Bibliographical notes: [Reviews of the brochures of I. Sakkelion, published in Greek: “The exact history of how the Russian people were baptized” and “Unpublished theological works of Nikephoros Theotoki”]

Λι ή γησις ἀκριβὴς ὅ πως ἀβαπτ ί σθη τὀ των Ῥ σσῶν ἔθνος, ἐκ πατμιακοῦ χειρογράφου ἐκδιδομ ώ νη ὑπὀ Ι . ? ή κης. Αθην. 1891. Τοῦ μακαρ ί ου Νικηφ ό ρου τοῦ Θεοτ ό κη πον ή ματα ἱερἀ ἀνέκδοτα , ἐκ χειρογράφου τεύχους τ ἠ ς τ῾θ v ικῆς βιβλιοθ ή κης ἐκδ ί δοντος Ι . Ζακκελ ί ωνος, τοῦ καὶ ἐπιμελητοῦ τῶν ἐν αὐτ ῇ χειρογράφων. Αθην. 1890. A tireless researcher of the monuments of ancient writing of his people, the venerable Greek scientist John Sakkelion, who now holds a modest, but sympathetic to this worker and suitable for his advanced age, position of curator of the manuscript department at the national library of the University of Athens, continues with remarkable energy to donate historical science quite often with his valuable publications. True, his publications are always small in volume, since they are initially placed in one of the numerous scientific periodicals of Athens, but they always enrich historical science with something new, or make up for existing shortcomings in it. An expert on the Patmos manuscripts, the description of which was awaited by scientists with keen interest and has now already been published 1, and a wonderful bibliographer, Mr. Sakkelion, supplies his publications with extensive and, according to the news of the material, very valuable notes, thanks to which his publications acquire special value and significance in the eyes of those studying Greek and Byzantine antiquities. In these bibliographical remarks, we intend to focus the attention of Russian readers on his two latest editions, the full title of which we wrote out above. Both of these brochures are not without special significance for us Russians, since they are directly related to the history of our fatherland. I. The first small brochure of 24 sheets, 23 pages, with a price of 50 lepta, i.e. about 16 kopecks. with our money, concerns the most interesting question of our national history, namely the question of the baptism of Russians under St. Vladimir. Despite the rooted tradition in the Greek Church that Rus' was enlightened by the light of the Gospel teaching by the Church of Constantinople, which had long ago acquired the title of “mother”, in relation to the Russian Church, which it officially always called its “spiritual daughter”, the Byzantine Church, however, could never put forward sufficiently compelling evidence for the rights that it claimed in relation to the Russian Church. A great event, like the baptism of countless Russian people, did not leave any impression in the souls of the Byzantine chroniclers and annalists, and, strange as it may seem, it is a fact that they did not even preserve dry chronicle notes about this important event. The fact is, in any case, very interesting and suggestive of serious thought... For the first time, the story of the baptism of the Russian people under St. became known in Greek. Vladimir only from the first half of the last century. The famous Benedictine scholar monk Anzelm Bandurius, who was very diligently engaged in the study of Byzantine antiquities and in this field became well known for himself, was lucky enough to discover this story in a Colbertine manuscript in the Paris library (No. 4432), a new letter, however, i.e. in all likelihood the 17th century. This story, as it now turns out, which at the beginning did not have about a quarter of the entire story, was published by him in his major work, published in Venice in 1721 under the title “Imperium Orientale sive Antiquitates Constantinopolitanae”, in the second volume on pp. 62 - 65, namely in his notes on the book of Constantine Porphyrogenitus “De administratione imperii”. From here it was reprinted in the famous Bonn edition of Byzantine historians, published in 1837 under the title: “Corpus Scriptorum historiae Byzantinae” vol. 111, pag. 357, in the same notes by Banduria on the same book of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. According to the above-mentioned edition of Banduria, the story of the baptism of the Russian people under St. Vladimir is also known to our historians of Russian civil and church history, for example, Shletser, Karamzin, Bishop Philaret, Metropolitan Macarius, Professor E. Golubinsky and others, some of whom (for example, Karamzin, Historical Russian State Edition 2, St. Petersburg. 