Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus

В настоящей статье в контексте эпохи гонений на христиан при императоре Декии в III в. прослеживаются основные свидетельства события, описанного в жизнеописании христианских святых семи отроков, прославившихся в V в. в Ефесе при императоре Феодосии Младшем. Семь отроков, прячась от гонения, уснули в пещере и проснулись через несколько сотен лет. Приводится свидетельство свт. Филарета Черниговского о причинах чудесного успения. Рассказывается о разных аспектах богослужебного почитания святых семи отроков в греческой и русской церкви, а также описываются сохранившиеся памятники в христианском изобразительном и монументальном искусстве, у святых отцов и христианских поэтов. Завершается статья свидетельством игумена Даниила, совершившего в XII в. паломничество в Святую землю. In this article, in the context of the era of persecution of Christians under the emperor Decius in the III century traces the main evidence of the event described in the biography of the Christian saints of seven youths who became famous in the Vth century in Ephesus under the emperor Theodosius the Younger. Seven youths, hiding from persecution, fell asleep in a cave and woke up more than two hundred years later. The testimony of St. Filaret of Chernigov is given on the reasons for the miraculous dormition. It tells about different aspects of the liturgical veneration of the holy seven youths in the Greek and Russian churches, and also describes the surviving monuments in Christian visual and monumental art, among the holy fathers and Christian poets. The article ends with the testimony of hegumen Daniel, who committed in the XII century pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

“When the Cock crows, the Devil Falls” – a Review of Christian Thought Concerning Birds in Selected Folk Tales

In the consumptive world, mysterious things function as magic or superstition, sometimes via tradition, or a relic of a by-gone era. However, we are still afraid to see a black cat, and somebody remembers the celandine (in Polish “jaskółcze ziele”), though nobody knows its connotation with the swallow. The image of birds in folk tales connects the observation of nature, throughout the year and religious holidays, with their consequences for Man. Since the beginning, Man has admired nature, being afraid of its wildness and primeval power. When one joined it with divinity, it aroused fear even more, but also evoked greater fascination. In this article, I present the essence of myths in folk stories, and its function on the example of birds which have lived in proverbs and sayings. I will also show the variety of references to the cult of Christian saints, the love of the land, and the nature that surrounds us. I would like to show how our attitude towards nature has changed, and what is the function of birds as an element of the environment. I would also like to answer the question; does a modern man need myths to discover his sense of life and realise its meaning?

THE GRAND PRINCESS MARIA YASYNYA: TOWARDS FINALIZING THE LASTINGDISCUSSION

В статье рецензируется фундаментальное издание, ставшее итогом масштабного междисциплинарного научного проекта, посвященного изучению жизни и деяний Марии Ясыни, добродетельной супруги великого владимирского князя Всеволода Большое Гнездо. В числе многочисленных и славных потомков этой великокняжей пары – поистине выдающиеся личности российской истории: христианские святые, великие воины и правители, хранившие благополучие своих земель не только силою оружия, но и молитвой, искусством дипломатии, расцветом культуры. Заботливая покровительница своих подданных, просветительница и мать, воспитавшая двенадцать детей, Мария Шварнорвна (Ясыня), наравне со своим супругом, сумела на много поколений вперед заложить основы созидательной силы более ста русских княжеских родов. Поскольку в трагических событиях ордынского ига были утрачены прямые свидетельства об этнической принадлежности княгини, вопрос на протяжении долгого времени оставался дискуссионным. Авторы этого коллективного труда отстаивают аланскую версию происхождения Марии Ясыни, применяя разные методы исследования: исторические, лингвистические, антропологические, генетические. Закроет ли данная монография столь давнюю полемику, покажет время, однако, есть все основания полагать, что основательная научная аргументация решительно ее продвинет. Но выяснение происхождения княгини было не единственной задачей авторской группы. В издание включены исследования о христианской жизни Марии Ясыни – Марфы, ее нравственного величия и высокого духовного разума в аспекте соответствия ее личных качеств современным критериям общероссийской канонизации, к которой приложены старания многих духовных и светских лиц. The article reviews a fundamental publication that has become the result of a lasting interdisciplinary scientific project dedicated to the study of the life and deeds of Maria Yasynya, the virtuous wife of the great Vladimir Prince Vsevolod the Big Nest. Among the numerous and glorious descendants of this great – princely couple are truly outstanding figures of Russian history: Christian saints, great warriors and rulers who preserved the well-being of their lands not only by the power of weapons, but also by prayer, the art of diplomacy, and the flourishing of culture. A caring patroness of her subjects, an educator and a mother who raised twelve children, Maria Yasynya, along with her husband, managed to lay the foundations of the creative power of more than a hundred Russian princely families for many generations to come. Since direct evidence of the princess's ethnicity was lost in the tragic events of the Horde yoke, the issue remained debatable for a long time. The authors of this collective work defend the Alan version of the origin of princess, using different research methods: historical, linguistic, anthropological, and genetic. Time will tell whether this monograph will close such a long-standing controversy; however, there is every reason to believe that a thorough scientific argumentation will decisively advance it. But finding out the origin of the princess was not the only task of the author's group. The publication includes research on the Christian life of Maria Yasyn-Marfa, her moral greatness and high spiritual intelligence in the aspect of compliance of her personal qualities with modern criteria of all-Russian canonization, to which the efforts of many spiritual and secular persons have been applied.

