Monastic Name Research Articles

NAMING SYSTEMS IN EVGENII VODOLAZKIN’S «LAVR» THROUGH THE LENS OF MEDIEVAL FOLK TRADITION

"The following article will analyze the development of the protagonist of Evgenii Vodolazkin’s novel, Lavr, who is a boy growing up in the author’s imagined, syncretic medieval period, as he undergoes several namings and renamings throughout the course of the plot. During the Russian Middle Ages, one’s name performed a protective and fate-defining role, while also situating its bearer within a framework of familial and religious tradition, thereby strengthening both horizontal ties to other individuals and vertical ties to a divine power. Following Erich Auerbach’s theory of figural interpretation and drawing on folklore, Orthodox chronicles, and onomastic studies, this article will consider the ways in which the main character of the novel is able to subvert the bounds of both space and time through his varied appellations. As the narrative develops, it becomes clear how his names irrevocably link him to his friends, family, historical figures, and ultimately, to the biblical story of salvation. Keywords: name, double names, figural interpretation, salvation, onomastics, etymology, monastic name, baptismal name. "

Идентификация византийских императоров в т. н. «Предисловии» к «Софийскому временнику» («Начального свода»)

The paper proposes a new identification of the names of Byzantine emperors (“Greek Cae-sars”) indicated as chronological reference points in the so-called “Introduction” to the “Ini-tial Compilation” of the 11th century. Apart from Michael III, the last emperor of the Amorian dynasty, who was unambiguously identified, the second emperor was named Emperor Alex-ander of the Macedonian dynasty, and the third emperor was Isaakios I, the founder of the Komnenos dynasty. It is also possible that only two emperors are specified – the first, from which the history of the “Russian land” is counted, Michael III, and the second, contemporary for the author of the text, the ruler of Byzantium, Isaakios I Komnenos. In this case the name Alexander probably was the second monastic name of Isaakios I, who in 1059 left the throne and has left in a monastery, but kept connections with imperial palace. In favour of this speaks the most probable date of his tonsure, which falls on November 24 – the day of the memory of the martyr Alexander. The reference to Isaakios I Komnenos allows us to date the text of the “Introduction” to the beginning of the 1060s, attributing it to the so-called “Compilation of the 1060-s”.

František Vavřinec Rabas, OFMCap (1901–1969) jako pedagog a blízký spolupracovník litoměřického biskupa Štěpána Trochty

The article is dedicated to Roman Catholic priest, František Rabas, who was in 1918–1946 member of the Friars Minor Capuchin and thus used his monastic name Vavřinec. The chief aim of the text is to connect his two, so far in effect separately perceived identities, that is, one of the Capuchin historiographer, teacher, and educator, the other of the Rector of the seminary in Litoměřice and a secret vicar general of the Litoměřice bishopric. For this ‘subversive’ activity, he was in 1954 together with his bishop, Štěpán Trochta, and other collaborators, sentenced to many years in prison. The authors present a comprehensive biography of a notable personage of the Czech Catholic Church and Catholic intellectual circles of the first two thirds of the twentieth century, whose life aptly demonstrates the developments in the Catholic Church.

Polski patriotyzm jako przywiązanie do wspólnych korzeni cywilizacji Zachodu. Refleksje na marginesie włoskiego wydania traktatu o. Józefa Marii (Innocentego) Bocheńskiego OP

This article is the Polish version of the introduction to the Italian translation of the treatise by Father Józef Maria Bocheński OP (monastic name: Innocent) entitled: On patriotism. The author of the treatise, an outstanding Polish logician, lecturer at many universities in Europe and around the world, published his text originally intended for soldiers of the Polish II Corps fighting in Italy during the Second World War. The context of this edition, as well as the contemporary edition of the text in Italian (in the book: Alla guardia dello spirito e della fede. Il patriottismo polacco sulsuolo italiano neitestiripropostin el centenario della Battaglia di Varsavia (1920) e nel 25° anniversario della morte di padre Józef Maria (Di Innocenzo), a cura di M. Lenart, Opole University Press, Opole 2020) prompted the author of the article to show the value of patriotism in the context of Italian culture, in which this topic, and even the concept itself, is currently being eliminated from the public sphere. Thus, conducting discussions on topics related to patriotism encounters many difficulties despite the widespread belief in close cultural relations between Poland and Italy.

