Николаи домонгольской Руси. СПб., 2019 (original) (raw)

The Nicholases in Pre-Mongolian Rus'. St. Petersburg, 2019: This book was projected originally just as a catalogue of the historical information on the persons, who had the name "Nicholas" in pre-Mongolian Rus'. But consideration of the general problems of studying of the medieval naming practices transformed the comments for this catalogue to a book. The PREFACE to this book was written by Fr. Konstantin Kostromin (one of its reviewers). One of the main problems mentioned above is variety of the forms of the name "Nicholas" in pre-Mongolian Rus'. Such its form as "Mikula" ("Mikola") looks in general as the folk (worldly) one and is opposed to the church form "Nikola". The distance between these two forms is considered in the INTRODUCTION. The archpriest Avvakum in the 17th century could not accept as the name of a saint person even "Nikolai" instead of the medieval form "Nikola". This problem of a range of permissible variation of a saint's name can be extrapolated to pre-Mongolian Rus' as well. The first chapter "SAINTS NICHOLASES AND THE NAMING PRACTICES" shows that pre-Mongolian Rus' knew more Sts. Nicholases than just the famous bishop of Myra - St. Nicholas the Wonder-Worker. Abundance of the saints, who were the namesakes to the bearers of this name, had to give rise to syncretic veneration and contamination of their images (with general dominance of the image of St. Nicholas of Myra). For example the so called "Another Life" of St. Nicholas (it appeared in Rus' in the 2nd half of the 11th century) in fact describes the life of St. Nicholas of Pinara (the 6th century) and not the life of St. Nicholas of Myra (the 4th century). But it is important to stress that the hagiographic images of the saint patrons-namesakes were relevant for a social elite mostly. On the other hand, the naming practices after the Baptism of Rus' could be very diverse and by the way the saving of an original pagan name (without the giving of a new Christian one) can be considered as the possible missionary naming method for convertion of the large groups of population during the late 10th - 11th centuries. As we can find out in the chronicles the namings of the princely kids in Rus' during the 2nd half of the 12th and the 1st half of the 13th centuries could follow the different ways. Some of them reflect the aspiration to reach maximal calendar closeness of a birthday and a day of a namesake saint. But another cases have no connection to any calendar method of a naming at all. It should be especially noted complete absence in the chronicle records of 1149-1231 any information about the namings according to a saint's memory, which fell on the eighth day after a birth. The distinct requirements to follow in a naming to some calendar method can be found in the church texts, which are dated much later than usage of such methods (which is known from the chronicle records of the 12th century): for example, the compendium ("azbukovnik") of the late 16th century and the prayer book ("potrebnik") of the patriarch Filaret (the 1620s). In the last one the calendar method was joined with the custom of a naming on the eighth day after a birth. The second chapter "PRINCES NICHOLASES AND THE NAME OF A PATRON SAINT" shows dissemination of the name "Nicholas" among the Rurikids. The first prince, who got this Christian name in Rus', was Svyatoslav Yaroslavich (1027/1028-1076), the third son of Yaroslav the Wise. His reign in Kyiv during 1073-1076 should be considered as one of the most significant factors, which formed the tradition of veneration of St. Nicholas the Wonder-Worker in pre-Mongolian Rus' and adduced to establishment there in the early 1090s the feast of translation of St. Nicholas's relics from Myra to Bari. And two more princes got this Christian name in Rus' in that time: Svyatoslav Davidovich (St. Nikola Svyatosha, he was baptised as Nicholas and saved this name when he became a monk, he died in the 1140s) and Svyatoslav Ol'govich (1106/1107-1164). The namings of these princes as Nicholases were a kind of "response" to such combination of the family and Christian names of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich. It is possible to assume that this combination of names (Svyatoslav + Nicholas) was very relevant for the princes: the meaning of the name "Nicholas" ("a vanquisher of people") got the special connotation due to its intersection with the meaning of the name "Svyatoslav" ("may he have holy glory" according to Tatyana Toporova). The cult of St. Nicholas the Wonder-Worker had its main basis in princely, military milieu in pre-Mongolian Rus'. As one of the brightest illustrations of such context of this cult both in Rus' and Byzantium can be considered St. Nicholas's image hammered out on the bottom of the silver Byzantium bowl from the hoard, which was found in Chernigov in 1985. There St. Nicholas's