a new hagiographic canon was created - eloquent, “ornamented” lives, in which lively “realistic” features gave way to beautiful, but dry periphrases. But along with this, lives of a completely different type appear, boldly breaking traditions, touching with their sincerity and ease.

This is, for example, “The Life of Mikhail Klopsky.” "The Life of Mikhail Klopsky." The very beginning of this life is unusual. Instead of the traditional beginning, the hagiographer’s story about the birth, childhood and tonsure of the future saint, this life begins, as it were, from the middle, and from an unexpected and mysterious scene. The monks of the Trinity on Klopa (near Novgorod) monastery were in the church at prayer. Priest Macarius, returning to his cell, discovers that the cell is unlocked, and an old man unknown to him is sitting in it, rewriting the book of the apostolic acts. The priest, “alarmed,” returned to the church, called the abbot and the brethren, and together with them returned to the cell. But the cell is already locked from the inside, and the unknown elder continues to write. When they start questioning him, he answers very strangely: he repeats word for word every question asked of him. The monks could not even find out his name. The elder visits church with the rest of the monks, prays with them, and the abbot decides: “Be an elder with us, live with us.” The rest of the life is a description of the miracles performed by Michael (his name is reported by the prince who visited the monastery). Even the story about the “repose” of Michael is surprisingly simple, with everyday details; there is no traditional praise for the saint.

The unusual nature of the “Life of Michael Klopsky,” created in the century of the works of Pachomius Logofet, should not, however, surprise us. The point here is not only the original talent of its author, but also the fact that the author of the life is a Novgorodian, he continues in his work the traditions of Novgorod hagiography, which, like all the literature of Novgorod, was distinguished by greater spontaneity, unpretentiousness, simplicity (in the good sense of this words), compared, for example, with the literature of Moscow or Vladimir-Suzdal Rus'.

However, the “realism” of the life, its entertaining plot, the liveliness of the scenes and dialogues - all this was so contrary to the hagiographic canon that already in the next century the life had to be reworked. Let us compare only one episode - the description of the death of Michael in the original version of the 15th century. and in the alteration of the 16th century.

In the original edition we read: “And Michael fell ill in the month of December on Savin’s day, going to church. And he stood on the right side of the church, in the courtyard, opposite Theodosius’s tomb. And the abbot and the elders began to say to him: “Why, Mikhail, are you not standing in the church, but standing in the courtyard?” And he said to them: “I want to lie down.” ... Yes, he took with him the censer and the temyan [incense - incense], and went to the cell. And the abbot sent him nets and threads from the meal. And they opened the door, Azhio Temyan Xia is smoking [Temyan is still smoking], but he is not in his stomach [he has died]. And they began to look for places, the ground was frozen, where to put it. And remember

monks to the abbot - test the place where Michael stood. When I looked at it from that place, the earth was already melting. And they buried him honestly.”

This casual, lively story has undergone a drastic revision. So, to the question of the abbot and the brethren why he prays in the courtyard, Mikhail now answers like this: “Behold my peace for ever and ever, for the imam will dwell here.” The episode when he goes to his cell is also revised: “And he burns the censer, and having put incense on the coals, he goes into his cell, and the brethren are amazed, having seen the saint so exhausted, and again receiving so much strength. The abbot goes to the meal and sends food to the saint, commanding him to eat.

She came from the abbot and went into the saint’s cell, and having seen him go to the Lord, her hand bent in the shape of a cross, and in the image of one sleeping and emitting a lot of fragrance.” The following describes the crying at the burial of Michael; Moreover, he is mourned not only by the monks and the archbishop “with the entire sacred cathedral,” but also by the entire people: people rush to the funeral, “like river rapids, tears flowing incessantly.” In a word, the life takes on, under the pen of the new editor Vasily Tuchkov, exactly the form in which, for example, Pachomius Logofet would have created it.

These attempts to move away from the canons, to let the breath of life into literature, to decide on literary fiction, to renounce straightforward didactics were manifested not only in hagiographies.

The genre of hagiographic literature continued to develop in the 17th - 18th centuries: “The Tale of Luxurious Life and Joy”, “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum” 1672, “The Life of Patriarch Joachim Savelov” 1690, “The Life of Simon Volomsky”, the end of the 17th century, “The Life of Alexander Nevsky »

The autobiographical moment was consolidated in different ways in the 17th century: here is the life of a mother, compiled by her son (“The Tale of Uliani Osorgina”), and “The ABC,” compiled on behalf of a “naked and poor man,” and “A Noble Message to an Enemy,” and the actual autobiographies are Avvakum and Epiphany, written simultaneously in the same earthen prison in Pustozersk and representing a kind of diptych. “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum” is the first autobiographical work of Russian literature, in which Archpriest Avvakum himself spoke about himself and his long-suffering life. Speaking about the work of Archpriest Avvakum, A. N. Tolstoy wrote: “These were the brilliant “life” and “epistles” of the rebel, frantic Archpriest Avvakum, who ended his literary career with terrible torture and execution in Pustozersk. Avvakum’s speech is all about gesture, the canon is destroyed to smithereens, you physically feel the presence of the narrator, his gestures, his voice.”