A Convert's Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy by Tamar Herzig (review)

Reviewed by: A Convert's Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy by Tamar Herzig Andrew Berns Tamar Herzig. A Convert's Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019. 400 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009421000222 A Convert's Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy tells the story of a Jewish convert to Christianity in fifteenth-century Italy. Based on thorough archival research in several northern Italian cities, Herzig combines narrative history with some historiographical engagement. The book will stand as an example of microhistory—Herzig explicitly acknowledges the influence of Thomas Robisheaux—and an appealing study of a colorful character from Renaissance Italy. The heart of Herzig's book is her story of the life of Salomone da Sesso, a Jew who converted to Christianity in 1491 and was patronized by the Este family in Ferrara. One of the better-known Jewish artists of the Renaissance, Salomone da Sesso was a successful goldsmith and swordsmith. Although specialists have long known this, the general reader might not be aware that goldsmithing was one of the major professional and creative outlets for Jewish artists at this time. Painting, sculpture, and manuscript illumination all presented unique challenges to the Jewish practitioner, since they were perceived by the Jewish religious leadership as encouraging the violation of biblical proscriptions against creating idolatrous images (18). As Herzig explains, da Sesso's conversion did not result from a genuine desire to apostatize, nor even to pursue economic advantage or social status. Instead, his conversion was coerced following an allegation of sodomy. If convicted, Salomone da Sesso would have faced execution by fire. As we know all too well from Michael Rocke's work, accusations and prosecution of homosexual activity as a crime was shockingly common in Renaissance Florence—and apparently no less so in the Duchy of Ferrara. Such allegations were especially frequent among goldsmiths (61). Following his conversion, Salomone was exonerated and took the name Ercole de' Fedeli, enjoying the protection and patronage of several members of the Este family—including Alfonso I and Isabella d'Este. Ercole de' Fedeli lived, so far as we can tell, as a practicing Christian for thirty years. Herzig's book is divided into four parts and twenty chapters, most of which are quite short. This brevity contributes to the book's overall readability. Part 1, "The Virtuoso Jew," sketches the life story of Salomone da Sesso. Part 2, "Apostasy," explores the circumstances surrounding his conversion—including his alleged homosexual activity. Part 3, "A Family of Converts," expands the story beyond Salomone himself to his daughter Caterina, who not only converted to Christianity, but also entered the tertiaries' house of Santa Caterina da Siena and took the monastic name Sister Theodora. Part 4, "Between Christians and Jews," explores Ercole's fate, and that of his family members, into the early sixteenth century. In terms of her historiographical intervention, Herzig argues that forced conversion complicates the "traditional historiographical view that stresses the Ferrarese rulers' benevolent Jewry policy" (2). Herzig also understands this conversion story as reflecting "the discriminatory and repressive dimensions of Jewish-Christian [End Page 455] relations in Renaissance Italy" (244). No serious scholar would doubt this: it is commonplace even among historians who emphasize creative collaborations and intellectual cooperation between Jews and Christians that those episodes were exceptional, and were underlaid by a social, economic, and juridical structure that treated Jews as inherently inferior. But Herzig adds a certain level of nuance to her work when she notes that her book "cautions against seeing members of the persecuted minority solely as passive victims" (244). Indeed, as Herzig demonstrates, Salomone da Sesso / Ercole de' Fedeli had plenty of agency throughout his life. There are other strengths to this book. Herzig is sensitive to the importance of social class—and not merely religious identity—in Renaissance Italy. She is perhaps at her best in disclosing "the chasm separating religious ideology from the social realities experienced by Italian Jews who consented to baptism" (10). Her training and experience as a social historian are also on display through this work: she is good at illuminating how occupational and social structures...

