HESYCHASTIC TRADITION AS A SOURCE OF UKRAINIAN CORDOCENTRISM

Abstract

The statement of basic materials. The history of the adoption of Christianity by Kyivan Rus from the very beginning shows close ties with the monastic republic on Mount Athos. Researchers testify that Mount Athos was already the center of enlightenment and culture of Kyivan Rus. Only in this way does it become clear that Antony Pecherskyi was not a historical accident that suddenly fell from the sky like a star. Not only in Kyiv, but also in other cultural and political centers, monasteries appear in the context of the Athos heritage. XV century became catastrophic for the Byzantine Empire. But Athos retained relative autonomy. In the 16th century it is Volyn that becomes the spiritual and educational center of connection between the Ukrainian land and Mount Athos. The decline of Byzantium also affected the history of Ukrainian lands. The gradual strengthening of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led to the beginning of projects to absorb Orthodox culture. The Union of Brest in 1596 provoked a movement of Orthodox spiritual and cultural resistance. And Athos, with the tradition of the Hesychasts, fulfilled his spiritual mission. The Athos influence on the literary works of Ukrainian figures was direct. S. Shumylo claims that Elder Ioann Vyshenskyi was the brightest personality of the Orthodox movement in Ukraine in the 17th century. His spiritual and literary work is a century ahead of the forerunners of the “philokalic revival” in Orthodoxy of the 18th-19th centuries. The works of I. Vyshenskyi are deeply imbued with ascetic and hesychastic motifs. But he was not only an experienced practitioner of the incessant Jesus prayer, but also tried to instill the hesychastic tradition in his homeland. It was from this that he wanted to build a spiritual and educational system in Orthodox monasteries according to Athos customs. The Ukrainian hesychastic revival had not only a religious and cultural-political influence. He was a statesman. The direct influence on the formation of Ukrainian statehood is confirmed by the blessing and, in fact, the legitimization of the “holy war” for the defense of Orthodoxy by the well-known Aphonite Patriarch of Constantinople Athanasius, who twice met with Bohdan Khmelnitsky and who ended his life in the Cossack Mgar monastery. The participation of Aphonites not only in the spiritual, but also in the political life of Ukraine was systematic and widespread. The 17th - 18th centuries also had a significant influence of the hesychastic tradition on all levels of Ukrainian society, from the spiritual and political elite to the masses. This is what can explain the phenomenon of H. Skovoroda.