Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature 1607-6192 2713-2226 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-160-178 Research Article Articles MOTIF OF THE LADDER IN THE VITA OF ST. JOHN CLIMACUS (ACCORDING TO CHETYA-MENAION OF ST. DIMITRY OF ROSTOV) Dorofeeva Lyudmila G. old-rus@imli.ru 2024 23 160 178 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 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.