Conclusion:

Having studied the poetics of individual works of ancient Russian literature, we came to a conclusion about the features of the genre of hagiography.

Life is a genre of ancient Russian literature that describes the life of a saint.

There are different hagiographic types in this genre:

- life-martyrium (story of the martyrdom of a saint)

• monastic life (story about the entire life path of a righteous man, his piety, asceticism, miracles he performed, etc.)

The characteristic features of the hagiographic canon are cold rationality, conscious detachment from specific facts, names, realities, theatricality and artificial pathos of dramatic episodes, the presence of elements of the saint’s life about which the hagiographer did not have the slightest information.

The moment of miracle, revelation (the ability to teach is a gift from God) is very important for the genre of monastic life. It is a miracle that brings movement and development to the biography of a saint.

The genre of hagiography is gradually undergoing changes. The authors depart from the canons, letting the breath of life into literature, decide on literary fiction (“The Lives of Mikhail Klopsky”), and speak a simple “peasant” language (“The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”).

Bibliography:

1. Likhachev D. S. Great Heritage. Classic works of literature of Ancient Rus'. M., 1975, p. 19.

2. Eremin I. P. Literature of Ancient Rus' (studies and characteristics). M.-L., 1966, p. 132-143.

3. Likhachev D. S. Human literature of Ancient Rus'. M., 1970, p. 65.

4.Eremin I.P. Literature of Ancient Rus' (studies and characteristics). M.-L., 1966, p. 21-22.

5. Pushkin A. S. Complete. collection Op. M., 1941, vol. XIV, p. 163.

6. Likhachev D. S. Culture of Rus' during the time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise. M.-L., 1962, p. 53-54.

7. Klyuchevsky V.O. Old Russian lives of saints as a historical source. M., 1871, p. 166.

Life, hagiography is one of the main epic genres of church literature, which flourished in the Middle Ages. The object of the image is a life - a feat of faith performed by a historical person or group of persons (martyrs of the faith, church or government officials). Most often, the whole life of a saint becomes a feat of faith; sometimes only that part of it is described in the life, which constitutes the feat of faith, or only one act is the object of depiction. Hence, there are two main genre subtypes of hagiography: martyrium (martyrdom) - describing the martyrdom and death of a saint, hagiography of bios - telling about the entire life path from birth to death. A special subtype of life is the patericon novella (see). The origins of the hagiographic genre lie in ancient times: in myth, ancient biography (Plutarch), funeral oration, fairy tale, Hellenistic novel. However, the hagiographic genre itself is formed under the influence of the Gospel (the story of the earthly life of Christ) and the Acts of the Apostles. Life in South Slavic translations came to Rus' from Byzantium along with the adoption of Christianity in the 10th century. Soon, their own translations of Byzantine Lives appeared, and then the genre was mastered by Old Russian spiritual writers (the first Russian Lives - the Legend and Reading of Boris and Gleb, the Life of Theodosius of Pechersk, 11th century; Life from the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon of the first third of the 13th century).

Purpose of the life

The main purpose of the life is edifying, didactic: the life and deeds of the saint are considered as an example to follow, his suffering as a sign of Divine chosenness. Based on the Holy Scriptures, life usually poses and answers from a Christian perspective the central questions of human existence: what determines a person’s fate? How free is he in his choice? What is the hidden meaning of suffering? How should one approach suffering? Solving the problem of freedom and necessity from a Christian perspective, life often depicts a situation where a saint can avoid torture, but consciously does not do this; on the contrary, he gives himself into the hands of the tormentors. The first Russian holy prince-martyrs Boris and Gleb voluntarily and consciously accepted death, although (this is demonstrated by both the anonymous author of the Tale of Boris and Gleb and Nestor, the author of the Reading of Boris and Gleb) death could have been avoided. There is a whole group of lives with clearly entertaining plots: love and hatred, separations and meetings, miracles and adventures, manifestations of extraordinary human qualities (J. Eustathius Placidy, J. Alexy, the man of God, J. Galaktion and Epistimia, etc.). Capturing the feat of a particular person, the life can simultaneously tell about the founding of a monastery or the history of the construction of a temple or the appearance of relics (relics). The founding of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery is narrated in the life of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the events of historical life, the princely strife are also narrated in hagiographic monuments dedicated to Boris and Gleb; about the time of the invasion of the Livonian Order and complex political relations with the Horde - the life of Alexander Nevsky; the tragic events caused by the Tatar Mongol conquest are spoken of in the lives dedicated to the princes killed in the Horde (J. Mikhail of Chernigov, 13th century and J. Mikhail-Tverskoy, early 14th century).

