About the Novgorod Makariev Chetiy-Menaias

(Notes of His Grace Macarius, Bishop of Tambov and Shatsk). In 1856, I had the opportunity to use, albeit for a short time, the Great Cheti-Minaia of the Novgorod Archbishop, later the All-Russian Metropolitan, Macarius, located in the Novgorod Sophia Library. My main goal was Russian articles, which I hastened to copy or, at least, compare with other lists of the same works known to me. But together, I could not help but familiarize myself to some extent with these precious books in general and not notice the features in which they differ from Makariev’s Cheti-Minya of the Moscow Assumption Cathedral, judging by the “Table of Contents” of the latter, printed by Mr. Undolsky in Readings of the Moscow Historical Society for 1847, No. 4. Given the high importance of the Four Menaia of Metropolitan Macarius both for the history of the Russian church and for the history of Russian literature, I believe that my cursory notes about the Novgorod copy of this huge collection will not seem alien to some interest. With the three books of the Novgorod Cheti-Menya, September, October and May, at the very beginning of them, the following invoice of Archbishop Macarius was preserved: “In the summer of 7049 (1541), in the Christ-loving kingdom of His Holiness the Sovereign Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich, autocrat of all Rus', in the eighth year of the state him, in the very first ten years after his birth, behold, the humble Macarius, Archbishop of the God-saved cities of the great Novograd and Pskov, gave to you this holy great book of the Menaea Chetya, the month of May (September and October) and the other twelve Menaea Chetya, in the great holy cathedral church of St. Sophia, the ineffable wisdom of God of the same glorifying great Novograd, in the sixth and tenth year of his priesthood and the flock of his humility, in memory of his soul and for his parents in eternal commemoration. And let no one master this holy book with the honor of Menaea, or take the wisdom of God from the holy church by force; Let such a one be judged as an offender and a thief of God’s Church, not only here, but also in the next century. And if you read and accept this holy book with honor, with the blessing of the Archbishop or church official, your soul will receive great benefit not only for yourself, but also for others who listen with attention for the glory of God. Amen." Comparing this invoice with the one that is located at the Cheti-Minaia of the Moscow Assumption Cathedral and was printed by Mr. Undolsky in the preface to the said “Contents,” we note that the first, although it has similarities with the latter in general terms, is much shorter than it and does not provide that curious information either about the composition of the Cheti-Minaia, or about the work of Metropolitan Macarius on them. It is also clear that Macarius donated his Cheti-Minea to the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral already in the last year of his archbishopric, shortly before his election as Metropolitan of Moscow (March 19, 1542) and twelve years before he donated (in the summer of 7061) another list of Cheti-Minea to the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. And to the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral, as to the Moscow Assumption, Macarius donated a complete copy of the Great Cheti-Menya in twelve books, as evidenced by the invoice himself. But to this day, only five books have survived in the Novgorod Sofia Library, namely for the months: September, October, May, June and July. At least, all my requests for other books were answered that they were no longer in the library. All these five books are written in sheets and, each covering all the dates of a given month, are not the same in volume: for example, the September book has 468 sheets, the October one 455, and the June one only 340. The books are written in different hands and handwritings, on separate notebooks, which are then folded and bound together, often differing in the quality and size of the paper. There are pages and entire sheets that are completely unwritten, there are pages that are unwritten, and there are pages that are written but crossed out. There are articles that have only been started or completed halfway, but are not finished, and others, however small, that are written twice. At the end of some articles and books there are notes from scribes. So at the end of the Polish book, on a special white sheet, it is written from the very beginning: “In the summer of the 7046th (1538) month of February, the 7th day, in memory of our venerable father Parthenius and the venerable Luke, with the blessing of our Sovereign, the Most Reverend Archbishop of the Great Novgorod and Pskov, Bishop Macarius, this book of honor was written by the great sinners monk Arkadets, a monk of the Pofnutiev Monastery. And through his holy prayer and blessing this book of the month of July was completed, the 13th day in memory of the holy great Archangel Gabriel and the Venerable Stephen Safait. And you, for God’s sake, honor, and do not blame, and if any inventory turns up, you, for God’s sake, correct it with yourselves.” In general, the Novgorod list of Makaryev’s Cheti-minyas seems to be a draft and initial one. In terms of their content, the Novgorod Cheti-Minea are, of course, similar to the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. The composition of both of them under each day of the month includes: prologues or synaxari, lives of celebrated saints, words and teachings, sometimes short edifying stories, and sometimes entire books of Holy Scripture with interpretations on them, entire extensive works or collections of works by St. fathers and Russian writers, patericon, etc. But there is a difference in the order of the articles in those AND other Cheti-Mineas. In Moscow, under each day of the month, the “prologue” comes first, followed by lives, words, short stories, etc. But in the Novgorod ones, on the contrary, at the beginning of each number the lives of the saints are placed, then words and other articles, and at the very end - “a prologue with verses to the same saints,” and sometimes without verses. Based on this alone, the Moscow Cheti-Minea cannot be considered a simple copy of the Novgorod ones. There are even more differences in the content of both. There are articles in the Novgorod Cheti-Minea that, at least under the same numbers of months, are not found in the Moscow ones. So, in Novgorod they are placed: at 14 o'clock October - the life of the blessed. Constantine the philosopher, the first teacher of the Slovenian language and on