Торгууд Анджа хүрээ ба Анджатан-ламын тухай хэдэн асуудалд ( =Некоторые сведения о торгутском Анджан курэ и Анджатан-ламе)

The historical legends and traditions associated with the name of Andzhatan Lama are well known among the Oirats of Xinjiang and Kalmyks of Russia. In Xinjiang, the history of the creation of Andzhan Kure (1712) and its abbots was always of great interest. At the same time researchers point out about ten monastic names by which the Andzhatan Lama was known According to the opinion of Prof. Ma Dazheng to whom belongs the earliest publication on this topic, the monastic name of Andzhatan Lama was Lubsandzin. The authoritative researcher’s argument was accepted by others and did not raise doubts. However, further research revealed that this name belongs to another famous Buddhist teacher. This article provides for the first time some information about the biography of Andzhatan Lama, discovered by the author during research expeditions and on the basis of some written sources.

Swami Vivekananda.Reform Hinduism, Nationalism and Scientistic Yoga

Abstract This article deals with Narendranath Datta (1863–1902) more known under his monastic name Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda was a representative of the Bengal renaissance, a movement that is famous for its contribution to the modernization of India. Vivekananda became one of the architects of neo-Hinduism and a pioneer of modern yoga. His ideas also contributed to the rising Hindu nationalism. The article outlines his biography and religious socialization. A closer look will be given to his concept of religion and the way he relates it with India`s national identity. A second major part of the article examines Vivekananda’s understanding of religious experience that is crucial for his yoga philosophy and his philosophy of religion in general.

Filip Vesdin and the comparison of Sanskrit with Iranian and Germanic languages

ABSTRACT Filip Vesdin, known by his monastic name Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo (1748–1806), was a Carmelite missionary stationed from 1776 to 1789 in Southwestern India. Vesdin authored an impressive opus of 32 books and smaller treatises on Brahmanic religion and customs, oriental manuscripts and antiques collections, language comparison and missionary history. This article focuses on the field of language comparison, principally on Vesdin’s book De antiquitate et affinitate linguae Zendicae, Samscrdamicae, et Germanicae dissertatio (= Dissertation on the Antiquity and the Affinity of the Zend, Sanskrit, and Germanic Languages), published in Rome in 1798. In this rather short treatise (56 pages), the most important part consists of three word-lists where a large number of words from Avestan, Sanskrit and Germanic languages are compared in order to prove that these languages are related. The paper presents Vesdin’s three word-lists together with a description and evaluation of his views on the relationships between these languages in order to highlight his significance in the history of comparative and historical linguistics. The paper also provides new insights into the relationship of De antiquitate to Vesdin’s later proto-linguistic treatise, De Latini sermonis origine (1802). Abbreviations Av.: Avestan; Guj.: Gujaratī; IIr.: Indo-Iranian; Lat.: Latin; Malab.: Malabaricum (Vesdin’s term for Malayāḷam); Malay.: Malayāḷam; MHG: Middle High Germa; NHG: New High German; NP: New Persian; OAv.: Old Avestan; OFris.: Old Frisian; OHG: Old High German; OSax.: Old Saxon; Pahl.: Pahlavi; PG: Proto Germanic; PIE: Proto Indo-European; Skt.: Sanskrit; YAv.: Young Avestan

Male vs Female in the mirror of Russian Dual Christian Naming (16th–17th Centuries)

The paper deals with the special features of Russian dual Christian naming—that is, the practice of giving a lay person an additional Christian name, other than his/her baptismal name. In the Middle Ages in Russia, a man could not under any circumstances get a female anthroponym as a second Christian name, and a woman, respectively, could not get a male anthroponym. In particular, no variations with respect to the calendar tradition, which transform male names into female names and vice versa, were allowed. This markedly contraposes the choice of the second Christian name for a lay woman to the choice of the monastic name for a nun. The work examines a number of incidents that would seem to violate this rigor of the gender distribution of anthroponyms, and discusses a number of related problems associated with the multiplicity of personal names in pre-Petrine Rus’.

