Четивата за св. Мина в (южно)славянските календарни сборници

Abstract

My paper, dedicated to the readings on St. Menas, aims at tracing which of the texts about the saint known in the Byzantine manuscript tradition were translated and became part of the Slavonic calendrical collections, as well as et identifying the specific types of manuscripts in which these texts are found. It is not only a survey of the narratives about the saint present in the Slavonic tradition but also attempts to examine the literary context in which the specific texts were placed. Given that calendrical collections differ to varying degrees (genealogically, chronologically, in composition, etc.), we sought to answer the question of the presence of a specific text in a certain type of collecton, while tracing the possible reasons that determined its appearance in such a type of collecton. The two main texts of focus are the Passio S. Menae, BHG 1254, and the Miracula S. Menae by Timothy of Alexandria, BHG 1256–1269. As the present study shows, in the South Slavonic tradition these two texts occur in two different types of collections. The Passio is part of collections that in the Slavonic tradition are defined as “old-type panegyrics”/староизводни панигирици (corresponding to the panegyricomartyrologia in the Byzantine tradition), combining texts for the Menaion and Paschal cycles of feasts, while the Miracula are part of collections like the menaion-chetii /чети-минеи (corresponding to the menologia in the Byzantine tradition). The main research conclusion of this article is that the Passio, which has features typical of the genre of martyria, is a liturgical reading and is more ritual-oriented; hence, it is found in collections of the panegyricomartyrologia type. In contrast, in the case of collections of the menology type, there is an expansion to include the Miracula of the saint – unquestionably more entertaining readings, which have been considered not only to reflect pre-Christian ideas and practices, but even in some cases to be shameful and disgraceful (Delehaye 1927: 153). From the menology – one of the type of calendar collection that existed for the longest time in Slavonic tradition – these entertaining and even fantastic narratives of the miracles of the saint were adapted in the so called cheti-sborniki (another late medieval phenomenon) and became sought readings by laypeople due to their far more curious and entertaining features. This occurred in the late medieval period, when literate people did not read solely under the constraints of the Typikon’s prescriptions but also due to personal interests and “literary” tastes.