A Handwritten Greek Hagiography of Russian Saints from Mount Athos: The Life of St Mitrofan of Voronezh

Abstract

Modern methods for studying old Russian texts are based on the reconstruction of foreign translations: this makes it possible to define the extent to which the world of the Middle Ages and the early modern period was acquainted with them. Post-Byzantine translations of the hagiographic works of old Rus’ and later periods are rare cases of such texts. The archive of the Athos Russian Monastery of St Panteleimon contains a text which makes up part of the Greek manuscript Cod. Athos. Panteleemon. gr. 283 (1848): it speaks of the life of St Mitrofan of Voronezh (†1703), a famous associate of Peter the Great canonised by the Russian Church in 1832. At the time of his canonisation, a handwritten abridged hagiography was released: this was followed a few years later by a longer version which the Greek text relies on. A codicological investigation has helped to identify the codex’s author and scribe: the monk Jacobos Neaksytiotes (1790s–1869), an outstanding theologian and historian (his opus magnum was Athonias) of Athos. The reconstruction of his biography and legacy allows the author of this article to understand this monk’s interest in Russian history and his translations of some hagiographic works from Russian into Greek. The article also contains a Russian translation of the Greek hagiographic text.