David Maria Turoldo. La vita, la testimonianza (1916-1992) by Mariangela Maraviglia

David Maria Turoldo. La vita, la testimonianza (1916-1992). By Mariangela Maraviglia. [Storia, vol. 74.] (Brescia: Morcelliana. 2016. Pp. 464. €30,00 paperback. ISBN 978-88-372-2956-6.)David Maria Turoldo was one of the most influential Italian Catholics of the twentieth century, and Mariangela Maraviglia has written an incredibly detailed and complete biography that covers his whole life. A priest of the Order of Friar Servants of Mary (Servites), Turoldo lived the most important moments of Italian church history, in the most important places in Italy. He is a key figure for those who try to understand the complex relations between religion, culture, and politics in the last century in Italy.The first chapter discusses the origins of Giuseppe (David Maria was his monastic name), born into a poor family of sharecroppers in northeastern Italy during World War I, not far from the frontline with Austria. His first experiences of clerical formation (beginning in 1929-30) in the institute of the Servite order were shaped by the legacy of the anti-Modernist purge of 1907 and an environment suspicious of intellectualism that Turoldo would have to deal with his whole life. Maraviglia delves also into Turoldo's early fascination, that he shared with many Italian catholics, with the Fascist regime. The second chapter sees Turoldo as one of the members of the catholic resistance against Fascism during World War II, after his arrival at the convent of San Carlo in Milan in 1941, disabused of the illusion of a restoration of catholicism thanks to Fascism. In Milan Turoldo got in touch with important figures of Italian Catholicism, thanks to his enrollment at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (1942), which began to work as the cradle of the post-World War II Italian Catholic political leaders: there he read French nouvelle theologie, but also Jacques Maritain, Romano Guardini, Gilbert K. Chesterton, and, in 1946, the pastoral letter of Cardinal Emmanuel Suhard of Paris, deciding afterward to publish an Italian translation (chapter three).Chapter four follows Turoldo in the effervescent postwar Italian Catholicism: Turoldo moved from Milan to the small college town of urbino to teach philosophy (1947), and wrote for the journal Cronache Sociali edited by Giuseppe Dossetti. In this period, Turoldo began to publish poetry, an activity that was to make him known to a large audience in Italy. His relations with the leadership of the Servite order continued to be complicated, if not difficult, because of his intellectual and political contacts (Christian-Democrats but also Communists) and friendships (for example, Father Primo Mazzolari), contacts considered unorthodox and lacking prudence. Between 1949 and 1951 (chapter five) Turoldo was at the community of Nomadelfia, one of the most famous experiments of Christian community in Italian modern Catholicism, but also an occasion of divisions between the Servites and their superiors: Turoldo was forced to leave the community, in a decade when the pontificate of Pius XII intervened to suppress many different kinds of pastoral experiments, not only in Italy. …

The Epistles of Niketas Stethatos: The Data of the Georgian Version

Based on the known data of the Georgian version of Stethatos’s works and the new version of Epistle III, we can draw the following conclusions: 1. Niketas Stethatos created his trilogy and the epistles in the period between 1054 and 1080. He died between January 1080 and 1094. 2. At the very end of his life, Niketas became a hegumen of the Monastery of Stoudios, which is confirmed by the data of the Georgian version of his epistles, dated to the end of the eleventh century or the beginning of the twelfth century. The period, during which Niketas was a hegumen of the Stoudios had to have followed the period during which he wrote his trilogy and the epistles. Most probably it was a short period between January 1080 and his death. 3. The name of the addressee of Epistles V–IX was Basil. The name Gregory, found in the Greek version, is either his monastic name, or it is a result of some unexplained error. Based on the data that we can collect about the Sophist it is possible to raise a question whether Basil the Sophist could be identified with Basil protasekretis, one of the authors of epigrams to the Hymns of Symeon the New Theologian, edited by Niketas Stethatos.