1818, vol. I, p. 212 and note 447 pp. 170) gave it important historical significance. But our church historians, Bishop. Filaret (Russian Church History, p. 15, note 39) and prof. Golubinsky (Historical Russian Church Vol. I, half I, p. 116, note 1), of whom the latter also published the Russian translation of this story (Ibid. p. 216), did not recognize any scientific value for it and called it the work of a later Greek. Despite this low opinion of our church historians about the scientific interest of the story in question, they nevertheless remained regretful that this story was known in print without a beginning. Eliminating this regret and filling in what is missing in this story is the main task of Mr. Sakkelion’s small brochure with its so tempting title: “The exact story of how the Russian people were baptized.” The publisher discovered this story in a 15th-century manuscript. Patmos Library. The missing beginning of the story from Banduria, according to Mr. Sakkelion’s edition, reads in translation as follows: “According to the divine goodness of our true God and Savior Jesus Christ, the blessed kindness, always and everywhere benefiting us in everything for the sake of its goodness and fulfilling all our desires, we must also truly investigate both small and great blessings, not remain silent about it, but make it public and preach louder, so that the divine goodness and ineffable benevolence of God will no longer be the subject of surprise and exaltation. This compassion (of God) does not desire the death of sinners, but always accepts conversion (Ezek. 18:23). So, it is worthy for us to explain and briefly (μερικῶς) tell how the countless Russian people learned true piety and received the divine font and baptism. During innumerable times, the said people were ruled by many great leaders, whose names there is no need to list for us, since their names are countless. Then, after many years, one of them named Vladimir became the leader, who was very significantly superior to his glorious predecessors in prudence and prudence. This (husband) was often very surprised and perplexed to himself, seeing this countless and so great people, leaning first in one direction or the other, and disposed for the way of thinking and reverence for God to respect this or that people, since some praised and honored the worship of the Jews as the greatest and most ancient, others pleased the creed of the Persians and set out in it, others the creed of the Syrians, and the fourth are Muslims (τῶν Ἀγαρηνῶν). And all of them had great confusion and strife regarding their worship of God and their faith. Seeing and hearing such a schism and the great varied confusion of that countless people, the quick-witted and wise-witted leader who received rule over them was amazed, perplexed and did not know what would happen from this. One day, having found a convenient time, he invites to himself men distinguished by prudence and experience, and inquires from them: how is it that the people are inclined towards so many creeds and so many views and from them they seek to know well the best in order to choose it? As soon as they heard this, some of them, in response to their leader, the Grand Duke (μέγαν ῥή γαν), said: “We, our brightest and most glorious leader and ruler, regarding who of all of us thinks correctly and honors (the gods) better than others, we do not know how to say well, but only this (we know) that in the whole universe two places are better than all the others: one is called Rome, the other “Constantinople, therefore we think that in these only places there is true and correct worship of God.” Having heard this, that great chief, very insightful, asked again: “How can we find out more precisely and obtain information, you say?” They answered him: “If you want to know reliable and true information, choose four best men, who are distinguished by experience and prudence over others, and send them to the Pope of Rome. They will examine everything there well and, having discussed and examined in detail, let them return to us again, and from them we, having listened, will learn the true and pure truth, and then whatever you order will be done.” These (prudent) men said such words to their ruler, and he quickly fulfilled this advice and this word. Having chosen four men from among them who knew how to distinguish between good and bad, he sent them to ancient Rome so that they could scout out and inspect everything there and find out well everything that concerns their worship of God. They, so to speak, reach Rome on wings." you will be well initiated into their teaching.” The advisors convince the prince to send the same ambassadors for the same purpose to Constantinople, where King Basil the Macedonian himself welcomes them cordially and provides them with all kinds of patronage. The ambassadors inspect the sights of the city and attend the divine service, at which at first “these pagan men with open eyes and fearlessly watched and noticed everything that was happening,” but after the great exit they were rewarded with a vision of angels and recognized it as “above human nature.” When they returned home, the ambassadors told in detail their new impressions to the Grand Duke, concluding their story with these words: “we saw something great and glorious in Rome, yet what we saw in Constantinople amazes the human mind.” The Grand Duke immediately asked the Byzantine emperor to send a bishop so that he could “teach and baptize” the Russian people. The emperor gladly fulfilled the request of the Grand Duke, sent the bishop and two husbands Cyril and Athanasius, who not only taught piety to the “completely barbaric and ignorant” Russian people and baptized them, but taught them “thirty-five letters”, since “they found it impossible to