Liturgical Literature Research Articles

Zamość Style Unification: Liturgicon and Euchologion in the Basilian Monasteries of the Lviv Eparchy in Second Half of the 18th Century

The paper studies the problem of the unification of the liturgical books in the Basilian monasteries of the Lviv eparchy in the second half of the 18th century. Research concentrates on the problem of Zamość council resolution implementation by analyzing the “church books” in the monasteries of Basilians. Investigating the “book lists” from inventory descriptions and protocols of visitations allows to trace changes in the monasteries concerning the “church books” as it was fixed in the documents, a major part of which used for this research are from the Lviv archives. Among the main indicators of a certain liturgical tradition are the texts of the Liturgicon and the Euchologion. In the second half of the 18th century, the presence of Univ and Pochaiv Liturgicon and Euchologion was selective since we do not have data for all decades for all monasteries. At the same time, such an analysis allows tracing a clear tendency – the full-fledged unification of liturgical literature in Basilian monasteries can be noted at the start of the 1760s.

Рух за українізацію автокефальної «Православної церкви в Польщі» на Волині у 20-30-х рр. XХ ст.

The purpose of the article: to analyze the movement for the Ukrainianization of the autocephalous «Orthodox Church in Poland» in Volyn. The research methodology is grounded on the principles developed by the “Annals” school, in particular, objectivity in judgments about the past, the desire to understand the mentality of social groups of that time, first of all the clergy, the specifics of their relationships. In the process of research, the methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as chronological, comparative and descriptive methods were applied.The scientific novelty of the obtained results consist in the deepening of the understanding of the national identification of the clergy and believers in Volyn, the evolution of the Ukrainian church movement in Poland in the 20’s and 30’s of the 20th century in Volyn, based on the archival and published sources. Conclusions. In the conditions of Polish statehood, the clergy of the Orthodox Volyn Diocese developed in the direction of national self-identification. During this period, the intellectual level of the priests grew, as did their desire for the Ukrainization of their own church. In Volyn, the idea of Ukrainization of the Orthodox Church had support among believers, the public, and most importantly, the clergy and hierarchy, who actively implemented it. Therefore, Volyn appears as a center where the Ukrainian church movement is born and begins to strengthen. It was distinguished by the growth of national consciousness of Ukrainians and significant achievements in the Ukrainianization of the Orthodox Church in Volyn, which was part of the Orthodox Church in Poland. The movement for Ukrainization was aimed at conducting liturgies and church administration in the Ukrainian language, teaching religion in schools in the Ukrainian language, translating liturgical literature into the Ukrainian language, consecrating Ukrainian bishops, separating all Ukrainian parishes into a separate diocese headed by a Ukrainian bishop, etc. The Ukrainian church movement in Volyn helped preserve the identity of the Ukrainian people in the conditions of Polish statehood.

ON THE FIRST PRINTED VOCABULARY OF THE LUDIC DIALECT OF THE KARELIAN LANGUAGE

The article provides a brief historical background on the most significant sources written in the Karelian language, as well as a description of the Ludic dialect and the peculiarities of the Svyatozersk dialect, which served as the basis of the first dictionary. The activities of the translation commission in the 19th century resulted in the first translations of the Gospel and other liturgical literature, and at the same time dictionaries, grammars and primers were written in 50 languages of Russia. The Russian-Karelian Dictionary was published in St. Petersburg in 1908. The compiler of the dictionary was a teacher of the Svyatozersk School, Mikhail Dmitrievich Georgievsky. The dictionary includes 1523 words: the dictionary entries in the source are followed by appendices containing vocabulary on specific topics: names, days of the week, holidays; the dictionary also contains numerals, verb conjugations, sentences with translation.The value of the dictionary, published more than a hundred years ago, lies in the fact that it reflects the vocabulary characteristic of the Svyatozersky dialect, chosen as one of the basic dialects in the lemmatization of the Ludic subcorpus (VepKar).

Предостерегая от «академической книжности»: из истории перевода на абхазский язык русской классической литературы

The article examines the experience of Abkhaz translators, writers and scientists in translating Russian classics into the Abkhaz language. It is shown that literary translation in Abkhazia developed in stages and in parallel with domestic literature, becoming its integral part, revealing the potential expressive capabilities of the native language. Briefly describing the legacy of the founder of Abkhaz literature D. I. Gulia, who was engaged in the translation of liturgical literature in the early 20th century, the author dwells on the most significant achievements of modern translators of Russian classical literature. Important theoretical and practical observations concerning the translation technique are presented, variants of some texts in the Abkhaz language are given, by examples of which the article illustrates the most significant discoveries and achievements of translators in the field of transferring the figurative system of the original text, rhythm and meter (when it comes to verse speech), composition, general tonality of the work.