Aldhelm’s De Virginitate and Anglo-Saxon Nuns at the Turn of the 7th – 8th Centuries

Introduction. The publication focuses on the prose treatise De virginitate, composed by Anglo-Saxon Church author Aldhelm at the turn of the 7th – 8th centuries. The work was written for the nuns of the double monastery of Barking and its abbess Hildelith. The treatise has not received proper attention in domestic historiography. The purpose of this article is to study De virginitate in the context of associated with double monasteries social, cultural, and historical realities of Aldhelm’s day Britain. Methods and materials. The study is based on textual, historical, and cultural methods. The treatises of individual Church Fathers and a wide corpus of narrative testimonies, provided by Anglo-Saxon Church writers, have been used. Analysis. It is shown that in his epistle to the nuns of Barking Aldhelm not only derived from the previous tradition of praising virginity, but produced original writing that has preserved unique features of the environment in which he and his dedicatees moved. Among these features the following are emphasized: the presence of a large number of formerly married noblewomen in Anglo-Saxon double monasteries, the use of luxury, the wide spread of epistolary contacts in the clerical circles, the high level of aristocratic nuns’ education, and a large share of intellectual activity in their daily life. Results. Rhetorical, conceptual, and structural peculiarities of Aldhelm’s treatise prove that he belonged to the part of Anglo-Saxon clergy that did not debate the high position of noble women in the Church. Aldhelm’s praise of the Barking nuns’ virginity and learning, as well as the examples of cooperation and spiritual amity between the sexes among early Christian saints, can be considered manifestations of support for double monasteries as Church institution, spread in his days.

Christian Saints in Russian Incantations

This article discusses the Christian saints who are most often mentioned in Russian incantations: Sts. George, Nicholas, Florus and Laurus, Kossma and Damian, Zosima and Savvaty of Solovki, as well as the semi-apocryphal saints Sisinius and Solomonia. The first six are among the most popular saints of Russian folk Orthodoxy. The article presents the naming conventions of saints, and their attributes and functions in Russian folk magic. Depending on their magical function, the protagonists of the incantations can act as helpers, protectors, and healers. They assist in various practical areas of life, and protect against real and magical dangers, in addition to helping healing from diseases and wounds.

Public practices of the Christian saints in the Eastern Mediterranean during the IV – V centuries

  This article examines public practices of the Christian saints in the Eastern Mediterranean during the IV – V centuries, and leans on studying the hagiographic works. The traditional Roman public events in the period of Late Antiquity with the advent of Christianity gradually ceased their popularity, particularly die to the state and church policy. Along with church liturgies, festivities, and sermons, Christianity offered a new type of public events – ascetic pageantry. Publicity as an important aspect of ascetic practices practically is outside the scope of attention of the modern historians. The author reviews public practices as an informal act of impacting viewers with a profound cultural meanings. The conclusion is made that holy ascetics represented a new Christian pageantry that contributed to dynamic Christianization of the empire and fulfillment of important social functions. Public actions of the ascetic resembled the true faith, such as of the martyrs. The first crucial function carried out by the ascetic in performing public asceticism is the concentration of sizeable Christian population that had a need for such event. The second one consisted in teaching to discern who is a real Christian and how to become one.  