Rola Chilindaru w historii atoskiego monastycyzmu

The very destiny of Serbia has been connected with the athonite monastery Chilendar since thousand year. Monastery Chilendar since being accepted by the Serbian king had existed for 200 years before as a simple athonite monastery. However in 1198 it was officially given by the byzantine emperor Aleksios III Angelos to the Serbian king Stefan Nemania (his monastic name was Simeon) and his son duke Rastko who later became monk Sava. Those two saints of the Serbian Orthodox Church caused that monastery Chilendar had become the very center of the spiritual and cultural life of the Serbian state and political life during the osman slavery as well. Here in the climate of beautiful athonite nature, in the climate of prayer and in the shelter of the reach collection of libraries. Many of Serbian outstanding personalities received here spiritual and secular training needed for the mission and political work during years of the ottoman slavery. The very help coming from orthodox Russia and Romanian and Moldavian nobility, fathers of Chilendar sheared to the all athonite monasteries being in need regardless of ethnic descend of monks. Those little sums were directed to pay large taxes and renovations of monasteries that were in very bed state. After 500 period of the political-cultural and religious non-existence, Serbia paved the way for new European reality. Also the fate of the Chilendar had not remain neutral for the reconstructed new Serbian state. Once more monastery was filled up the serbian monks. That had rebuild the structures of the monastic life and created the very base for the further development of liberated from the Islamic slavery their Serbian country.

On the different meanings of the term law (zakon) in Saint Sabba's Life of Saint Simon

In mediaeval Serbian law the central legal term zakon (law) indicated a generally obligatory rule (regula iuris) which was usually not a result of the activity of a monarch as ultimate holder of state power. Even where a law was made by state authority such a legal rule had primarily the appearence of a customary legal provision, regulating the conditions within one particular manor (vlastelinstvo) rather than within the whole national territory. Otherwise such laws prescibed the legal position of different categories of inhabitants and identified particular rules of status. Sometimes a law would be introduced to regulate one paricular problem. The concept of law in this period also includes a legal rule derived from custom or from a private contract. Each of these uses can be illustrated from many hundreds of cases from several sources. The use of the term zakon (law) was present in the literary sources as well, such is The Life of Saint Simon (biography of Stefan Nemanja, founder of Serbian mediaeval dynasty Nemanjić), written by his youngest son Rastko, bether known under his monastic name Sabba (Sava). In Sabba's hagiography of his father we found the term zakon six times. Discribing the State Council (Državni sabor) that had to decide who will be Nemanja's successor on the throne, Sabba writes that his father pronounced, among other, the following words: 'My sons, do not forget the orthodox law that I established.' The term orthodox law means here orthodox faith, that was established in Serbia after persecutions of Bogomilian heresy. For the second time, term zakon was used in the meaning of monarch's order. Nemanja says to his sons not to forget his laws. Further, giving the instructions to his sons, Nemanja use the citation from the Bible (The Book of Proverbs or Proverbs of Solomon 3, 1-18), where the term zakon corresponds to the latin ius, not lex. Hereinafter the word zakon means Torah or Pentateuch, the first five books of Bible (citation from the Gospel According to Matthew, 22,40). Next time the term zakon was used as the translation of the Greek word παιδεία (The Book of Proverbs, 1, 8) meaning teaching, advice, lesson, education. Finally, the word zakon means iustice, as the translation of the Greek text of the Book of Proverbs (9, 10).

Maria jako imię zakonne

The article touches on the problems of how religious names function in Polish anthroponymy. It includes analysis of how the name Maria functions as a religious name. Religious names of 19 Polish women’s religious orders, all assigned between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, were analysed (includes lists of the names of the religious orders in which sisters changed their names, and where the name Maria, or other names under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, were used). The function of the name Maria as a female monastic name largely depends on the given assembly and its spirituality. Looking diachronically at the use of particular names, one can say that even within the orders there was some kind of religious taboo about assigning the name Maria, in a way similar to that existing in the laity naming (although it did not concern all orders to the same extent).

Procesy sądowe monasteru poczajowskiego ze starostą sandomierskim i kasztelanem bielskim Andrzejem Firlejem

The story of the Pochayiv Monastery began with the visit of the greek Metropolitan Neofit to a woman named Anna Gojska at Orla estate, several miles from Pochaev. He gave Anna an icon brought from Constantinople, and it stayed in her private chapel for some 30 years. In 1597 Anna gave the icon to the monastery on the mountain. She also gave lands and money. The monks built a new stone Dormition church to house the icon, for which Anna also gave funds. In 1604, the monastic community was joined by Ivan Zalizo. He received the monastic name of Job and was elected the monastery’s hegumen. Job introduced strict discipline and other reforms of monastic life. After Anna died, the mountain on which the monastery lay was inherited by Anna’s grandson Andrzej Firlej, governor of Sandomierz and Castellan of Belz, a convert to the Lutheran Church and very opposed to Eastern Orthodoxy. In 1623 Firlej raided the monastery, taking the holy icon and many jewelry. Job was initiated lawsuits of the Pochaiyv Monastery with Castellan of Belz. Thanks his to the efforts the Court of Lublin ordered the return image of what actually occurred. Court decision Andrzej Firlej finally returned the icon to the monks in 1644. Job of Pochayiv died on October 25, 1651.