Formation of the tradition of using forms izhe, yazhe, ezhe in place of the Greek article in Church Slavonic liturgical literature (based on the Books of Needs of the 13th–17th centuries)

Formation of the tradition of using forms izhe, yazhe, ezhe in place of the Greek article in Church Slavonic liturgical literature (based on the Books of Needs of the 13th–17th centuries)

The Soviet Journal “LOKAF” on Foreign Literature: How not to Become a Remarquable

The article is devoted to the menologion (calendar of saints) compiled in the 20th century for Russian Byzantine Catholics. The latter are a church community with its own Byzantine-Slavic worship and piety, which follow both the Catholic and the Eastern spiritual traditions. Like the entire liturgical literature of the Russian Eastern Catholics, the menologion was created in Rome under the auspices of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, as part of the activities of the Russian Catholic Apostolate, i.e., of the mission of the Catholic Church addressed to Russia and the Russian diaspora in the world. The corpus of service books for Russian, Bulgarian and Serbian Eastern Catholics was called Recensio Vulgata. The menologion under study is contained in the books of Recensio Vulgata and was compiled on the basis of the Orthodox menologia of pre-revolutionary Russia. The compilers of the Byzantine-Catholic menologion did not just select Russian liturgical memories in a certain way, they also included the names of several martyrs of the Eastern Catholic Churches and some additional commemorations of Western saints. According to the compilers of the menologion, the history of Catholic (orthodox) holiness in North-Eastern Russia ended at the turn of the 1440s, when the Principality of Moscow and the Novgorod Republic abandoned the Union of Florence. The menologion reflects the era after the Union of Florence in the events that show the invariable patronage of the Mother of God over the people and the Russian land. The Recensio Vulgata menologion (RVM) contains twelve Russia-specific holidays that honor icons of the Mother of God, nine of which celebrate the events of the period from the late 15th to the 17th centuries. The compilers of the menologion created a well-devised system in which the East Slavic saints, the ancient saints of the Byzantine menologion, the Latin teachers of the Church, the saints of the Byzantine Catholic churches of different eras all are subject to harmonious logic, and harmony serves to organize the whole.

Russian Liturgical Memories in the Slavic Byzantine-Catholic Menologion (Recensio Vulgata) of the Mid-20th Century

The article is devoted to the menologion (calendar of saints) compiled in the 20th century for Russian Byzantine Catholics. The latter are a church community with its own Byzantine-Slavic worship and piety, which follow both the Catholic and the Eastern spiritual traditions. Like the entire liturgical literature of the Russian Eastern Catholics, the menologion was created in Rome under the auspices of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, as part of the activities of the Russian Catholic Apostolate, i.e., of the mission of the Catholic Church addressed to Russia and the Russian diaspora in the world. The corpus of service books for Russian, Bulgarian and Serbian Eastern Catholics was called Recensio Vulgata. The menologion under study is contained in the books of Recensio Vulgata and was compiled on the basis of the Orthodox menologia of pre-revolutionary Russia. The compilers of the Byzantine-Catholic menologion did not just select Russian liturgical memories in a certain way, they also included the names of several martyrs of the Eastern Catholic Churches and some additional commemorations of Western saints. According to the compilers of the menologion, the history of Catholic (orthodox) holiness in North-Eastern Russia ended at the turn of the 1440s, when the Principality of Moscow and the Novgorod Republic abandoned the Union of Florence. The menologion reflects the era after the Union of Florence in the events that show the invariable patronage of the Mother of God over the people and the Russian land. The Recensio Vulgata menologion (RVM) contains twelve Russia-specific holidays that honor icons of the Mother of God, nine of which celebrate the events of the period from the late 15th to the 17th centuries. The compilers of the menologion created a well-devised system in which the East Slavic saints, the ancient saints of the Byzantine menologion, the Latin teachers of the Church, the saints of the Byzantine Catholic churches of different eras all are subject to harmonious logic, and harmony serves to organize the whole.

