MOTIF OF THE LADDER IN THE VITA OF ST. JOHN CLIMACUS (ACCORDING TO CHETYA-MENAION OF ST. DIMITRY OF ROSTOV)

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Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 23
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The article was completed with the support of the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 22-18-00005.
Abstract:

The article examines the poetics of the Life of St. John Climacus according to the Chetya-Menaion of St. Dimitry of Rostov published in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in 1746. The key motif of the ladder, its semantic and poetic functions in the Life are considered. The analysis is carried out in comparison with the text of the Life of the first printed edition of the Ladder of 1647. While compiling the Life, Saint Dimitry of Rostov turned to various sources — Greek, Slavonic and Latin, and also to two source texts for him, namely, the brief Life of John of Sinai, compiled by Daniel of Raifa and the hagiographic narrative of a certain monk “synchronous,” contemporary of the saint. Preserving the meaning of the ladder topos from the brief Life with its main idea of ascent from the world of the “material” to the “spiritual” world, St. Dimitry of Rostov structures the Life according to the “bios” type, following the chronology, for this purpose he makes insertions from the “synchronous’s” text. He also includes his own explanatory and clarifying remarks in the text, indicates the authorship of the texts he uses, which proves conscious quotation, separating his own text from the other authors’. The general conclusion of the article is the affirmation of the change of writer’s type, new interaction of the writer-hagiographer with the text, which is characteristic of the transitional epoch of the 17th – 18th centuries, as well as the changes in the narrative, a freer and more creative attitude to the writer’s work, striving for rationalization and at the same time strict adherence to the hagiographic canon.
Keywords: Old Russian hagiography, Life (Vita) of John of Sinai, Dimitry of Rostov, transitional epoch, hagiographic topic, ladder motif.
Author: Lyudmila G. Dorofeeva
Information about the author:

Lyudmila G. Dorofeeva, DSc in Philology, Assistant Professor, Professor, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, A. Nevsky St., 14, 236041 Kaliningrad, Russia. ORCID ID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3622-8379

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
For citation:

Dorofeeva, L.G. “Motif of the ‘Ladder’ in the Vita of St. John Climacus (According to Chetya-Menaion of St. Dimitry of Rostov.” Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 23. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024, pp. 160–178. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-160-178 
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/ENBHGE
UDC: 821.161.1.0
Publication Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-160-178
Received: 19.12.2023
Approved after reviewing: 12.02.2024
Date of publication: 17.09.2024

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