Дмитро Туптало – видатний український агеограф, церковний та культурний діяч

Abstract

This year it is the 370th anniversary of birthday of Danylo Savych Tuptalo – a prominent Ukrainian hagiographer, church and cultural figure. Future hierarch Dimitry was born on December 11, 1651, in the small town of Makariv, that is in the Kyiv region, in the pious family of the Cossack sotnyk Sava Hryhorovych and Mariya Mykhailivna. Historical and dogmatic-polemical works, texts of sermons, precepts have been and still remain important for us. They illustrate the world outlook, views, value system, high intellectual and moral level of Dimitri Tuptalo. However, his fundamental hagiographic encyclopaedia – Lives of Saints, known as Chetya-Mineya, is the most significant work of the Saint. This is a combined collection of the lives of saints by days and months of the year from September to August. Demetrius Tuptalo has started work in 1684, when he accepts the proposal of Pechersk Archimandrite Varlaam Yasynskyi and settles in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Work on Lives of Saints in 4 volumes has lasted for the whole 20 years (with intermissions). Each volume covers three months of the year. We are convinced that the contribution of Dimitri Tuptalo to the Ukrainian written culture in general and to the Ukrainian hagiography, in particular, is extremely significant. As the biographies of famous bishops, patriarchs, monks, and secular persons, canonized by the Orthodox Church, are undoubtedly important for our spiritual culture. Hagiographic literature has always enriched the believer, is a certain example of piety. These works open new meanings, nurture curious thought, give examples of the embodiment of the highest virtues in the lives of saints, incite to self-centration and self-completion.