The Creative Heritage of Maksim Grek and the Formation of Spiritually Significant Texts for the Old Believers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2024.2.901Keywords:
Maksim Grek, Solovetsky monks, Old Believer manuscript, Timofey Lysenin, 18th centuryAbstract
This article deals with the formation of the canon of sacred texts among the Old Believers, which determined their system of book authorities. The relevance of the topic is connected with the need to get a more comprehensive idea of the formation of the religious and social movement that received the name “Old Believers”. The author pays attention to an important aspect of the study of the Old Believer ideology, which was determined by the system of book authorities. The defenders of Old Belief followed the traditions of the scribes of Old Rus and maintained a special attitude to the text, bordering on its sacralisation. From the first steps of the reform, they turned to manuscripts and early printed books to find evidence of the illegality of introducing innovations into the liturgical practice of the Russian Church. The Story of How to Make the Sign of the Cross by Maksim Grek was cited by opponents of the church reform as an argument in defence of the negative view of the introduction of the three-fingered sign of the cross by Patriarch Nikon. It is shown that the Solovetsky monks largely determined the attitude to this work. They not only copied it, but also began to defend the authority of Maksim Grek when the representatives of the official Church expressed doubts about the sincerity of the author’s opinion on the twofingered sign of the cross. The next generations of the Old Believers continued to search for evidence of the veneration of this Athos monk by the Patriarchs and the Russian Church, in order to convince readers of his holiness. The analysis of the collections of the Old Believers helps get an idea of a completely scholarly approach to the search, which allowed the Old Believers already at the beginning of the eighteenth century to gain access to a fairly complete circle of sources on the life and work of Maksim Grek in Russia, even according to the ideas of researchers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to copy them and make them known to other Old Believers. The works of Maksim Grek were of particular importance, and their study made it possible to include them in the canon of sacred texts. It is concluded that the authors of the essays and the compilers of the collections did a lot of work to strengthen the authority of Maksim Grek among the Old Believers, and the writings of the Athos monk were included in their system of book authorities.
References
Belyaeva, O. K. (1990). K voprosu ob ispol’zovanii pamyatnikov drevnerusskoi pis’mennosti v staroobryadcheskikh polemicheskikh sochineniyakh pervoi chetverti XVIII v. [To the Question of Use of Ancient Russian Texts in the Old Believers’ Polemical Writings of the First Quarter of the 18th Century]. In Likhachev, D. S. (Ed.). Obshchestvennoe soznanie, knizhnost’, literatura perioda feodalizma. Novosibirsk, Nauka, pp. 9–16.
Bubnov, N. Y. (2006). Pamyatniki staroobryadcheskoi pis’mennosti. Sochineniya Gerontiya Solovetskogo. Istoriya o patriarkhe Nikone [Old Believer Literature. Works of Geronty Solovetsky. Story of Patriarch Nikon]. St Petersburg, Russkaya simfoniya. 320 p.
Bubnov, N. Yu. (1995). Staroobryadcheskaya kniga v Rossii vo vtoroi polovine XVII v. Istochniki, tipy i evolyutsiya [Old Believer Book in Russia in the Second Half of the 17th Century. Sources, Types, and Evolution]. St Petersburg, Biblioteka Akademii nauk. 435 p.
Chumicheva, O. V. (1992). “Otvet vkrattse Solovetskogo monastyrya” i Pyataya solovetskaya chelobitnaya (vzaimootnoshenie tekstov) [Short Answer of Solovetsky Monastery and the Fifth Solovetsky Petition (Correlation of the Texts)]. In Romodanovskaya, E. K. (Ed.). Issledovaniya po istorii literatury i obshchestvennogo soznaniya feodal’noi Rossii. Novosibirsk, Nauka, pp. 59–69.
Guryanova, N. S. (2009). Maksim Grek i staroobryadtsy [Maksim Grek and the Old Believers]. In Pochinskaya, I. V. (Ed.). Ural’skii sbornik. Istoriya. Kul’tura. Religiya. Iss. 7. Part 2. Problemy knizhnoi kul’tury. Yekaterinburg, Izdatel’stvo Ural’skogo universiteta, pp. 120–134.