The canon, that is, the examples of the genre established by church and literary tradition, determines the artistic structure of life: the principle of generalization when creating the image of a saint; type of narrator, rules of construction (composition, set of topoi), own verbal stencils. Often such independent genres as vision, miracle, praise, and lament are included in the life. The author of the life is focused on showing the pious life of the saint, whom he knew either personally or from oral or written testimony. Based on the requirements of the genre, the author had to admit all his “foolishness,” emphasizing in the introduction that he was too insignificant to describe the life of a person marked by God. On the one hand, the narrator’s view of his “hero” is the view of an ordinary person at an extraordinary person, on the other hand, it is objective, and the narrator is not an entirely ordinary person. A bookish person could undertake the compilation of a life, not only knowledgeable in the works of his predecessors and possessing a literary gift, but also able to interpret Divine Providence through analogies, mainly from the Holy Scriptures.

The life could be read in the temple(special short lives as part of the collections - Prologues (Greek Synaxarea) - were read during the service on the 6th song of the canon), at the monastic meal and at home. The lengthy hagiographies, as well as the short ones in the Prologues, were distributed by month in Byzantium in collections that came with the adoption of Christianity in Rus' - Menaia-Chetyah. In the 16th century, Metropolitan Macarius united all the lives written by that time, recognized by the church, into a common code called the Great Menaion-Chetia. In the 17th-18th century, following Metropolitan Macarius, largely following his work, Ivan Milyutin, German Tulupov, and Dimitri Rostovsky compiled their own versions of the life codes - the Chetyih-Menya. Dmitry Rostovsky not only relies on the experience of his great predecessor, Metropolitan Macarius, but also edits the Chet'i-Mi nei anew, turning to different ones, incl. to Latin sources. Over time, the genre developed and could acquire local features, for example, in regional literature.

In the 17th century, the medieval genre of hagiography began to undergo significant changes: it became possible to write an autobiographical hagiography (“The Life of Archpriest Avvakum”) or a combination of a hagiography and a biographical story (“The Life of Juliania Lazarevskaya”). In church practice, the life as a biography of an ascetic - a locally revered saint or canonized by the church - is preserved until modern times (“Tales of the life and exploits of Father Seraphim of blessed memory” - Seraphim of Sarov (1760-1833), canonized by the Russian Church in 1903). Genre features of life can be used in modern literature: F. M. Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov” (1879-80), L. N. Tolstoy “Father Sergius” (1890-98), N. S. Leskov “The Councilors” (1872 ), L.N. Andreev “The Life of Vasily of Fivey” (1904), I.A. Bunin “Matthew the Perspicious” (1916), “Saint Eustathius” (1915), Ch. Aitmatov “The Scaffold” (1986).

LIFE, hagiography came from Greek hagios - holy and grapho, which translated means - I write.

Genre of life. The history of the genre. Life canon.

Violation of the compositional scheme of life in “The Tale of Boris and Gleb.”

Plot and composition of “The Life of St. Theodosius of Pechersk.”

The structure of the “Life of St. Sergius of Radonezh”, written by Epiphanius Pwise:

parents and childhood of St. Sergius;

teaching him to read and write;

the emergence of a monastery;

overcoming difficulties, miracles;

character of Sergius.

The meaning of the moral feat of Sergius of Radonezh and his place in Russian history.

Style of “weaving words”. The innovation of Epiphanius the Wise in the Life of the VenerableSergius of Radonezh."

In the XI - early XII centuries. the first Russian lives were created: two lives of Boris and Gleb, “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk”, “The Life of Anthony of Pechersk” (not preserved until modern times). Their writing was not only a literary fact,

but also an important link in the ideological policy of the Russian state.

At this time, the Russian princes persistently sought from the Constantinople

patriarch of the right to canonize his own Russian saints, which significantly increased

canonization of a saint.

We will look here at one of the lives of Boris and Gleb - “Reading about the life and

the destruction" of Boris and Gleb and "The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk". Both lives were written

Nestor. Their comparison is especially interesting because they represent two

hagiographical type - hagiography-martyria (story of martyrdom

saint) and monastic life, which tells about everything in life

the path of the righteous, his piety, asceticism, the miracles he performed, etc.

Nestor, of course, took into account the requirements of the Byzantine

hagiographic canon. There is no doubt that he knew translations

Byzantine Lives. But at the same time he showed such artistic

independence, such extraordinary talent that the creation of these two

masterpieces makes him one of the outstanding ancient Russian writers.

