Two views on Olga of Kiev in the Ancient Rus’ hymnography

Abstract

This article is dedicated to analysis of the preserved liturgical written artifacts dedicated to the Saint Equiapostolic Grand Princess Olga. These hymnographic ancient manuscripts, in modern sense poetic art of composing ceremonial, laudatory and pious (liturgical) chants, allow tracing the perception of the act of holiness by several generations of Russian scribes who lived centuries after her, and how it is perceived by the contemporaries. These representations are revealed through analyzing the images of Saint Olga, her deeds, which were praised in one or another hymnographic work by the composer. The scientific novelty is reflected in the thesis that since the late XVI century the hymnographic and hagiographic monuments more often demonstrate a regularity – the authors (especially of monuments dedicated to princedoms) increasingly attempt to portray not a realistic person who achieved sainthood, rather a saint that descended to reality, thus already representing that which deserves praise and requires endless repetition thereof. The pinnacle of such reverence of not only the sainthood, but also living rulers, was the XVIII century, when living emperors were shamelessly place into the same bracket with God, and often replacing latter with the former, and the empresses, for whom “Christ” was an awkward name, were placed above God.