AN OLD RUSSIAN COMMENTARY ON THE HEIRMOSES FOR THE THEOPHANY

The paper contains an examination and a publication of an exegetical epistle of an anonymous churchman to an ancient Russian prince. The piece is known in a single copy which dates back to the 1530s and is entitled “Heirmoses for the Theophany of Our Lord Jesus Christ”. It is a scholium on the Slavic heirmoses for the second Theophany canon (by John of Damascus). The scholium bears evidence of the author’s familiarity with the Greek original of the heirmoses. Notably, he refers to the tripartite theory of the soul and quotes commentaries of Nicetas of Heraclea on the homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, which makes the piece a significant evidence of Russian reception of the translation of the named oeuvre. Analysis of the text indicates its early (likely pre-Mongol) origin. A cautious conjecture is made that the epistle was composed by Cyril of Turov for prince Andrei Yuryevich “Bogolyubsky”.