October 26 - a word of praise to St. Demetrius of Selunsky, Gregory Archbishop of Russia. In Moscow, these articles are not listed under the indicated dates, perhaps because they were moved to other months. And precisely, isn’t the first article the same one that was posted here on February 14th under the title: “The Life of St. Kirill the philosopher, teacher of Slavensky"? And the latter is actually listed here among other words of Gregory Samvlak on the 31st day of July. There are incomparably more such articles, and important articles, which are lacking in the Novgorod Cheti-Minea compared to the Moscow ones. For example, the following articles, placed in the Moscow ones, are not found in the Novgorod ones: September 1 - the word about Joshua, the books of the Judges of Israel, about Gideon the prophet, about Samson, about Ruth; September 9th – book of Abbot Joseph of Volotsky; October 18th – book of the Gospel of St. Luke, interpretation of Theophylactos; June 20th - a book by Methodius, Bishop of Patara, about things and autocracy, etc., two letters of Nicephorus, Metropolitan of Kyiv, to Prince Vladimir; June 29th – word of St. To the Apostles Peter and Paul Gregory monk, presbyter (Samvlak); June 30th – the book The Apostle of Understanding; July 31st - the book of Smaragd, the book of Gregory Samvlak (collection of his words), the book of the Golden Chain, the book of the Bee. It is obvious that the Moscow Cheti-Minea are generally richer in added items than the Novgorod ones. Of the Russian articles placed in the Novgorod Cheti-Minea, some, brief ones, were borrowed entirely from the chronicle (for example, September 2 - The Assassination of St. Prince Gleb). Others, also small, are literally similar to those printed under the same numbers in the Prologue (for example, July 11th - Assumption of Blessed Princess Olga, forerunner of the Russian to God, and July 24th - Passion of the Holy Martyr Boris and Gleb). Still others are similar to the Prologue and the Chronicle in content, but differ a lot from them in syllable (for example, on July 12th - to the blessed martyr of Varangian and his son John, killed in Kyiv). Many Russian articles are placed here without any change: at least, they turn out to be similar to other lists of them, already published or known from manuscripts, except for minor variations. These are: a) July 15th - the famous word of Metropolitan Hilarion with the praise of St. Prince Vladimir, quite similar to what was printed and ending, as in most of the lists, with the words shown in Add. to TV St. fathers (II, 246); b) July 15th - Memory and praise to the Russian Prince Vladimir - Jacob's mnich, from beginning to end in all divisions and parts similar to the list I printed in Chr. Readings (1849, II, 302 – 336); c) July 16th - Cyril Mnich (Turov) speech at the Cathedral of St. father 318th, the same thing, which is printed between the works of St. Kirill of Turovsky; d) words of Metropolitan Gregory Samvlak, etc. Some Russian articles and well-known collections are presented in the Novgorod Cheti-Minea more or less changed, with breaks, insertions, and additions. Thus, the articles that are usually included in the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon are placed here under the 3rd of May, as separate ones, and are interrupted by an intercalary article as follows: a) the life of St. Theodosius of Pechersk, op. Rev. Nestor, b) words of praise from St. Theodosius, c) message of Metropolitan Photius to the Kiev-Pechersk monastery, d) about the beginning of the Pechersk monastery, Rev. Nestor, and - d) finally, the “book of the Pechersk Patericon”, which contains only the legend of the creation of the Pechersk church, the message of St. Simon to Polycarp with all the particular departments and the letter of Polycarp to Akindinus with all the departments. Under the 24th of July, the famous “The Tale of St. martyrs Boris and Gleb" Jacob's story is broken into parts, some of which are separated from the subsequent ones by attached short conclusions, and in the story about the miracles of St. Martyrs at the very end tells about one miracle, which is not mentioned in any of the other known lists of the same work. Under the 31st of July there is placed “The Word chosen from the holy scriptures, in Latin, and the legend about the composition of the eighth Latin Council, and about the eruption of Isidore the charming, and about the establishment of the land of metropolitans in Rustei; About these, praise goes to Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich.” The main content of this word is the “Tale of the Eighth Council,” published in the Sophia Vremennik (II, 18 et seq.). But at the beginning there is a rather extensive attack attached to the story, in the story itself there are deviations from the printed version, and at the end there are significant additions. This word is also shown in the Description. handwritten Blush. Music p. 271. However, it could be the other way around: it could be that not the “Word” was compiled on the basis of the “Tale”, but the Tale itself was “extracted from the Word” and was not a chronicle. Did Metropolitan Macarius himself and his assistants make any changes in the Russian articles, or did they find them in this form in previous manuscripts, from where they were introduced in their entirety into the Cheti-Minea? The latter is more likely, especially since, according to Macarius himself in the invoice for the Moscow Ceti-Minea, he only “collected and put together the holy books in one place by various clerks,” and if “many works and feats were undertaken,” then actually “from correcting foreign and ancient proverbs, translating them into Russian speech.” I end my brief notes with a word of hope that the time is approaching when we will be able to get acquainted briefly with the great literary monument of the All-Russian Metropolitan Macarius. The “Description of Slavic Manuscripts of the Moscow Synodal Library,” which was begun and is being completed with such success, will, without a doubt, include the same conscientious and learned description of the Makaryev Cheti-Minya (in ten books) located in this library. Meanwhile, thanks to the enlightened order of the Spiritual Authority, all the manuscripts of the Novgorod Sofia Library and a significant part of the early printed books are now transported to St. Petersburg and added to the library of the Theological Academy, where they will become more accessible for reference and research and where zealous scientists, of course, will not hesitate to make a detailed description of the precious manuscripts and among them the Makaryev Chetiy-Minea. You might be interested in: