PRAYERS TO THE MOTHER OF GOD AND TO SAINTS IN LITURGICAL BOOKS OF THE MODERN AGE

The article is devoted to the history of prayers which were composed in Russia and were recited during prayer services and in private. Along with akathists, these texts gained great popularity in the 18th–19th centuries. They were originally distributed as hand written copies, and broadsides addressed to pilgrims. The first collections of such prayers appeared in the late 19th–early 20th centuries, with the most significant one compiled by Archpriest Alexy Stavrovsky. In 1915, the collection Prayers Recited at Prayer Services was published on the initiative of Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky) and soon became one of the main liturgical books. In the process of compiling this collection, the prayer texts were subjected to some editing. Thus, their grammar and syntax were adapted to the Church Slavonic standard, Russianisms were changed to Slavic forms, spelling corrections were made — in particular, proper names and geographical names were uncapitalized. All parts referring to the location for the use of the prayer were removed, e. g. indications that the prayer was to be recited specifically by the relics. In 1978–1989 a significant number of the prayers from this collection were included in the new edition of the Service Menaia, the texts again being subjected to editorial revision. Prayers for the tsar’s family were completely excluded, as was also frequently the case with references to relics and the pilgrims who visited them.