Okakura Kakuzō and Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita): A Brief Episode

Okakura Kakuzō and Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita):A Brief Episode John Rosenfield (bio) Ideals of the East (1903), Okakura Kakuzō's first book in English, is an impassioned defense of premodern spiritual traditions in Asia.1 Still in print, it continues to inspire persons throughout the world who resist such aspects of modernity as the secular sciences, capitalism, or industrial technology. Okakura had developed his ideas while lecturing in Tokyo, and in 1902, during his sojourn in India, he translated them into English with the aid of Margaret Elizabeth Noble, an Irish woman living in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Okakura had excellent command of English,2 and although Noble claimed that she intended only to preserve the music of his prose, she injected Hindu ideology and grandiloquent Victorian rhetoric into the body of the text. She wrote a long introduction and signed it "Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivekānanda"—thus directly linking Okakura's book to a powerful Indian spiritual-political movement called Advaita Vedanta (explained below).3 The unlikely collaboration of a Japanese art scholar and an Irish expatriate woman was a by-product of the presence in India of foreigners greatly inspired by Eastern spirituality. Okakura travelled to India to meet the charismatic Swami Vivekānanda, and the Swami's Western disciples befriended him. The identities of these disciples, the paths by which they came to India, and the roles that they played in Okakura's career are the subjects of this essay. The Protagonists Swami Vivekānanda (1863-1902). Vivekānanda was a disciple of the most famous Indian prophet of modern times, Swami Ramakrishna (1836-86). Born in Bengal, Ramakrishna had led a movement called in Sanskrit a'dvaita vedanta (the undivided totality of the Vedas), which held, inter alia, that each of the great faiths—Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Islamic—embodied the ultimate truth. Focused on ancient [End Page 58] Vedic texts and the classic Upanishads, the movement emphasized spiritual self-realization admixed with strong undercurrents of Indian nationalism. When Ramakrishna died in 1886 he was succeeded by a brilliant young Bengali, Narendranath Dutta (given the monastic name Vivekānanda), who aimed to establish Ramakrishna centers of worship and social welfare throughout the world. Vivekānanda came to Boston in 1893 and, remarkably fluent in English, opened the still active Ramakrishna Vedanta Society located near Boston University.4 In the same year he managed to attend the famous Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago—part of the World's Columbian Exposition, a great landmark in American cultural history.5 The religion congress, which lasted for thirteen days, featured representatives of many creeds, and though Vivekānanda had arrived late, he was added to the roster of speakers. With a soaring vision of the transcendent unity of all spiritual creeds, he spoke of Advaita (non-duality)—"All alike were roads to the One Real." Amazingly, his talk was recorded and is freely available on the Internet.6 We can hear his voice and understand how he electrified the audience—"like a tongue of flame it fired the souls of the listening throng."7 Suddenly a celebrity, he spent the next four years in America and Europe, lecturing on Vedanta, going as houseguest from one charmed host to another, and collecting funds for his Ramakrishna centers. He met with such influential thinkers as William James, Robert Ingersoll, Josiah Royce, Max Müller, and Romain Rolland, and was offered (but declined) teaching posts at Harvard and Columbia universities. Another eloquent young Bengali, Swami Saradānanda, came to take charge of the Vedanta Society in New York and remained Vivekānanda's loyal associate for years. Okakura Kakuzō (1863-1913) and Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908). Both men had occupied powerful positions in Japanese art education, museum administration, art collecting, and government cultural policy.8 Okakura, for example, was a counselor for the Japanese mission at the Chicago exposition of 1893. There the Japanese government at great expense built the elaborate Hōōden, a display building modeled on the famous Phoenix Hall (Hōōdō) in the Byōdōin, the eleventh-century Buddhist temple in Uji.9 But in 1896, only two years later, Okakura was forced for political and...

