EARLY MENAION REDACTION OF THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN OF PERM, DATING BACK TO THE PECULIAR REDACTION

The article introduces for the first time into scientific circulation one of the early Menaion redactions of the Life of St. Stephen of Perm, compiled no later than the first quarter of the 17th century. It is based on a Peculiar Redaction of the Life, which appeared in the first half of the 16th century and is characterized by the distortion of some historical information and by the miracles. As an additional source, the Epiphanius the Wise’s Redaction of the Life was used, from which the dates of the creation of the Perm alphabet and the death of Stephen of Perm with a list of contemporaries of these events, as well as the date of the creation of the Slavic alphabet, were taken, and all of them were attributed to other events, further distorting the historical information in the text. Its author also discovered a knowledge of Service to Stephen of Perm. At the moment, four copies of this Menaion Redaction have been identified, created in the first half of the 17th century. They represent two types of text that reflect its protograph in different ways. The appeal to this Redaction showed the specifics of the choice of sources for Menaion redactions and the principles of their compilation, and also allowed us to establish the relationship of the four Menaions of the first half of the 17th century. Different versions of the text are published in the Appendix for the first time.