image is surrounded by six images of the saints-warriors (Sts. George, Procopius, Nicetas, Demetrius, Theodore, one name is not readable). The most probable owner of this bowl was prince Svyatoslav Ol'govich. In the third chapter "THE SOCIAL CONTEXTS OF USAGE OF THE NAME NICHOLAS" the correlation of existence of the forms "Nikola" and "Mikula" ("Mikola") is considered. This correlation can not be interpreted exhaustively either as a difference of the southern and northern forms of the name "Nicholas", or as a confrontation of its sacred and profane variants. We have here a more complex phenomenon. Six monks, who are known to us as the Nicholases (among them are four bishops), appear in the sources as "Nikola" (two exceptions can be revealed in the texts of the 16th and 17th centuries). Three princes Nicholases are mentioned as "Nikola" as well. The only exception here is the patronymic name of one peripheral prince (Vseslav Mikoulich from the chronicle record of 1180). The Nicholases, who belonged to military social milieu or to some other nobles, were called "Nikola" in those cases, when they did not act as the prince's men at least in the described situation (although they could be the prince's men according to their social status), in other words - when they definitely did not accompany a prince at the described time. However the main condition for the choosing the form "Nikola" was some sacral meaning of the naming aspect of a situation, which was described in a text: the Kyivan, who arrived in Novgorod, called himself "Nikola" in the inscription, some special sacral status of which was marked by the image of a cross in radiance; and could not be written otherwise than "Nikola" nor the baptismal name of the commandant of Vyshhorod, who celebrated his name days regularly, neither the name of the Novgorodian, who was mentioned in the inscription on the icon of his patron - St. Nicholas the Wonder-Worker (this icon was ordered by this man). (In the last two cases the names of these persons are literally side by side with the name of their holy namesake.) But the Nicholases, who belonged to a social elite, were mentioned as "Mikula" in those cases, when they acted exclusively as the prince's men just at the described moment. We can also suppose that for those Nicholases, who belonged to ordinary population, the form "Nikola" was limited for its using. Social distancing, which can be traced in different using of the forms "Nikola" and "Mikula" ("Mikola"), should have been especially important if there were many Mikulas among the commoners at that time. However we do not have any data that would allow us to make some statistical observations. Only rarity of the name "Nikola" among the pre-Mongolian Rurikids is obvious: three princes Nicholases are opposed, for example, to twenty one Basils and twenty Johns. In the CONCLUSION the general scheme of the considered phenomenon is formulated. We can talk about two possible "extreme" situations. One of them correlates with the small socio-cultural group, which included those persons, whose conscious religious reflection constructed the close connection between perception of the hagiographic image of the saint, formation of his cult, spread of his name. The opposite "extreme" situation correlates with religious life of the commoners, which was largely "dissolved" in their unconscious emotions. In the last case we can not talk about interdependence of the namings and veneration of the saint (as a folklore character). Of course, besides these "extreme" situations many other combinations of the main components of this phenomenon (the hagiographic image, the personalized cult, the namings) can be revealed. "THE DIRECTORY OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE BEARERS OF THE NAME NICHOLAS IN PRE-MONGOLIAN RUS'" includes the records on 35 persons, who got the name "Nicholas" before circa 1240. Such earliest person there is Mikula Chudin (No 5), who mentioned among the constitutors of "the Law by Yaroslav's sons" ("Pravda Yaroslavichey"), which is dated within 1036-1072. And the latest one is Nikola Vasilevich (No 14), who ordered the icon of St. Nicholas in Novgorod in the late 13th century. The paper "ON EMERGENCE OF THE NAME NICHOLAS IN ONOMASTICON OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTY" was included in this book as a supplement. It was published earlier but this version is the last one and contains some additions. Its subject lies out of the chronological borders of this book. Veneration of St. Nicholas the Wonder-Worker among Russian political elite during the middle and the second half of the 18th century is considered in this paper. The choice of the name "Nicholas", which was made by Catherine II for her third grandson in 1796, was the result of connection of St. Nicholas's image with religious and ideological understanding of presence of the Russian Empire at the Black Sea region.