teach them 24 Hellenic letters”(!). The story ends with the story that the newly arrived bishop from Constantinople had to perform a miracle to certify the truth of his creed, i.e. throw the Gospel into the burning furnace, which, to the amazement of the crowd, remained unharmed in the midst of the terrible fire. The learned publisher of the “reliable story” about the baptism of Rus' made an attempt to determine the time of compilation of this story. Based on the fact that in the story there are expressions: how the rumor spreads (ὡ ς ὁ λ ό γος κρατεῖ)..., I can’t say for sure (ἀκριβῶς λέγειν οὐκ ἔχω), etc., publisher believes that the compiler of the story was not a contemporary of the event described, but lived some time after it. However, Mr. Sakkelion finds it possible to date the composition of the story no later than the beginning of the 11th century, since the miracle told in this story about the complete preservation of St. The Gospel among the furnace flames, performed by preachers to admonish Russian pagans, was known to Byzantine writers of the 12th century. For example, according to Mr. Sakkelion, Mikhail Glika speaks about him in his chronicle. In general, the publisher, passionate about our historian Karamzin, whose story was translated into modern Greek, attaches great importance to this story, which he expressed in the preface to it and in the dedication of his tiny brochure to the august name of Queen Olga Konstantinovna of Greece, née Grand Duchess of the Russian Imperial House. II. Somewhat earlier, the same learned publisher published another brochure, which contains several words and letters from Count Nikifor Feotoki, the former archbishop of Astrakhan. The personality of Count Feotoki Nikifor is equally interesting both to his compatriots and to us Russians, because his pedagogical and scientific activities mainly belong to the East (until 1779), and his administrative and journalistic activities belong to Russia (from 1779–1792). It is not surprising, therefore, that this personality, very remarkable for his time, but not appreciated in literature, should attract the attention of scientists in Greece and Russia. A complete description of this glorious hierarch, a scientist and a great orator, has not yet been made, and is not timely, since his numerous scientific works, his sermons and extensive correspondence have not yet been published. The lot of modern scientists, therefore, falls to the modest role of being for now only publishers of the numerous works of this hierarch. This modest role was taken on by the most respectable worker I. Sakkelion, who published several of his treatises and letters under the above title. The most prominent and first place in this brochure is occupied by the excellent and extensive treatise of Archbishop Nicephorus “on the prayer of the saints when, according to the teaching of the inspired Scripture and the apostles who spoke to God, the apostolic church of our Lord Jesus Christ began to consider the saints as intercessors before God,” occupying almost half of the entire brochure (pp. 1–42). Immediately following it is an equally interesting and extensive treatise by the same archbishop in response to the question of Hierodeacon Kavsokalibit Neophytos: “Are the words of Scripture true: their message went out into all the earth (Psalm 18:4), etc. and in another place: For the hope set aside for you in heaven, which you first hear in words of the truth of the gospel, which is in you, as it is in the whole world, and is fruitful and growing (Colossians 1: 5-6), addressed to him in a special letter dated August 25, 1773, which the publisher prefaced in the brochure with the archbishop’s own response. Nikifor Feotoki gives an affirmative answer from Leipzig on the 30th day of October of the same year to his student. Here the famous hierarch of the Russian Church reveals not only a deep acquaintance with the Word of God, but also enormous erudition in the natural and geographical sciences. His answer cites the journey through Siberia of our 18th century traveler Krasheninnikov (ed. 1785), the German journey through Kamchatka by Steller (ed. 1794), the Italian “travel around the world” (Giro del mondo), published by John Francis Carreri in Naples in 1699. In the last work, by the way, the author described Mexico and other areas of the new continent and proves the idea that Christianity was known in America before 1492, i.e. the time when the famous Columbus made the discovery of this continent. He bases his proof on the theory, now well known, about the connection of the continents of old and new in the place where the Bering Strait is now located, which was formed due to the actions of volcanic underground forces that tore apart these two once connected continents. Peoples, enlightened by the light of Christ's faith, moving north, at this connection of continents, could easily move from one continent to another and bring there the teachings of Christ and the beginnings of civilization, which Europeans found in America. Reducing the question posed in this way to another - about the unity of the human race, descended from the