Anthropological and Social Features of the Pre-Council Liturgical Literature

U ovome članku autori istražuju antropološke i socijalne elemente u liturgijskim knjigama objavljenim u XVI. i XVII. st., koje su većim dijelom nepromijenjene vrijedile sve do Drugoga vatikanskog sabora (1962. – 1965.). U prijašnjim je stoljećima Crkva imala isključivu ingerenciju i u nekim područjima koje danas pokriva građanskodruštvo (država): školstvo, zdravstvo, ženidbeni zakoni, vođenje matičnih knjiga. U svome istraživanju autori pokazuju kako su u spomenutim knjigama donesene i neke odredbe koje uz liturgijsko imaju i određeno antropološko i sociološko značenje. To su upute o čistoći crkvenoga ruha i crkvenoga posuđa, te o čistoći crkvenih službenika. Jednako tako susreću se podrobne odredbe koje se odnose na ćudoređe (stidljivost) te na odnos između muškaraca i žena, pri čemu je vidljivo da su žene u podređenom položaju u skladu s običajima prijašnjih vremena, što se dobrim dijelom temelji i na biblijskoj tradiciji. Knjige također donose uputei odredbe o drugim važnim vidovima života, osobito glede sklapanjaženidbe, pri čemu se pazi da budu ispunjeni svi naravni uvjetikao što su dob i slobodna volja. Iz ovog je istraživanja vidljivoda je Crkva imala važan utjecaj u društvenome životu te da je uprošlim stoljećima imala također važnu prosvjetiteljsku ulogu.

The History of the Dead God – The Genesis of ‘the Death of God’ in Philosophy and Literature Before Nietzsche

Few of the statements penned by philosophers have become as infamous as the “God is Dead!” of Friedrich Nietzsche. This study is not concerned with the reasons why this phrase is so popular. Instead, I would like to delve into the prehistory and partial genesis of the concept, something Nietzsche adopted from a previous tradition. Apart from known examples of theses on the death of God by Hegel, Schelling or Jean Paul, I will shed light on some of the confusion surrounding the phrase deus est mortuus in Mediaeval Christian liturgical literature and mysticism, with roots reaching back to Neoplatonism. The goal of this study is to point out that this phrase about the death of God had no significant constitutive meaning for Nietzsche but was, instead, a relatively common literary and rhetorical topos among other culturally diagnostic expressive elements. Nietzsche used it as an illustrative shortcut when describing the intercultural processes of his time, with no ambition to originality, instead, with the clear intention of shaking up the (non)thought of the comfortable bureaucrats and legalistic petit bourgeois of Germany in the late 19th century.

A fiziko-teologizmus irodalmának hazai forrásai

Our aim is to reimagine the Hungarian reception of physico-theology, demonstrating its significance in terms of the history of science and cultural science, and to present, with attention to other European sources and parallels, the cultural and literary process that leads us to the beginnings of the oeuvre of Mihály Fazekas and to the works of his contemporaries. We seek to obtain a deeper knowledge of the Hungarian and international sources of physicotheology in terms of the science of history in a Protestant environment in the 18th century, as well as of the first appearance of physico-theology in school education, scientific training and schools. In this endeavour, without attempting to be exhaustive, we have extended the sources to works of piety literature and liturgical literature. The scientific collections, manuscripts and printed materials of the Reformed College of Debrecen and the Reformed College of Sárospatak have been the subjects of this research, although western European sources have been used in the research as well. The principles of physico-theology were first widely introduced in Hungarian language in the works of Benjámin Szőnyi, followed by many of his contemporaries later on in the second half of the 18th century.

A fiziko-teologizmus irodalmának hazai forrásai

Our aim is to reimagine the Hungarian reception of physico-theology, demonstrating its significance in terms of the history of science and cultural science, and to present, with attention to other European sources and parallels, the cultural and literary process that leads us to the beginnings of the oeuvre of Mihály Fazekas and to the works of his contemporaries. We seek to obtain a deeper knowledge of the Hungarian and international sources of physicotheology in terms of the science of history in a Protestant environment in the 18th century, as well as of the first appearance of physico-theology in school education, scientific training and schools. In this endeavour, without attempting to be exhaustive, we have extended the sources to works of piety literature and liturgical literature. The scientific collections, manuscripts and printed materials of the Reformed College of Debrecen and the Reformed College of Sárospatak have been the subjects of this research, although western European sources have been used in the research as well. The principles of physico-theology were first widely introduced in Hungarian language in the works of Benjámin Szőnyi, followed by many of his contemporaries later on in the second half of the 18th century.