Nikol’skii, N. (1916). Sochineniya solovetskogo inoka Gerasima Firsova po neizdannym tekstam. (K istorii severno-russkoi literatury XVII veka) [Writings of the Solovetsky Monk Gerasim Firsov (Unpublished Texts). (To the History of North Russian Literature of the 17th Century)]. Petrograd, Tipografiya M. A. Aleksandrova. 233 p.
OR RGB [Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library]. Stock 98 (Sobranie E. E. Egorova). No. 383. Sbornik staroobryadcheskii. 1711. 4°. 298 p. No. 706. Sbornik staroobryadcheskii. 1660s. 8°. 412 p.
OR RNB [Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Russia]. Stock 550 (Osnovnoe sobranie rukopisnoi knigi). Q.XVII.187. Sbornik smeshannogo soderzhaniya. 4º. 2nd Half 17th Century. 272 p.; Stock 588 (Sobranie M. P. Pogodina). No. 1256. Sbornik staroobryadcheskii. 1°. Last Quarter of the 18th Century. 435 p.; Stock 717 (Biblioteka Solovetskogo monastyrya). Sergii Shelonin. Sbornik. 1º 1650s. 670 p.
Panchenko, O. V. (2003). Iz arkheograficheskikh razyskanii v oblasti solovetskoi knizhnosti. I. “Pokhval’noe slovo russkim prepodobnym” – sochinenie Sergiya Shelonina [From the Archaeological Research in the Field of Solovetsky Booklore. I. “Word of Praise to the Russian Reverend” – Work of Sergiy Shelonin]. In Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoi literatury. St Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin. Vol. 53, pp. 547–592.
Panchenko, O. V. (2004). Iz arkheograficheskikh razyskanii v oblasti solovetskoi knizhnosti. II. “Kanon vsem svyatym, izhe v Velitsei Rossii v poste prosiyavshim” – sochinenie Sergiya Shelonina [From the Archaeographic Research in the Field of Solovetsky Literature. II. “The Canon to All Saints Who Shone in Fasting in Great Russia” – Work of Sergiy Shelonin]. In Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoi literatury. St Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin. Vol. 56, pp. 453–480.
Panchenko, O. V. (2010). Khronograf Sergiya Shelonina [Chronograph by Sergiy Shelonin]. In Panchenko, O. V. (Ed.). Knizhnye tsentry Drevnei Rusi. Knizhnoe nasledie Solovetskogo monastyrya. St Petersburg, Nauka, pp. 361–512.
Pokrovskii, N. N. (1973). O roli drevnikh rukopisnykh i staropechatnykh knig v skladyvanii sistemy avtoritetov staroobryadchestva [Role of Ancient Handwritten and Old Printed Books in the Formation of the System of Old Believer Authorities]. In Nauchnye biblioteki Sibiri i Dal’nego Vostoka. Novosibirsk, Gosudarstvennaya publichnaya nauchno-tekhnicheskaya biblioteka Sibirskogo otdeleniya RAN. Iss. 14, pp. 19–40.
Sapozhnikova, O. S. (2010). Russkii knizhnik XVII v. Sergii Shelonin. Redaktorskaya deyatel’nost’ [Russian Writer of the 17th Century. Sergiy Shelonin. Editorial Activity]. Moscow, St Petersburg, Al’yans-Arkheo. 560 p.
Shashkov, A. T. (2013). Izbrannye trudy [Selected Works]. Yekaterinburg, Basko. 736 p.
Sinitsyna, N. V. (1977). Maksim Grek v Rossii [Maksim Grek in Russia]. Moscow, Nauka. 332 p.
Ukhanova, E. V. (2010). K voprosu o razreshitel’nykh gramotakh vostochnykh patriarkhov v Rossii: novye ehkzemplyary v fondakh GIM [On the Issue of the Permits of the Eastern Patriarchs in Russia: New Copies in the Archives of State Historical Museum]. In Kapterevskie chteniya. Iss. 8, pp. 91–114.
Uspenskii, B. A. (2006). Krest i krug. Iz istorii khristianskoi simvoliki [Cross and Circle. From the History of Christian Symbolism]. Moscow, Yazyki slavyanskikh kul’tur. 488 p.
