DA 7
Blažennyj Viktor
DA 8
Blažennyj Aleksej
DA 9
Blažennaja Zina
DA 10
Blažennyj Mišen'ka
5.
Jurodstvo in the
Pravoslavnaja Enciklopedija
PE 1
Antonij Alekseevič Monkin
PE 2
Andrej Meščovskij
PE 3
Evfrosinija Koljupanovskaja
PE 4
Adrian Jugskij
PE 5
Asenefa
PE 6
Anna Peterburgskaja
PE 7
Ioann Bosoj
PE 8
Anastasija Karagandinskaja
PE 9
Varvara Skvorčichinskaja
1) Traditional Menologies
The main sources for this long period are the D. Rostovsky's
174
and A.N. Murav'ev
175
menologies. The earliest attested reference to a
jurodivyj is to Isaac the Recluse
176
, in the Primary
Chronicle PVL (Ostrowski 2003). This is a period of time that unifies the consolidation of the
ethnogenesis of Rus' in an emerging state within the adoption of a new religion. The
Christianization of Rus' is not only a way to legitimize the new political order, but it also constitutes
a new cognitive framework, a new imaginary. This imaginary is shaped through the reconstruction
and absorption of the so-called “byzantine heritage,” reflected as two parallel processes: cultural
transmission and continuous dependency. The construction of a new imaginary based in the
reconstruction of the byzantine patterns constituted a positive environment for the continuation of
the
salos in Rus'.
At the same time, those abstract constructs had a physical manifestation in the first religious
constructs such as translations, icons, churches and monastic communities. In the first half of the
174
Čet’ch’’-Minej sv. Dimitrija Rostovskago, Moskovskoj Sinodal’noj Tipografii 1904, Moskva 1968.
175Murav'ev, A.N.,
Zhitiia sviatykh rossiiskoi tserkvi. Sankt Peterburg, 1854-1864.
176The
Life of Isaac the Recluse may be found in the PVL (Ostrowski 2003); in the
Kievo-Pecherskii Paterik. Ed.
Sviato-Troitskoi Sergievoi lavry. Moscow, 1991; in
Zhitiia sviatykh na russkom iazykie / izlozhennyia po
rukovodstvu Chetikh-Minei sv. Dimitriia Rostovskago. Sviato-Troitskii monastyr, 1991; and in Muravev, A.N.,
Zhitiia sviatykh rossiiskoi tserkvi. Sankt Peterburg, 1854-1864.
332
11
th
century, there was already a certain monastic organization in Kiev, but it was with the election
of Theodosius as superior around 1062 when these communities were grouped, forming a new
monastic model that has its representation in the Kievan Caves Monastery (Hollingsworth 1992).
Applying and interpreting the phenomenon of
jurodstvo through the application of socio-
cultural analyses, as outlined above, we can propose a different understanding. For example, it is in
this new imaginary environment, where the PVL situates the
Life of Isaac as a recluse and a brother
of the community of Antonii and Feodosii. Thus, in fact, the
vita of Isaac can be interpreted as an
exaltation of the communal life, a paradigmatic case for future generations regarding the duties of
the community towards helpless people, who are unable to help themselves. Offered protection and
acceptance by a community is a remarkable difference between the last records of Byzantine
salos
and the first of Russian
jurodstvo. In this understanding, the
vitae represents an explanation of how
the new imaginary incorporated in Kievan monastic world views such conditions that most now
would attribute to mental disorders. In this context, Isaac is less a
jurodivyj and more a symbol of
how to understand and accept those characteristics and patterns of behaviour that came to be
understood in the context of Russian Orthodoxy as
jurodstvo.
More than hundred years later, another saint has traditionally been seen as a
jurodivyj,
Avraamii of Smolensk
177
. Avraamii is one of the most notorious figures of medieval Rus'.
Hollingsworth (1992) refers to him as a learned and charismatic monk whose gift for public
preaching and private instruction brought him into conflict with the clergy of Smolensk around
1200. This is basically what the
vita tells us about Avraamii, but it does not reflect anything that we
could specifically relate to foolery. The
Life of Avraamii seems to be representative of a time period
when authority was not uniform and local tensions and disagreements between the prince and local
clerical authorities were a common political and religious question. There is no behavior shown in
the
vita that would suggest the prototypical Byzantine
salos. Fedotov pointed that the
vita of
Avraamii is the
vita of a monastery founder (Fedotov 1966: 325). The only mention of
jurodstvo in
the
vita is one passage in which Avraamii expresses his doubts about how best to dedicate his life to
God, and in so doing considers the adoption of
jurodstvo as a form of ascetism. We learn that
177Several redactions of this vita were reprinted in a volume: ed. S.P. Rozanov,
Žitija prepodobnogo Avraamija
Smolenskogo i služby emu (Petersburg, 1912),
reprinted as Die altrussischen hagiographischen Erzählungen und
liturgischen Dichtungen über den Heiligen Avraamij von Smolensk, de. D. Čyževs´kyj, Munich, 1970). For an
English
translation of the Life. See Hollingsworth 1992: 135-163. The vita can be also found in:
Zhitiia sviatykh na
russkom iazykie / izlozhennyia po rukovodstvu Chetikh-Minei sv. Dimitriia Rostovskago. Sviato-Troitskii monastyr,
1991; and in Muravev, A.N.,
Zhitiia sviatykh rossiiskoi tserkvi. Sankt Peterburg, 1854-1864.
333