The most common genre in ancient Russian literature was the lives of saints. The lives tell about the lives of saints and have a religious and edifying meaning. The life should evoke in the reader or listener a feeling of tenderness with the self-denial, meekness and joy with which the saint endured suffering and hardship in the name of God.

The most ancient Russian lives (XI-XII centuries) are dedicated to the passion-bearing princes Boris and Gleb. They tell about the treacherous murder of young princes by their elder half-brother Svyatopolk, who planned to single-handedly rule all of Russia. The spiritual struggles, grief and fear of the saints on the eve of their untimely death are described in detail. And at the same time, Boris wants to accept death in imitation of Christ, the prayers of Boris and Gleb are masterpieces of eloquence. The main idea is consistently and clearly developed in them - regret about the impending death and readiness to accept it at the hands of murderers.

One of the versions of the story about Boris and Gleb includes a fragment unusual for hagiographic literature - a description of the battle of Svyatopolk with his brother Yaroslav, taking revenge on a great sinner for the murder of saints. The Lives of Boris and Gleb became a model for hagiographic works about holy princes who died at the hands of murderers.

In the 13th century The life of the Novgorod prince Alexander Yaroslavich (Nevsky) was compiled. It also combines the features of a military story (the battle with the Swedes on the Neva, the Battle of the Ice and other battles) and a story about the piety of the prince.

Monk Nestor

The famous Russian scribe, monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor (XI - early XII centuries), became famous as the author of “The Tale of Bygone Years”. But he also owns works of traditional spiritual genres. The most famous is “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk”.

The Life of Theodosius has a traditional structure: an introduction, a story about the life of the saint from birth to death, a story about posthumous miracles. At the beginning of his life, Theodosius makes three attempts to leave home and devote himself to God. The role of the saint’s “enemy” is the mother, who, out of love and at the suggestion of the devil, holds the saint. Unbeknownst to herself, she fulfills the will of God, preventing her son from leaving Rus' for the Holy Land - Palestine. God intended Theodosius to become one of the founders of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. Only the third attempt to leave the mother was successful. A number of plot-unrelated episodes tell the story of Theodosius, a monk and later abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery. The characteristic features of Theodosius are complete dedication of his own life to God and confidence in God's help.

Usually a life is called a story about the life and exploits of those who entered the history of the Christian Church and were later included among the saints.

The story about a saint was always structured in such a way that the reader not only vividly imagined why this particular historical (or fictional) person was called a saint by the church, but also read it with unflagging interest.

The main task of the life was to glorify the saint, which always began with the praise of his courage, perseverance or ability to overcome difficulties. For example, one of the early lives - the life of Boris and Gleb - contains a description of their murder by Svyatopolk, stunning in its tragedy. The hagiographic story about Alexander Nevsky also contains a colorful description of the famous Battle of the Neva, where Alexander rode a horse directly onto the deck of an enemy ship.

From the very beginning, lives were built according to a single model, which included a number of obligatory moments in the life of a saint. The main events of the saint's life were outlined, often from his birth to death. The lives also included a lot of information from the history, geography, and even the economy of the places where the corresponding saint lived. Thanks to this, researchers widely use hagiographies as a source containing important information about the lives of people in ancient times.

Sometimes the most ordinary people who had not done anything heroic in their lives were recognized as saints. Their lives usually included descriptions of miracles attributed to them, which sometimes happened after their death.

Over time, the genre of hagiography began to gradually change. descriptions of the saint's life often overshadowed stories about his exploits. The compiler of the life sought to show that an ordinary person who devoted his entire life to caring for others deserves no less respect than a martyr killed in the distant past. The struggle with oneself turned out to be no less important than a heroic death in agony.

At the same time, the image of the saint was revealed from a new and largely unexpected side. It was precisely such lives, more reminiscent of biographies (for example, the story of Juliania Lazarevskaya) that began to be used by writers of the nineteenth and even twentieth centuries. N. Leskov, L. Tolstoy, L. Andreev, B. Zaitsev, B. Pilnyak used hagiographic images and plots to create their works.

