Образ святого Никона Метаноите согласно Vita Niconis (BHG, 1366)

Проблеми на изкуството. Art Studies Quarterly, 2021

Painter Stephanos K. Nikitas (ca. 1822-1908) was born in Adrinopole (Edirne), to a family of high standing. His manner with apparent influenced by the academic art distinguished him from the rest of the painters in the local art centre. From his known icons and murals it transpires that he flourished in the early 1850s until 1861. These artworks are in the south of Bulgaria or in the diocese or the Metropolitan See of Plovdiv. His latest commission were the 1861 murals at the Church of St Nicholas in Limenas on Thassos, his only artwork known in Greece. No later than the beginning of 1866, but in all likelihood immediately after the Union, Stefanos abandoned painting and was not the author of the several icons signed by StefanosAdrianoupolites, as their manner shows. Various extant records testify to the religious activity of Stephanos Nikitas, most important of these are his letters written between 1870 and 1881 and Victorin Galabert’s diaries. In 1861, he joined the Panteleimon’s sect on Thassos, thus marking its beginning. He was a deacon, a hierodeacon, socius of the preacher, who prepared him to take his position. They joined the Bulgarian Union on 6 January 1864. In the summer of 1867, Nikitas headed for the Vatican and in 1868 took over as the archimandrite of the monasteries of Panteleimon in the villages of Studena and Mustrak (in the region of Edirne at the time). Nikitas reconverted to Orthodoxy and returned to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in 1892.

Jewish Fragments of the Life of St Nikita of Novgorod Hypothesis of Jewish origins of one the first Russian national Orthodox saint and Nikita the Bishop of Novgorod and Recluse, of the Kiev Far Caves Гипотеза о еврейских источниках в житие одного из первых русских национальных святых Чудотворца Никиты Ногродского

За един възможен Зографски ръкопис с Никоновите Пандекти от ¾ на ХІV в.: ръкопис № 48 от МСПЦ. , 2022

The article aims at analyzing the codicological features and one fragment of the content of the ms. N 48 from the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, containing the Nikon of the Black Mountain’s Pandectae, in one attempt to draw the possible provenance of the ms. and to comment the results in the context of the problems concerning the origin of the so-called “Euthymius” version of the second translation of the Pandectae, to which the mss’ text belongs. The comparison of the ornamentation, writings, and watermarks of ms. N 48 with other South Slavic witnesses from the 14. Century lead to conclusion that it very probably originates from the Zographu monastery on Mount Athos - which is indirectly confirmed by the list of holidays celebrated by the workers in the monastery where the manuscript was used. In the same time, codicological peculiarities of the ms. 48 clearly connect it to the manuscripts from the so-called circle of Lavrentiev miscellany (RNL, Moscow, F.I.376, commissioned by Tsar John Alexander (1331–1371) in 1348) produced in Bulgaria, most probably in monasteries associated with the personal patronage of the Tsar in Paroria, Kefalarevo and in vicinity of Tarnovo. Recent research of certain monastic miscellanies containing fragments of the “Euthymius” edition of the Pandectae whose provenance is relatively defined (BAS, Sofia, № 80 (Ryapov sbornik), 14th c., Dechani monastery № 75, 1360–1370, Hilandar monastery № 464,15th c.) confirms such connection, relating the second translation of the Pandectae and its later version to the first and second stages of the reforms of the fourteenth century and the spread of hesychasm. In their canonical and legal part, these monastic collections contain so-called Pseudo-Zonaras Nomocanon, present in dogmatic-catechetical compilations intended for lay people (ms. 1160 from the Church Historical and Archive Institute in Sofia), including in collections and mss. related to the pop-Philip miscellany (GIM, Moscow, Sinod. Coll., № 38), commissioned by Tsar John Alexander in 1345 (GIM, Moscow, AI Hludov coll., № 76, 14th c., RAS, St. Petersburg, № 13.3 .17 – Loveshki miscellany, 90s of 14th c.). Finally, it can be concluded that the distribution of the mentioned version of Pandektae and its presence in a manuscript from Zographu monastery, which is most likely ms. № 48, is one more evidence of the constant transmission of texts and translations between Bulgaria and Mount Athos in the 14th century, in which the founding monasteries of the ruler and aristocracy played an important role.

Вестник сектора древнерусского искусства. Журнал по истории древнерусского искусства. М., ГИИ, 2022. Вып. 1. М., С. 122–133., 2022

Unlike many Pre-Mongolian icons, whose origin is confirmed or established thanks to written sources, the original purpose of the image of St. Nicholas (middle of the 13th century) from the Holy Spirit Monastery, which is traditionally tied to the decoration of this monastery, remains unknown. Before the removal of the late layer during the restoration of 1925–1928 in the CSRW (Central State Restoration Workshop), there was an inscription on its lower field informing about the creation of the icon in 1500 and its transfer from Dikie Polia (Wild Fields). Such a toponym is found in the documents of the Bishops' House of Novgorod, where an inventory of the wooden church of Saints Nikita and John the Wonderworkers of Novgorod, erected in the newly acquired patrimony of the Sophia House around 1679, has been preserved. Apparently, the icon of St. Nicholas was also transferred to Dikie Polia among the bishop's property, and after the sale of the patrimony at the end of the 17th century, it was returned to Novgorod. The origin of the icon can be thus associated with the highest social stratum of the old city.

Богословский вестник, 2022

This article examines the beginning of the life path of His Holiness Patriarch Nikon from the moment of his birth to his labors in the Novospasskaya monastery. The multitude of preserved sources depicting the life milestones of His Holiness the Patriarch, on the one hand, and the disparity of biographical information between them, on the other, sets researchers the task of comparing and analyzing them in order to determine the most reliable chronology of the beginning of the life of St. Nikon. The author made a decision within the framework of this article to solve this problem and determine the trajectory of the life path. Based on biographical sources and external historical data, the author reconstructs the main stages of the Patriarch's life, and also clarifies and corrects the dates of events that define his life.