The busts of the church hierarchs in the altar of the virgin Peribleptos in Ohrid

The author writes about the seventeen busts of the church hierarchs painted in the central part of the altar area above the figures of officiating Church Fathers. Starting from the north side, there are depictions of St. Dionysios, St. Hierotheos, St. Michael the Confessor, St. Eutychios, St. Paul the Confessor, St. Germanos, St. Tarasios, St. Methodios, St. James the Brother of God, St. Silvester, St. Clement of Rome, St. Metrophanes, St. John the Almsgiver, St. Meletios, St. Epiphanios, St. Andrew of Crete and St. Amphilochios. The fact that the central position in the frieze of busts is occupied by St. James Adelphotheos points to the significance of Jerusalem, James' devotion to Christ and the aposties' decision to elect him as the first bishop of Jerusalem. Other monuments of Byzantine painting are mentioned in which an important role was attached to this bishop. The grouping of the Constantinopolitane patriarchs around St. James Adelphotheos (St. Germanos, St. Tarasios, St. Methodios) is considered in the context of the victory over the iconoclasts, after 843. Among them is the patriarch of Constantinople, St. Paul the Confessor, while on the other side St. Metrophanes is painted. This article also contains an excursus about St. Germanos of Constantinople, with a description of his cult in the region of Prespa. Author mentions that among the popes, St. Clement of Rome was widely revered in the Ohrid diocese, by virtue of the fact that St. Clement of Ohrid received the same monastic name as that Roman pontiff, and also because of the transfer of his relics from Cherson in the Crimea to Rome, by the brothers from Thessalonica, SS. Cyril and Methodios. The author refers to the figures of St. Michael the Confessor and St. Eutyhios, expressing the assumption that St. Michael, bishop of Synada, was painted alongside of St. Eutyhios, patriarch of Constantinople, in the effort to preserve the memory of the painters of the Ohrid church, Michael Astrapas and Eutychios. In medieval art, the image of St. Michael of Synada is painted only in the illustrated calendars (May 23r ), while St. Eutyhios of Constantinople appears in the compositions of the 5 Ecumenical Council. The Athenian hierarchs, St. Dionysios and St. Hierotheos have their place because they took part in the burial of the Blessed Virgin, and they are also depicted in the Assumption of the Virgin, in the same church. The other painted hierarchs - patriarch of Alexandria John the Almsgiver, patriarch Meletios of Antioch, as well as the aforementioned hierarchs were at the head of the old and renowned Christian centres - Cyprus, Crete and Iconium. This principle of the arrangement was almost always applied in the churches after the victory of the iconophiles, and can be seen in full in the altar of St. Sofia in Ohrid. Of the hierarchs outside the altar space, next to the altar chancel on the northern wall of the church, there are presentations only of St. Clement of Ohrid and St. Constantine Kabasilas, as the representatives of the Ohrid church. The endeavour of the painters to illustrate the unity and ecumenical nature of the church in the Christian world is evident. In that respect, analogies are highlighted with the choice and presentations of the leaders of the Christian cathedrals in the altar of St. Sofia of Ohrid, about which A. Grabar and S. Radojčić have given thorough accounts. .

The Buddha-Contemplation Son (_??__??__??_) of the Master Hamhe Dongtog (_??__??__??__??_)