CANON (Greek - norm, rule) A set of rules that predetermine the form and content of medieval art; a sign-model of the incomprehensible spiritual world, i.e. specific implementation of the principle of dissimilar similarity (image). On a practical level, the canon acts as a structural model of a work of art, as a principle for constructing a known set of works in a given era. The Greek word CANON or the Hebrew word KANE originally meant a measuring stick. The Alexandrian and Greek scientists have a model, a rule; for critics of ancient literature - a catalog of works; hagiographic writers have moral rules. With the meaning of moral rules, the word “canon” is also used by the apostolic men Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, and others. In relation to books of the hagiographic genre, the word “canon” is used to denote the inspiration of a certain collection of books that make up the Holy Bible. The life of a saint is a narrative about the life of a saint, the creation of which is necessarily accompanied by official recognition of his holiness (canonization). As a rule, the life reports about the main events of the life of the saint, his Christian deeds (pious life, martyrdom, if any), as well as special evidence of Divine grace with which this person was noted (these include, in particular, intravital and posthumous miracles). The lives of saints are written according to special rules (canons). Thus, it is believed that the birth of a child marked by grace most often occurs in the family of pious parents (although there were cases when parents, guided, as it seemed to them, by good intentions, interfered with the feat of their children, condemned them - see, for example, the life of St. Theodosius Pechersky, St. Alexy the man of God). Most often, a saint from an early age leads a strict, righteous life (although sometimes repentant sinners, for example St. Mary of Egypt, achieved holiness). In the “Tale” of Ermolai-Erasmus, some features of the saint can be traced more likely in Prince Peter than in his wife, who, moreover, as follows from the text, performs her miraculous healings rather by her own art than by the will of God. Hagiographic literature, together with Orthodoxy, came to Rus' from Byzantium. There, by the end of the 1st millennium, the canons of this literature were developed, the implementation of which was mandatory. These included the following: 1. Only “historical” facts were presented. 2. Only Orthodox saints could be heroes of lives. 3. The life had a standard plot structure: a) introduction; b) the hero’s pious parents; c) the hero’s solitude and study of holy scripture; d) refusal of marriage or, if impossible, preservation of “physical purity” in marriage; e) teacher or mentor; f) leaving for a “hermitage” or a monastery; g) the fight against demons (described using lengthy monologues); h) the founding of one’s monastery, the arrival of “brethren” in the monastery; i) predicting one’s own death; j) pious death; k) posthumous miracles; m) praise It was also necessary to follow the canons because these canons were developed by the centuries-old history of the hagiographic genre and gave the lives an abstract rhetorical character. 4. Saints were portrayed as ideally positive, enemies - ideally negative. The translated lives that came to Rus' were used for two purposes: a) for home reading (Minea); The Great Menaion-Chetya (sometimes the Chetya Menaion) is a huge collection of works found, selected and partially processed under the leadership of Metropolitan Macarius in the 16th century (hence the name “great” - large). It was a Menaion - a collection of the lives of saints, their miracles, as well as various instructive words for every day of the year. The Makaryevsky Menaions were four - intended for home instructive reading, in contrast to the collections that also existed for public reading during church services (service Menaions), where the same material was presented more concisely, sometimes literally in two or three words. b) for divine services (Prologues, Synaxariums) Synaxariums are non-liturgical church meetings that were dedicated to psalmody and pious reading (mainly hagiographic literature); were widespread in the early Christian era. The same name was given to a special collection, which contained selected passages from the lives of saints, arranged in order of calendar commemoration, and was intended for reading in such meetings. It was this dual use that caused the first serious controversy. If you make a complete canonical description of the saint’s life, then the canons will be observed, but reading such a life will greatly delay the service. If we shorten the description of the saint’s life, then its reading will fit within the usual time of the service, but the canons will be violated. Or at the level of physical contradiction: the life must be long in order to comply with the canons, and must be short so as not to prolong the service. The contradiction was resolved by the transition to a bisystem. Each life was written in two versions: short (prologue) and long (minain). The short version was read quickly in church, and the long version was then read aloud in the evenings with the whole family. The short 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 service. And then their similarity and monotony became obvious. Perhaps there was another reason. In Byzantium, mass lives were also written, for example, of Coptic (Egyptian) monks. Such lives united the biographies of all the monks of one monastery. Moreover, each was described according to the full canonical program. Obviously, such a life was too long and boring not only for worship, but also for home reading. In both cases, if you use several lives with a canonical structure, then the canons will be preserved, but the reading will be too long and boring. And if you abandon the canonical structure, then you can make the lives short and interesting, but the canons will be violated. The Lives are extremely meager in accurately describing specific historical facts; the hagiographer’s task itself does not allow for this: the main thing is to show the saint’s path to salvation, his connection with the ancient fathers and to give the pious reader another example.