Christianity and Slavic Folk Culture: The Mechanisms of Their Interaction

In Slavic folk culture, Christianity is a foreign, borrowed cultural model, while the oral tradition is native and familiar. The different areas of folk culture were influenced to varying degrees by the Christian tradition. The most dependent area of Slavic folk culture on Christianity was the calendar. In many cases, it only superficially accepted the Christian content of calendar elements and reinterpreted it in accordance with the traditional mythological notions. The same can be said about the folk cult of saints. The Christian saints replaced pagan gods and over time were included in the system of folk ideas, beliefs and rituals. The mechanism for regulating the balance between man and the world is a system of prohibitions, the violation of which is recognized as sin and is punished by natural disasters, death, disease and human misfortunes. The Slavic folk tradition adapted not only the individual elements, structures and semantic categories of Christianity, but also the whole texts, plots, motifs, and themes developed in various folklore genres. Therefore, the pre-Christian folk tradition of the Slavs was able to assimilate many Christian concepts, symbols, and texts, translate them into its own language and fill them with its own content.

Apostoł Andrzej – osoba i imię

In Christian religious consciousness, especially in Eastern Christianity, Andrew the Apostle has a place equal to that of his brother, Peter the Apostle. This article presents the information gathered about him and provided by the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. It also concisely describes the apocrypha about his missionary activities in Greece, Pontus, Thrace and Scythia, as well as the sources and reasons behind the development of his cult in Europe, including the Slavic nations. The origin of the given name Andrew is also included, along with the process of this name becoming common among the Slavs connected with the spread of the cult. The article stresses the importance of the transformation of the original image of this saint caused by the contamination of Christian beliefs and Slavic folk culture. The analysis of Polish calendar proverbs enabled to present the linguistic image of St. Andrew. Folk religious rites connected with his cult, which emerged as the result of intertwining of the Christian calendar and agricultural cycle, are also described. The saints to whom certain days in the Christian calendar were dedicated, started to be perceived as the guardians of these days, protecting people from the forces of nature, as well as the protectors of certain trades. The profiles of selected local Christian saints bearing the name Andrew are also presented.

The Historian and the Sexologist

This article investigates how twentieth-century historians' reliance on pathologizing discourses about transvestism produced the distorted historical account of the premodern “transvestite saint.” The essay begins with a critical historiography aimed at unraveling the intertwined writings of historians and sexologists. European sexological writing on Christian saints rendered them little more than pathologized subjects stripped of their religious context, and historical narratives that drew on pathologizing sexological paradigms frequently interpreted these religious figures as premodern examples of transhistorical sex-gender transgression. After examining the development of the interpretive model of the transvestite saint and its dependence on tropes of disguise and deception, the author argues that this framework should be abandoned. Considering the limitation of this interpretation, the essay proposes a more capacious historical method termed the apophasis of transgender.

Judicial practices of the Eastern Christian saints in the beginning of the IV – middle of the V centuries

This article is dedicated to the study of activity of the saints in the area of justice during the Late Antiquity, and is structured upon the examination of theirs hagiographical works. The period of Late Antiquity, with its peculiar attitude towards the questions of crime and punishment and their social meaning is virtually out of the field of regards of modern historians. This article places emphasis no so much on the legal issues as on the social aspects of the practice of saints. The object of this research is the phenomenon of the saint, which emerged on the East of the Late Roman in the early IV century with the advent of the Christian monasticism and asceticism. The subject of this research is the practical activity of the saints associated with dispute settlement, conflict resolution, and crime prevention. The conclusion is made that the judicial activity of the saint reflects the perspective on justice that differs from the traditional systems. The saint uses an informal mechanism of mediation for reconcilement of adversaries and bringing them to a compromise. It is based on the need for a new outlook upon the problem of aggression that existed in society of the Late Antiquity, as key source of criminality. The actions of the saint are aimed at alleviation of human aggressiveness and rejection of violence and policy of frightening that were typical at that time, thereby preventing the offender from committing an offence. The main instrument in activity of the saint is the ability to accomplish a miracle, which reflects the power of the saint to overcome the traditional principles of justice.