СТАНОВЛЕННЯ УАПЦ НА КИЇВЩИНІ В РОКИ НАЦИСТСЬКОЇ ОКУПАЦІЇ

The article deals with the making of church structure of the of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in the Kyiv region during the German occupation. The Metropolitan Dionisii Valedynskyi of Warsaw gave his blessing for the establishment of the UAOC and designated Archbishop Polikarp Sikorskyi as administrator of the Church. In February 1942 Sikorsky consecrated the first two bishops of the UAOC on Ukrainian territory (Nykanor Abramovych and Ihor Huba). The wartime Autocephalous Church attracted the more nationally conscious faithful and readily welcomed the revival of the Ukrainian language and national traditions in the life of the church.The revival of church life in the Kyiv region was accompanied by the following difficulties: rebuilding sacred buildings, training priests, lack of liturgical literature, items and antiminses. According to the results of work of the Council of bishops in Kyiv the new group of hierarchs was consecrated, Metropolitan Dionisii was elected as locum tenens of the Metropolitan See of Kyiv, and separate vicariate was established. It should manage church revival in Eastern Ukraine. This indicates that the center of the autocephalous movement gradually shifted from Volhynia to Kyiv. and in May 1942 the Kyiv Council of UAOC bishopsThe study proved that, firstly, the revival of church structures in the occupied territory was significant and vital for the spiritual needs satisfaction of the Orthodox population. Secondly, the occupation authority contributed to the restoration of the church network primarily to meet its own interests. On the one hand, this authority opposed itself the Stalinist regime, and on the other hand, was aimed to use the Orthodox Church for its own colonialist policy. Not only the slightest resistance was brutally suppressed by Germans, but any manifestation of Ukrainian religious identity was prevented.

POETIC STYLE OF NON-FICTION MEMOIRS: THE PROBLEM OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT IN THE BOOK OF M. ATAMANOV “ULON-VYLON DAURKAE: TODE VAYONYOS”

The article looks into the poetic style of the new book of memoirs of Mikhail Atamanov “Ulon-vylon Daurkae: todevayonyos” (The World of My Life-Being: Memoirs) in the context of the development of non-fiction literature in the Udmurt literary process at the turn of the century. The focus is on the artistic features of the genre of memoirs in the works of a Finno-Ugric scholar, essayist, publicist, missionary, translator of the Bible and liturgical literature into the Udmurt language, compiler of the national epic “Tangyra”. The main theme of the memoirs is the theme of motherhood and fatherhood, the image of a small homeland, the ethnic history of the Udmurt people, the path to Christianity. For Mikhail Atamanov, the source for creating the memoirs was his studies in linguistics, ethnography and expeditions to the Udmurt ethnic groups along with his personal life experience. Special poetry to the leading images of the memoirs, the portraits of the parent home and small homeland, is created by a deep knowledge of folklore, folk traditions, the bearer of which is the author of memoirs. In addition to that, Atamanov’s book is significant for the theme of road, which is not so notable at first sight. It is associated with his life experience, personal becoming, his studies, work, spiritual and scientific growth. It is worth noting that the theme of continuity of generations, inherited memory of the public, common closeness with the ancestors is also topical in the memoirs. One of the burning issues of the book is the theme of the nation’s future. The author is overly concerned about the globalization processes in the world, he is hurt by the fact that the current generation of Udmurts doesn’t much care for keeping the Udmurt language and traditions of the nation.

Церковнослов’янізми із коренем -мук-/-муч- в староукраїнських пам’ятках XVI–XVII ст / Cerkiewnosłowianizmy z rdzeniem -muk-/-muč- w zabytkach staroukraińskich z XVI–XVII wieku