2) The “Tale” does not follow the traditional compositional scheme of life, which usually described the entire life of an ascetic - from his birth to death. It describes only one episode from the life of its heroes - their villainous murder. Boris and Gleb are portrayed as ideal Christian martyred heroes. They voluntarily accept the “crown of martyrdom.” The glorification of this Christian feat is presented in the manner of hagiographic literature. The author equips the narrative with abundant monologues - the cries of the heroes, their prayers and 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 cry for his deceased father: “Alas for me, the light of my eyes, the radiance and dawn of my face, the pit of my weariness, the punishment of my misunderstanding! Alas for me, my father and lord! Who will I resort to? Who will I contact? Where will I be satisfied with such good teaching and teaching of your mind? Alas for me, alas for me! As far as I am in the world, I will not dry you out!..” This monologue uses rhetorical questions and exclamations characteristic of church oratorical prose, and at the same time reflects the imagery of people’s lament, which gives it a certain lyrical tone, allowing it to more clearly express the feeling of filial sorrow.

3) Life of Theodosius of Pechersk." A different type of hero is glorified by the “Life of Theodosius of Pechersk,” written by Nestor. Feodosia is a monk, one of the founders of the Kiev-Pechersk 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-narrative of the hero's actions and the conclusion. The basis of the narrative part is an episode associated with the actions of not only the main character, but also his associates (Barlaam, Isaiah, Ephraim, Nikon the Great, Stephen). Nestor draws facts from oral sources, stories of the “ancient fathers”, the cellarer of the monastery Fyodor, the monk Hilarion, the “carrier”, “a certain man”. Nestor has no doubt about the truth of these stories. By processing them literary, arranging them “in a row,” he subordinates the entire narrative to the single task of “praising” Theodosius, who “gives eighteen images of himself.” In the time sequence of the events presented, traces of the monastic oral chronicle are found. Most life episodes have a completed plot. This is, for example, the description of Theodosius’s adolescence, associated with his conflict with his mother. The mother creates all kinds of obstacles for the boy to prevent him from realizing his intention of becoming a monk. The ascetic Christian ideal that Theodosius strives for collides with the hostile attitude of society and maternal love for her son. Nestor hyperbolically depicts the anger and rage of a loving mother, beating the rebellious youth to the point of exhaustion, putting iron on his legs. The clash with the mother ends with the victory of Theodosius, the triumph of heavenly love over earthly love. The mother resigns herself to her son’s act and becomes a nun just to see him.

The episode with the “carriage driver” testifies to the attitude of the working people towards the life of the monks, who believe that the monks spend their days in idleness. Nestor contrasts this idea with the image of the “works” of Theodosius and the monk people surrounding him. He pays a lot of attention to the economic activities of the abbot, his relationships with the brethren and the Grand Duke. Feodosia forces Izyaslav to take into account the monastery charter, denounces Svyatoslav, who seized the grand-ducal throne and expelled Izyaslav.

“The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk” contains rich material that allows us to judge the monastic life, economy, and the nature of the relationship between the abbot and the prince. Closely connected with monastic life are demonological motifs of life, reminiscent of folk blades of grass.

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

“The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk” can be defined as a hagiographic story consisting of individual episodes united by the main character and the author-narrator into a single whole. It differs from Byzantine works in its historicism, patriotic pathos and reflection of the peculiarities of political and monastic life of the 11th century. In the further development of ancient Russian hagiography, it served as a model in the creation of the lives of the venerable Abraham of Smolensk and Sergius of Radonezh.

“The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk” is a typical monastic life, a story about a pious, meek, hardworking righteous man, whose whole life is a continuous feat. It contains many everyday collisions: scenes of communication between the saint and monks, laymen, princes, sinners; In addition, in the lives of this type, an obligatory component is the miracles that the saint performs - and this introduces an element of plot entertainment into the life, requiring considerable skill from the author so that the miracle is described effectively and believably. Medieval hagiographers were well aware that the effect of a miracle is achieved especially well by combining purely realistic everyday details with a description of the action of otherworldly forces - the appearance of angels, dirty tricks perpetrated by demons, visions, etc. The composition of the “Life” is traditional: there is a lengthy introduction and a story about the childhood of a saint. But already in this story about the birth, childhood and adolescence of Theodosius, an involuntary clash of traditional cliches and life’s truth occurs.