God-created couple Adam and Eve, Rev. Nikephoros points out the commonality of religious traditions everywhere, although they are not expressed in the same external forms, etc. In addition to the above two large treatises by Rev. Nikephoros, the city of Sakkelion places three letters from him to a certain friend Eleutherius Mikhailovich Larissky. In his first letter (from Vienna, April 16, 1774), the Right Reverend Nikephoros explains the meaning of the words of Scripture: “Everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt (Mark 9:49); in the second (from Bratislava dated September 8, 1774) - why the soul is involved in bodily illness and labor and why the Apostle Paul says: Even if our outer man decays, yet the inner man is renewed all the days” (2 Corinth. 4:16) and, finally, in the third (from Moscow dated September 14, 1793) he consoles his friend in his deep sorrow for his deceased brother Nicholas. In order to have a clear idea of ​​the nature of this friendly correspondence from the Eminence Nicephorus of Astrakhan, we will present here, translated into Russian, his third letter, addressed by him to the mentioned Eleutherius already when he was retired in Moscow in the Danilov Monastery. This letter was communicated to Mr. Sakkelion by the most educated Archbishop of Kerkyra Eustathius Vulisma (to whose name the publisher the brochure itself is dedicated), who, when he was the archimandrite of the Greek Odessa Church, found it in a manuscript belonging to the local Greek school, and published it in Kherson. Eparch. statement for 1875 No. 11, pp. 355 – 358. Here is this wonderful letter: “My dearest, Mr. Eleutherius, I wish you consolation coming from heaven! Woe is me! You are mourning your brother, second father and patron, and I am a pious, honest and useful friend to people. But why are we crying? If we mourn him, then we are unjust, but if we mourn ourselves, then we are selfish. For he, having lived piously and God-lovingly, and was well advised by heavenly means: repentance, confession and communication of the Savior through the divine Eucharist, freed from this vale of mourning and the countless, varied and terrible sorrows in it, now rejoices with unspeakable joy, in the beloved villages of the Lord (Psalm 83:1), dwelling and rejoicing to the righteous and constantly glorifying the thrice-holy Savior with the thrice-holy song. To cry over such prosperity and bliss is an obvious and undoubted injustice. And we, who grieve because of the deprivation of help, intercession and other services and consolation from him, turn out to be overly proud, loving ourselves above him. The all-glorious Paul gave us an example of grief for the dead, saying: “Do not grieve like others who have no hope” (1 Thessalon. 4:13), why he allowed grief, but forbade excessive grief for him. The hope here is the hope of eternal life, the deprivation of which in unbelievers causes inconsolable and immeasurable grief, but we, the poor, who are rich in it, weep comfortably and in moderation, for we are convinced that he who believes in me (i.e., in the Lord Jesus), even if he dies, will live (John 11:25) and that the dying does not die, but has passed away (precisely: will pass away) from death in the stomach (chapter 5:24). So, my beloved Eleutherius, you and I, as people, have grieved, but now, as believers and obedient to the apostolic commandment, we will wipe away the drops of tears and turn our minds and our care to something else. You dedicate your care and guardianship to the house of your beloved brother, being the father of his household, as he once was to you, and I will institute a memorial for my beloved and dear blessed friend Nicholas and (offer) my unworthy prayers, asking that the All-Bountiful One may place his soul in the villages of the righteous, in the lordships of the saints and in the ranks of angels. Amen. I'm cumming because tears welled up in my eyes again. At another time, I will write you the epitaph that you asked me for, as soon as the pain of sadness that has taken possession of us has subsided for you and me. Be healthy in both people (i.e., soul and body), comforted and strengthened by the Lord God. From Moscow 1743, September 14 days. Dearest to me, your honesty in Christ, prayer book Nikifor, former (Archbishop) of Astrakhan” 2. It is hardly necessary to add that with this small brochure of Mr. Sakkelion, the grateful sons of free Hellas have not yet done everything to adequately illuminate the personality of the famous hierarch and outstanding scientist and thereby pay a just debt to him, as “the forerunner of the intellectual and political awakening of the Greeks,” for that ardent love for his unfortunate homeland, which animated him in all fields his varied activities, wherever he is at this moment of his life, are not without the thorns of his past life. The brochure we have examined does not even include those literary and still unknown in print works of this great archpastor and some of his correspondence with friends, which are listed by Constantine Safa in his well-known biographical and bibliographic work entitled: Νεοελληνικὴ φιλολογ ί α