The Christ-merchant and the ship-church

Scrinium, 2019

The article deals with the problems of studying folk hagiography, a complex of peasants' written and oral texts, which contain information about saints or revered non-canonized devotees and express the very specifics of the popular understanding of holiness. The first half of the article discusses the phenomenon of folk hagiography, defines the range of folklore genres, reflecting folk beliefs about saints, and investigates the mechanisms of interaction between the written and oral traditions. The second half analyzes texts and religious practices related to the folk worship of the non-canonized elder Judas Koneschelsky (Archangelsk North). There are following sources for the study of this cult: judicial documents of the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, a peasant's diary of the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, local priests' notes from that time, and field data, collected by folklorists at the beginning of the 21th century. On the basis of these sources, the authors, considering a specific case, make an attempt to study the mechanisms of functioning of folk hagiography. A large time span between the early and late data records and various texts about Judas make it possible to trace evolution of this cult. Keywords folk hagiography-veneration of saints-Judas Koneschelsky

Artefact, 2021

The article examines the process of maritimization of the Russian state through the formation and functioning of fleets of the rich monasteries in the Early Modern Russian North: Solovetsky, Anthonievo-Siysky, Krestny Onezhsky and others. The authors analyze qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the fleets of the northern monasteries (the types of vessels used in the economy of the monasteries, the number of ships belonging to the monasteries, and the dynamics of change). They stress the importance of sea vessels in the life of northern monasteries, the intensity of their use, the mobility, the role of specific types of vessels in the economy of monasteries and their services.

Scrinium, 2019

The article deals with the problems of studying folk hagiography, a complex of peasants’ written and oral texts, which contain information about saints or revered non-canonized devotees and express the very specifics of the popular understanding of holiness. The first half of the article discusses the phenomenon of folk hagiography, defines the range of folklore genres, reflecting folk beliefs about saints, and investigates the mechanisms of interaction between the written and oral traditions. The second half analyzes texts and religious practices related to the folk worship of the non-canonized elder Judas Koneschelsky (Archangelsk North). There are following sources for the study of this cult: judicial documents of the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, a peasant’s diary of the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, local priests’ notes from that time, and field data, collected by folklorists at the beginning of the 21th century. On the basis of these sources, the authors,...

The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2007

As it was rapidly noticed by scholars 1 , the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed a rapid evolution in the aims of Church history -the history of the Church began to be one of the most potent elements in controversial literature. Ruthenian polemical writings were not an exception -both Catholics and Orthodox authors broadly used facts of Church history. The necessity to activate spiritual and intellectual life in the Kyiv Orthodox metropolis evoked the interest towards saints. It is notable however that this interest did not develop into canonization processes of contemporary figures, but into reminding 2 the reader of the old hagiographical heritage -the saints of Kyivan Rus' writing about their relics and vitas. This process provokes an appearance of historical insertions and even full value narratives in the Ruthenian hagiographical text, which aim to give a brief historical prospect to the potential reader.

1987

Paper presented at the 82nd Meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association. Session “Frontiers of Faith in Russia: Open or Closed: Catholicism, Protestantism, Old Belief and Orthodoxy in Russia In Search of a Community.” San Francisco, January 6, 2002.

The American Historical Review, 1998

The Life of Alexander Oshevensky (1567) is a Northern Russian hagiographical work devoted to the founder of the St. Niсholas Alexander-Oshevensky Monastery, which was located nearby the town of Kargopol. The article analyses hagiographer Theodosius' techniques for dealing with literary sources, especially with two Byzantine texts, The Ladder by John Climacus and The Life of Alexis the Man of God. Theodosius uses these sources to develop one of the major themes of his own work, that is, the relationship between St. Alexander and his family. The family theme bears ambiguous meaning. On the one hand, the family is rejected from the standpoint of monastic asceticism, but on the other hand, it is rendered as the ultimate value and stronghold of Christian morality.