The article presents research results of the ecclesiastical slavicisms with the root -muk-/-much-. The research is based on monuments of Ukrainian literature written during the 16th–17th centuries (card catalogues, court documents, wills, descriptions of castles, universals of the offices of hetmans, documents of church and school fraternities, chronicles, works of religious, polemical and fiction, memos of scientific and educational literature, liturgical literature, epistolary heritage, etc.) included in the source database Dictionary of the Ukrainian language of the XVI – the first half of the XVII century, edited by D. Hrynchyshyn and Chikalo M., and Historical Dictionary of the Ukrainian language, edited by E. Tymchenko. It was found that the dictionaries mentioned above list more than thirty words of different structure and phonetic-graphic variants of word forms with the root -muk-/-much-. The study focused on the etymological analysis of the studied tokens, which was aimed to establish their semantic etymon, while it was noted that some Church Slavonicisms are traces to the Greek language. The analysis also showed that the abstract Church Slavonic words with the root -muk-/-much-, attested in Ukrainian monuments of the 16th–17th centuries, did not undergo significant semantic changes in the history of Ukrainian vocabulary. On the other hand, some words have undergone a partial semantic modification, particularly those that have become a part of the idioms in the Ukrainian language of the 16th and 17th centuries, while others have become figurative. It is established that the historical part of the analyzed lexemes is not the same. The vast majority of the studied Church Slavonicisms have survived to this day in the Ukrainian literary language, as well as in the colloquial language. Some of them function in Ukrainian liturgical practice.

Гермения как жанр в коптской богослужебной литературе

Гермения как жанр в коптской богослужебной литературе

Функциональный сдвиг в церковнославянской гимнографии: служба Собору св. сербских просветителей и учителей (30 августа) в составе Сербляка (1861, 1986)

[full article, abstract in Russian; abstract in Lithuanian and English]
 The author demonstrates that the Serbian liturgical service for Serbia’s Saint Illuminators and Teachers (to be sung on August 30) which was most probably compiled in the late 18th-mid-19th century consists almost exclusively of hymns extracted from the earlier Old Church Slavonic hymnographic compositions, both translated from Greek and the original (composed in Moscovite Rus). For the majority of troparia as well as for some stichera, their hymnographic sources and the principles of their editing while including them into the Serbian composition are indicated. Among the researched hymns (the majority of stichera are not included in the research), there are merely three troparia which may be considered original. The resulted hymnographic composition is a clear example of the functional shift in the Old Church Slavonic hymnography, but also a remarkable piece of evidence for the Russian-Serbian cultural contacts in the field of liturgical literature of the late 18th-mid-19th century.

A VOCABULARY FOR MARKING GOD'S PEOPLE, SAINTS AND ANGELS IN THE UKRAINIAN HISTORICAL DICTIONARY EDITED BY YEVHEN TYMCHENKO

In the article, based on the material of the multi-genre Ukrainian monuments of the writing of different styles of the 14–18 centuries, included in the database of the sources “Mapping of the Historical Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language”, edited by Ye. Tymchenko was studied religious vocabulary in the diachronic aspect, in particular, the lexical-semantic group of words and derivatives from the formations expressing the concept of "God's people, saints, angels". The illustrative material of the dictionary represents various thematic groups of religious vocabulary: the names of performers and members of the liturgy; the names of liturgical objects, their varieties, and parts; the names of liturgies; the names of ceremonies; Christian rites, their varieties and parts; the names of the temple and its parts, etc. The studied vocabulary is captured by almost all genres of the Ukrainian language of the ХІV–ХVІІІ centuries, in particular, acts, judicial documents, wills, charters, сhronicles, works of confessional, polemic and fiction literature, liturgical literature, epistolary legacy, etc. The article focuses on the etymological analysis of religious names, which mainly consisted of determining their semantic etymon. It is established that genetically the words of the studied lexical-semantic group are not homogeneous, because it consists of lexemes of different origins, in particular borrowings from the Greek, Church Slavonic, Polish language, etc. Some Church Slavonic names emerged as semantic tracings to Greek words. It has been discovered that some of the lexemes under study often serve as the core components of various binomial or threefold stable and lexicalized word combinations. Polysemy, synonymy, and antonymy are typical for certain words indicating God's personality, saints, and angels. It has been established that mostly all the words considered have been preserved until today in the Ukrainian literary language and church-liturgical practice. Keywords historical dictionary, the monuments of writing, semantics, phrase, Church Slavonic language

The Buddhist Affirmation of Poetry and Locating a Thirteenth-century Fugen kōshiki in Liturgical Literature