Βιογράφιαι τῶν ἐν τοῖς γραμμασι διαλαμψάντων Ἑ λλ ή νων. Ἐν Αθ ή ναις, 1868 ἐτ., σελ 584, and meanwhile in the manuscripts scattered across various libraries and private individuals 3 there are still many works of the prolific and talented pen of the Eminence Nikephoros Theotoki. We Russians should not be content with the fact that we learn about this hierarch from the publications of Greek scholars, and in turn, out of gratitude to this bright personality of the great Catherine’s era, we are obliged to independently work on the publication and study of some of his literary works, which appeared in Russian and were of significance only in our fatherland for our Russian church. Greece does not know about these works of its best son and can hardly be interested in them. We mean the preaching literary works of Archbishop Nicephorus, which were mainly created during his service in Russia in the rank of archbishop, first of the Slavs, and then of Astrakhan. True, many of his conversations and words on the Sunday Gospel and Apostolic readings were subsequently reviewed, redone by the Most Reverend Nikephoros and included in his known to us “Κυριακοδρὁμιον, ἤ τοι ἑρμηνε ί α καὶ μετ αὐτὴν ὁμιλ ί α εἰς τ῾ κατα κυριακ ἠ ν ἐν ταῖς ἁ γ ί αις τῶν ὀρθοδ ό ξων ἐκλησ ί αις ἀναγινωσκ ό μενον εὐαγγέλιον , ἐν Μ ό σκ ᾳ 1796. Τ ό μοι 2" and a similar two-volume "Κυριακοδρὁμιον" on the apostolic readings, published in Moscow in 1800, but these publications far from exhausted the rich material of his prolific oratorical talent. Without any doubt, there were and are in fact such words and speeches of this preacher that in no way could be included in the mentioned, so to speak, indifferent collections intended by the author for the edifying reading of the Orthodox people without any distinction of nationalities at all. In the life of Archbishop Nikifor, full of constant work, everyday adversities and worries, there were many reasons to utter words and speeches that were exclusively autobiographical or historical in nature. Entering the flock, saying goodbye to it, opening educational institutions (such as the opening of a Slavic seminary) and appointing him to educational positions, etc. all this could not but excite the impressionable soul of the archpastor, for whom his remarkable oratorical talent reached its highest tension in these moments of emotional unrest. Having before our eyes examples of the eloquence of the great archpastor of the Astrakhan church in these remarkable moments of his life, we are not at all surprised that the contemporaries of this archpastor called him a “sweet-tongued writer”, from whose lips flow “mellow streams of words” (See the funeral epitaphs printed in the preface to the Answer. Most Rev. Nicephorus of the Old Age, pp. 5–6), and that A mass of people always flocked to his teachings and conversations, which had an encouraging effect on the speaker. As an example, we will introduce our readers to the still unpublished word of Archbishop Nikifor Feotoki “on his departure from the diocese” (i.e. Astrakhan), which, in our opinion, represents a wonderful example of the eloquence of our archpastor and his outstanding purely literary merits. One can imagine what a strong impression the Astrakhan people made when they parted with their beloved archpastor, if even in reading it makes a deep impression. This word contains many autobiographical features of the preacher. After thirteen years of his archpastoral service (his ordination as Slavic Archbishop took place on August 6, 1779) of the Russian Church and five years of administration (he arrived in Astrakhan on May 5, 1787, and the decree of resignation was issued on April 16, 1792), in particular by the Astrakhan diocese, Archbishop Nikifor, already a sixty-year old man, whose young life, as we said, she was full of anxiety, deprivation and assiduous work; she felt weak and unable to continue to remain in the department. The Astrakhan diocese, with its vastness and diversity of its population, posed and presented extremely complex and varied requests to its archpastor, which were not easy for the elder archbishop to satisfy. The Most Reverend Nikifor decided to ask for retirement due to poor health, which request was respected by assigning him a pension of 1000 rubles and indicating his place of residence in Moscow in the Danilov Monastery, which was given to him to manage. The last service of Archbishop Nikifor took place in the Assumption Cathedral on June 15, with a huge crowd of people. At the end of the liturgy, he delivered his following eloquent “word on departure from the diocese” to the leaving flock: “When the time came when the holy prophet Samuel, due to his old age, ceased to rule the people, he did not first want to be separated from them until he asked everyone: did he fulfill his calling directly and righteously, and until everyone unanimously exclaimed: you have not offended anyone; perfect and holy was your care for us (1 Samuel 12:1-5). My beloved Christians, now the time has come in which I, due to my no longer young years and weakness, have been released from the care of your eternal salvation; I would