The monk with the monastic name Kihwa _??__??_ (1376-1433) had Tukt'ong as his pen name, and the public name of Hamho. His family name was Yu, and Ch'ungju his homeland. Hamho lived through the late Koryo and early Choson periods; when young, he studied Confucian texts, but at the age of 21, he confronted the death of his best friend, which made him realize impermanent reality and become a monk at Uisangam, Kwanak Mountain. Facing the Buddhist crisis of ‘respect of Confucianism and oppression of Buddhism’ during the early Choson period, he tried to protect Buddhism by writing the Hyon chong ron. Although he inherited the Son of the Imjae lineage, he was not a mere Son master; he practiced and studied both Son and sutras, put an emphasis on sila, and declared the unification of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, which he had mastered.He had a deep interest in the thoughts and teachings of Pure Land, and wrote the Mitachan, An'yangchan, and Mitakyungchan by summarizing the Three Books of Pure Land. The Buddha-Contemplation Son which emphasizes that practicing Son and the contemplation of the Buddha are not separate considers self-belief and belief in outside salvation to be the same. While teaching the Buddha-Contemplation Son, he acknowledged the direction of the Pure Land and commented the recitation of Amitabha's name. He taught people the Buddha-Contemplation Son and organized an association of of its practice. Furthermore, he stressed contemplating Buddha at the time of death and left dharma talks and many words regarding death ritual.

East Slavic Visual Writing: The Inception of Tradition

The synthesis of verbal and message can be observed in many early literary works from various cultures. The earliest literary sources, with unconventional textual configuration, known as technopeignia,1 were created in Hellenistic period (between 325 B.C.E. and C.E. 200) by individuals such as Simmias of Rhodos and Theocritus. These were followed by a few Byzantine pattern poems, tabuloe iliacce by Rome-based Greek poet Theodoros (between 50 B.C.E. and C.E. 50), anonymous Greek and Latin samples from early Christian period, some shaped texts by two Latin poets Lavius (Ist century C.E.) and Optatian (fl. C.E. 325),2 and versus intexti invented by latter.3 The listing of Eastern Slavic texts traditionally begins with Baroque period. Ivan Velychkovskyi (seventeenth century) and Mytrofan Dovhalevskyi (eighteenth century) are usually referred to as poets who made most valuable contribution to development of Ukrainian poetry; while Russian court poet of Belarusian descent, educated in Ukraine, Samuil Petrovskii-Sitnianovich, known by his monastic name Simeon Polotskii (1629-1680), credited as author of Russian carmina figurata. Even though Ukrainian poetry was fully established within framework of Baroque period, and in Russia this poetic form originated in Baroque era, Eastern Slavic writing has a longer tradition than commonly believed. It difficult to establish exactly when Eastern Slavic writing originated. However, its introduction was unquestionably connected with conversion of Kievan Rus' to Christianity. Christianity, which came from Greek Byzantium,4 bringing with verbal culture of Constantinople.5 The Greek Orthodox Church introduced Byzantine education, literature and art to its newly converted neighbour, thus setting grounds for a new literary activity in Kievan Rus'. The works, which reached Eastern Slavs were exclusively religious texts, oriented towards establishing proper monastic habits than toward serious systematic theology or philosophical inquiry.6 They met Christian demands in Kievan land, and therefore served their purpose. No doubt, they were not finest part of Byzantium literary tradition. However, question of existence of Byzantine poetry (or literature in general) as a popular, or at least developed literary genre remains open. Visual poetry expert, Dick Higgins, who documented several Byzantine pieces of pattern poetry,7 doubts potential of Byzantine culture, which influenced Kievan literature, to develop poetry as a specific poetic form. In his opinion, formally conservative Byzantine literature is not notably visual and thus it not sort of milieu where one might expect to find much pattern poetry, although some pieces do exist.8 Nonetheless, Higgins suggests that pillage of Byzantine libraries in 1204 during Fourth Crusade, as well as collapse of Constantinople in 1453, might quite possibly have resulted in destruction of many manuscripts.9 The question of possible import of this intellectual product from Byzantium to Kievan Rus' more complex. Western and Eastern European scholars both share opinion that Byzantine literature was represented in diversity of genres and forms of both religious and secular writing. There little plausibility, however, that Byzantium could direct secular literature to newly converted lands. The literary works which continued the antique practice in most refined traditions of formalism and scholastic casuistry and which were created for Byzantine nobility had never been exported to Kievan Rus' which was perceived as a Byzantine cultural colony.10 The works, which were sent to Kievan Rus', either met most imperative needs of Christian religious leaders or else they could promote by their specific features and content Byzantine cultural hegemony over barbarians who had to be civilized. …

Bishop Vlaho or Vlahoepiskop

Bishop Vlaho or Vlahoepiskop