Works in 2 volumes

Collected works of St. Maximus the Greek in 2 volumes: Essays. Volume 1 (2008) Essays. Volume 2 (2014) The first volume of the new edition of the works of Rev. Maxim the Greek includes texts from the first period of his life in Russia, before his condemnation (1518–1525), as well as Greek works (with Russian translation) written in Italy and on Athos (1498–1516) by Michael - Maxim Trivolis, who was identified with Maxim the Greek from Russian sources by I. Denisov in 1943. Later, his hypothesis received a number of confirmations. Their publication in the volume will contribute to the study of the problem posed at the beginning of the twentieth century. problems of the attitude of Maximus the Greek to the Italian Renaissance. The new edition appears almost 150 years after the three-volume edition published in 1859–1862. Kazan Theological Academy based on manuscripts from the late 16th – 17th centuries, and will be more complete in comparison with it. The publication of the texts in Volume I is based on manuscripts created during the author’s lifetime, including two with his own handwritten corrections. The handwritten tradition of the texts included in the volume was examined, which is reflected in the textual commentaries. The works of Volume I belong primarily to the epistolary genre: messages to Grand Duke Vasily III, diplomat and publicist F.I. Karpov, and other persons. The volume also contains lengthy polemical treatises devoted to issues that worried Russian thought in the 16th century: about free will (“autocracy”), about monasticism and monasteries, etc. Several texts are published for the first time, among them – the Message to all Orthodox Christians, Russians, Serbs and Bulgarians. As for the facts of the biography, the second period of Maxim the Greek’s life in Russia, unlike the first, is almost not reflected in documentary sources, perhaps with the exception of letters from the patriarchs asking for his release (1545 and 1546). Therefore, acts of creativity, creative biography, become facts of biography. There are also “Tales” about Maxim the Greek, telling about some of the circumstances of his life. There is a fairly widespread opinion in the literature that after the second trial in 1531, his position eased in the Tver Otroch monastery under the patronage of Bishop Akaki. It is generally accepted that the Judgment List, setting out the verdict of 1531, allows for inaccuracy regarding Maxim the Greek and reports the place of his imprisonment according to the verdict of 1525 - Joseph's Monastery - instead of Tver, where he was sent after the trial, according to the "Extract on the second marriage of Vasily III." However, it is possible that it is not the Judgment List that makes the mistake, but the “Extract” and that after the trial of 1531 Maxim was sent back to the Volokolamsk Monastery under the same cruel conditions as before (so that new letters were not even necessary to be drawn up), and the transfer to Tver occurred later. In his letter to Metropolitan Daniel, “already deposed,” he writes, referring to the second judgment: “Give me chains again, and I am imprisoned again, and again I am locked up and embittered with various embitterments...” (Zhurova. Part 2. P. 138). In the year following the second trial (“in the summer of 7040”), a short essay was written in which the author reports about himself: “shut up in prison and grieving”; therefore, at least between September 1531 and August 1532, he remained in prison conditions. But relief, an improvement in the situation nevertheless occurred: the prisoner got the opportunity to write, and the first composition was the named “lament”: “The monk created these Words in prison, shut up and grieving, with them he consoled himself and consoled himself in the 7 thousand and 40th year” (Zhurova. Part 2. P. 131). This is the earliest known work of the second period. The same year marks the beginning of the author’s work on compiling a collection of his works (see below). Consequently, the end of 1531–1532 was marked by the resumption of the literary work of the Rev. Maxim the Greek, and the date of “Words”-crying did not appear by chance, since it marked the time of return to creative work. He dated his writings, presumably, if they were related to important events in either his personal or public life. It may be recalled that among the works of the first period only one is dated, and this is also a very remarkable date: 1524; The essay is devoted to a refutation of the new global flood predicted in the Venetian astrological Almanac for February 1524 (Works. Vol. 1. P. 311). By the 30s. There is another work with a date - about the Tver fire of 1537 (texts No. 21, 22 of this edition).