Traditionally, the piety of Theodosius’s parents is mentioned; the scene of naming the baby is significant: the priest names him “Theodosius” (which means “given to God”), since he foresaw with the “eyes of his heart” that he “wants to be given to God from childhood.” It is traditional to mention how the boy Feodosia “went to the Church of God all day long” and did not approach his peers playing on the street. However, the image of Theodosius’s mother is completely unconventional, full of undeniable individuality. She was physically strong, with a rough, masculine voice; passionately loving her son, she nevertheless cannot come to terms with the fact that he, a youth from a very wealthy family, does not think of inheriting her villages and “slaves”, that he wears shabby clothes, flatly refusing to put on “light” and clean ones, and thereby brings reproach to the family by spending time in prayer or baking prosphora. The mother stops at nothing to break her son’s exalted piety (this is the paradox - Theodosius’s parents are presented by the hagiographer as pious and God-fearing people!), she brutally beats him, puts him on a chain, and tears off the chains from the boy’s body. When Theodosius manages to go to Kyiv in the hope of taking monastic vows in one of the monasteries there, the mother announces a large reward to anyone who will show her the whereabouts of her son. She finally discovers him in a cave, where he labors together with Anthony and Nikon (from this abode of hermits the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery later grows). And here she resorts to cunning: she demands that Anthony show her his son, threatening that otherwise she will “destroy” herself “before the doors of the oven.” But, seeing Theodosius, whose face “has changed from his much work and self-restraint,” the woman can no longer be angry: she, hugging her son, “crying bitterly,” begs him to return home and do whatever he wants there (“according to her will”). . Theodosius is adamant, and at his insistence the mother takes monastic vows in one of the nunneries. However, we understand that this is not so much the result of conviction in the correctness of his chosen path to God, but rather the act of a desperate woman who realized that only by becoming a nun would she be able to at least occasionally see her son.

4) 1- The Monk Sergius was born from noble and pious parents: from a father named Cyril and a mother named Maria, who were adorned with all sorts of virtues. And a miracle happened before he was born. When the child was still in the womb, one Sunday his mother entered the church while the holy liturgy was being sung. And she stood with other women in the vestibule, when they were about to begin reading the Holy Gospel and everyone stood silently, the baby began to scream in the womb. Before they began to sing the Cherubic Song, the baby began to scream a second time. When the priest exclaimed: “Let us take in, holy of holies!” - the baby screamed for the third time. When the fortieth day came after his birth, the parents brought the child to the Church of God. The priest christened him with the name Bartholomew. The father and mother told the priest how their son, while still in the womb, shouted three times in church: “We don’t know what this means.” The priest said: “Rejoice, for the child will be a chosen vessel of God, an abode and servant of the Holy Trinity.”

2- Cyril had three sons: Stefan and Peter quickly learned to read and write, but Bartholomew did not quickly learn to read. The boy prayed with tears: “Lord! Let me learn to read and write, give me some sense.” His parents were sad, his teacher was upset. Everyone was sad, not knowing the highest destiny of Divine Providence, not knowing what God wanted to create. At God's discretion, it was necessary that he receive book teaching from God. Let's say how he learned to read and write. When he was sent by his father to look for cattle, he saw a certain monk standing in a field under an oak tree and praying. When the elder finished praying, he turned to Bartholomew: “What do you want, child?” The youth said: “The soul desires to learn to read and write. I'm learning to read and write, but I can't master it. Holy Father, pray that I can learn to read and write.” And the elder answered him: “About literacy, child, do not grieve; From this day on the Lord will grant you the knowledge of literacy.” From that hour on, he knew how to read and write well.

3- emergence of the monastery;

overcoming difficulties, miracles;

character of Sergius.

Servant of God Kirill previously had a great name in the Rostov region, he was a boyar, owned great wealth, but by the end of his life he fell into poverty. Let's also talk about why he became poor: because of frequent trips with the prince to the Horde, because of Tatar raids, because of the heavy tributes of the Horde. But worse than all these troubles was the great invasion of the Tatars, and after it violence continued, because the great reign went to Prince Ivan Danilovich, and the reign of Rostov went to Moscow. And many of the Rostovites reluctantly gave their property to Muscovites. Because of this, Kirill moved to Radonezh.

Cyril's sons, Stefan and Peter, married; the third son, the blessed young man Bartholomew, did not want to marry, but strove for monastic life.

Stefan lived with his wife for a few years, and his wife died. Stefan soon left the world and became a monk in the monastery of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in Khotkovo. The blessed young man Bartholomew, having come to him, asked Stephen to go with him to look for a deserted place. Stefan obeyed and went with him.

They walked through many forests and finally came to one deserted place, deep in the forest, where there was water. The brothers examined the place and fell in love with it, and most importantly, it was God who instructed them. And, having prayed, they began to cut down the forest with their own hands, and on their shoulders they brought the logs to the chosen place. First they made themselves a bed and a hut and built a roof over it, and then they built one cell, and set aside a place for a small church and cut it down.

And the church was consecrated in the name of the Holy Trinity. Stefan lived for a short time in the desert with his brother and saw that life in the desert was difficult - there was need and deprivation in everything. Stefan went to Moscow, settled in the Monastery of the Epiphany and lived, very successful in virtue.

And at that time Bartholomew wanted to take monastic vows. And he called a priest, an abbot, to his hermitage. The abbot tonsured him on the seventh day of October, in memory of the holy martyrs Sergius and Bacchus. And the name was given to him in monasticism, Sergius. He was the first monk to be tonsured in that church and in that desert.

Sometimes he was frightened by demonic intrigues and horrors, and sometimes by attacks from animals - after all, many animals lived in this desert then. Some of them passed by in flocks and roaring, while others did not pass by together, but in twos or threes or one after the other; some of them stood in the distance, while others came close to the blessed one and surrounded him, and even sniffed him.

Among them, one bear used to come to the monk. The monk, seeing that the beast was not coming to him out of malice, but in order to take something a little from the food for food for himself, took the beast out of his hut a small piece of bread and put it on a stump or on a log, so that when the beast came as usual , I found food ready for myself; and he took her into his mouth and went away. When there was not enough bread and the animal that came as usual did not find the usual piece prepared for it, then it did not leave for a long time. But the bear stood, looking back and forth, stubborn, like some cruel creditor who wants to collect his debt. If the saint had only one piece of bread, then even then he divided it into two parts, so that he could keep one part for himself and give the other to this beast; After all, Sergius did not have a variety of food in the desert then, but only bread and water from a source that was there, and even then little by little. Often there was no bread for the day; and when this happened, then they both remained hungry, the saint himself and the beast. Sometimes the blessed one did not care about himself and remained hungry: although he only had one piece of bread, he threw that too to the beast. And he preferred not to eat that day, but to starve, rather than deceive this beast and let it go without food.

The blessed one endured all the trials sent to him with joy, thanked God for everything, and did not protest, did not lose heart in the difficulties.

And then God, seeing the saint’s great faith and great patience, had mercy on him and wanted to ease his labors in the desert: the Lord put a desire in the hearts of some God-fearing monks from the brethren, and they began to come to the saint.

Description of the video lesson

Old Russian literature- literature of the East Slavic principalities from the moment of the creation of statehood in Rus' until the Mongol-Tatar invasion.
Without it, it is impossible to understand the work of modern writers, the history of the Fatherland. The main law of ancient Russian literature is truth, the truth about outstanding personalities, which were the great Russian princes.

“What is this single and huge building, on the construction of which dozens of generations of Russian scribes worked for seven hundred years - unknown or known to us only by their modest names and about whom almost no biographical data has been preserved, and not even autographs remain?”- asks Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, a researcher of the literature of Ancient Rus'. And he notes in his research: it has one theme - the meaning of human life, one plot - world history.

Life- this is a description of the life of a saint. The hero of the life follows the instructions of Christ in his life and, going through many trials, becomes a saint.
The hagiography strictly adheres to the composition: an introduction that tells the reasons for writing the work; the main part contains a description of the life of the saint, his death and miracles. The life ends with the glorification of the ideal hero as an example of high morality. The authors did not reveal their names, emphasizing their modesty and humility. But these were educated and talented people. Without them, we would never have learned about the life of the Christian and politician Alexander Nevsky.

Work "The Tale of the Life of Alexander Nevsky" was written in Vladimir, where the prince was buried, in the Nativity Monastery. Academician Dmitry Likhachev assumed that Metropolitan Kirill took part in the creation of the work.

IN "The Lives of Alexander Nevsky" the image of a true patriot of Russia is presented, who not only prayed to God for the freedom of the Fatherland, but also, with arms in hand, valiantly defended it from envious people and enemies. With a small squad, trusting in the help of God, Prince Alexander Yaroslavich, on June 15, 1240, attacked the Swedish knights who had invaded the northwestern lands of Rus', and won an absolute victory. The battle took place at the mouth of the Neva River, which is why Prince Alexander was named Nevsky.
Since 1241, there was a war with the Lithuanian knights who captured the Pskov and Novgorod lands. The decisive battle took place on April 5, 1242 on the ice of Lake Peipus. The battle ended with the defeat of the enemy. The battle went down in history as the Battle of the Ice.

Alexander Nevsky not only fought, but also took care of the civilians of the Russian land, maintained good relations with the Khan of the Golden Horde, believing that the strength of Rus' lies in its defense, and not in its offensive.

The author of the hagiographic story proves that, despite the subjugation of the Russian principalities to the Mongol-Tatars, princes, courageous and wise warriors remained in Rus', whose greatness is recognized even by their enemies: “I went through countries and peoples and never saw such a king among kings, nor a prince among princes.”

At the end of his life, after describing the exploits of Alexander Nevsky, a miracle occurs: “When the holy body was laid in the tomb, then Sebastian the steward and Cyril the Metropolitan wanted to unclench his hand in order to insert a spiritual letter. He, as if alive, extended his hand and accepted the letter...”

In 1547, Prince Alexander Nevsky was canonized for his devotion to God: “I believe, and that’s enough... Neither land nor gold can buy faith!”, for a life filled with dangers and battles, for deep faith in the Russian people: “Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword”.