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)There are two important ways that koshiki intersect with Japanese literature. The first nexus is the current recognition that koshiki themselves constitute a distinct genre within the broader category of Buddhist liturgical works.1 The interest of scholars of literature has been stimulated by the dawning realization that the language of these sacred works was shared with other genres of Japanese literature. The second conjunction involves the fact that several important early koshiki concern topics, particularly Japanese poetry (waka ...). The three-part Fugen koshiki in the collection of Todaiji Toshokan is a prime example of a koshiki concerned with waka. This work makes an unprecedented claim that explicitly links a Buddhist justification of poetry with the ritual technology of repentance (sange ...) before the bodhisattva Fugen ... (Sk. Samantabhadra).2 This spiritual technique had been developed in the Tendai tradition as the Lotus Repentance Rite (Hokke senbo ...), sometimes called the Samantabhadra Repentance Rite (Fugen senbo ...).3 This linkage between repentance before Fugen and a justification of poetry is not found in any other of several extant Fugen koshiki, nor is it seen in other koshiki. Indeed, it is not found anywhere in the voluminous corpus of Japanese literature concerned with Japanese poetry. In a leap beyond the bounds of logic, this koshiki strives to fuse faith in the power of Fugen to forgive transgressions with a recognition that the apparently sinful act of artifice can itself be sacred. In so doing, it clarifies a long-standing puzzle in a landmark work that is concerned with the Buddhist justification of poetry: why Fugen appears as the honzon ... , the central object of worship, at the gathering described in the famous Waka mandokoro ippongyo kuyo hyobyaku (hereafter Waka mandokoro hyobaku) of the Tendai preacher Choken ... (1126-1203).4Despite the Chinese tradition, also adopted in Japan, that privileged poetry as a sincere expression of the human heart and a spontaneous response to natural phenonena and human emotions, poetic creation might also be deemed one or another of the ten evil actions-false speech (Jp. mogo ...; Sk. m?sa-vada) or fancy talk (Jp. kigo ...; Sk. sa?bhinna-pralapa), and sometimes both at once, as seen in the plaintive words of Yoshishige Yasutane ... (933-1002) collected in Honcho monzui (snkbt 27, 351). Yasutane's views have been characterized as a truly agonized rejection of the literary (Yamada 2012, 68), and he is also said to have been the first writer in Japan to incorporate Bai Juyi's ... (772-846) dismissal of his mundane writing (Ch. shisu wenji; Jp. sezoku moji ...) as wild words and fancy phrases into Japanese liteature (Ch. kuangyan qiyu; Jp. kyogen kigo ...) (Osone 1998, 321). Evolving Japanese interpretations of Juyi's plea that those sinful words be transformed (tenjite ?) into praise for and propagation of Buddhism (sanbutsujo no tane ... and tenporin no en ...) fundamentally altered the understanding of the role of literature in medieval Japan.As artifice amounted to at best delusion and at worst prevarication and sophistry in the minds of many, it presented a dilemma to pious wouldbe authors of late Heian-period (794-1185) Japan. How were writers to pursue their way (michi ?), which was becoming a practice that provided a livelihood for poetic houses during the twelfth century, without transgressing the tenets of their faith? That century largely corresponds to the historical period known as the Inseiki ... (the period of the rule of retired emperors), 1068-1185. The discourse on the sinfulness of poetry is seen even in the most prolific poets of the era. In responding to a poetic topic taken from a passage in the Peaceful Practices chapter of the Lotus Sutra that warns against associating closely (shinkin sezare ... ) with those who compose worldly letters (sezoku no bunpitsu o tsukuru . …

Dylan Thomas, “Twenty-four years”: A Philological Reading

Abstract: On the occasion of his twenty-fourth birthday, Thomas engages in a witty, whimsical, and ironic reflection on the question of human mortality. In my analysis of this poem, I review the various rehearsals of the venerable meditatio mortis motif, from its biblical and classical origins to its modern manifestations in profane and liturgical literature.

Слово и изображение в христианской эмблематике животных

The article explores the animal emblems in the written tradition and artifacts of Early Christian art. The author provides a historical description of the abovementioned monuments created between the 9th and 11th centuries, a period that faced an important event, i. e. the East–West Schism (1054). It was at the same time that the Slavic writing system emerged along with the first liturgical language of the Slavs. The author outlines the history of Old Slavic liturgical literature but mainly focuses on the Byzantine and Roman manuscripts and works of art that played a significant role in the development of Christianity among Slavs. The author argues that the appearing animal depictions connected with the concept of divine creation and the overcoming of spiritual weakness had a significant non-coincidental character. The analysis is made with reference to iconographic images, book miniatures and ornamental animal motifs and to the context of a variety of Scripture books. The conclusions made are important as they provide additional information on both Christian iconography and the history of Slavic culture as a whole.