not like to say goodbye to you, except after receiving from you what Samuel received from his people. But is it permissible for me to ask from you what he asked? No. It is the greatest audacity to want to equate oneself with the holy prophet of God. Through this, perhaps, I would expose myself to the danger of hearing fair accusations against me. God is my witness that I wanted and tried, so that my priests will be like burning lamps, illuminating with the Divine word of preaching and holy virtuous example. I wished and asked from God that warriors would always be strong defenders of the fatherland, rulers would be fathers of the people, judges would be executors of justice and laws, merchants would be useful to society, artists would be diligent and zealous. I wished, I say, and tried, that all my Christians would agree, loving each other, guardians of God's commandments and all virtues - an example, so that they would be prosperous on earth and blessed in heaven. But the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41). I wanted, I tried, but the word of my preaching was weak, the example of my life was gloomy. But you, confessing: no, in your presence, and after - in your absence, as long as I live, I will not stop confessing, you, I say, showed such love, goodwill, respect and obedience to me, a foreign husband, weak in your language, so poor that I cannot sufficiently marvel at and praise your kindness 4 . From this great complacency of yours and from any of my care, whether any spiritual fruit has come, this test does not belong to the present time, for now is the time to bless you and say the last “forgive me.” It did not seem proper for me to speak to you as Saint Samuel did to his people, however, it is permissible for me, in bidding farewell to you, to use the words of the divine Apostle Paul, with which he bid farewell to the Ephesians: and now behold, I am, for ye all of you will not see my face, for in them I have perished preaching the kingdom of God (Acts 20:25). Honest elders, my co-servants, and the entire congregation of the church, consecrated by the grace of the Holy Spirit through my or other hands, leaders appointed by God, all Orthodox Christians living in the Astrakhan flock, I speak with everyone, although not everyone is present here. My Christians, the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy tongue, the renewal of people, my beloved sheep (1 Peter 2:9), dear children in Christ, forgive me everything! Forgive me, my flock, and you, my throne, and you, the famous Astrakhan church, forgive me! I know that neither you will see my face again, nor I yours, for now we must be separated. You will spare my shortcomings. I now betray you, brothers. God and the word of his grace, which is able to reward and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified (Acts 20:32). But for a father to be separated from his dear children is truly painful and regrettable. What do you want? Do you want, perhaps, let us create a great cry? Do you want to fall on my neck and, uniting your tears with mine, kiss me, as Ephesus did with the divine Paul when he was parting from them, saying goodbye?! But why this? Is it so that we will see each other if we admire each other, but how and when? - Listen. Two are the essence of the wings with which we fly over worldly deceits and fly to heaven. The reigning prophet asked for this. Whoever gives to me, he said, will fly like a dove, and I will fly and rest (Psalm 54:7). One of these wings is the Orthodox faith, and the other is true virtue. Just as a bird, not having another wing, cannot fly in any way, so a person who does not have the Orthodox faith or naked virtue will in no way be superior and cannot fly to heavenly peace. We, by the grace of God, have one of these wings, that is, we have the most perfect holy saving faith, if (skipping sheet 351 sheet 352) he translated sermons, usually dictated to him in Latin, into the Slavic-Russian language, placed emphasis on words and listened to the archpastor, zealously devoted to his duty, during his home exercises in the correct pronunciation of alien words to him (Astr. eparch. ved. 1878 No. 51, p. 787, note). An example of such sermons can be the very good unpublished word of the Eminence Nicephorus on the week of Thomas, contained in the same collection No. 163 l. 50 – 54 of our Church Archaeological Museum (We cited an excerpt from the second part of this word above in a footnote to the word “on his departure from the diocese”). There were quite a lot of similar sermons of the great archpastor, alien to us by blood, but close by faith, during his thirteen-year service at the episcopal see, since, according to his custom, he did not leave a single service without preaching, but all these sermons were scattered across various collections compiled by admirers of his oratorical talent. Handwritten collection No. 163 of our Museum, from which we became acquainted with two curious words of our archpastor, was, before entering the Museum, the property of one of the Astrakhan priests, a lover of church eloquence. Old priests of the Astrakhan diocese and church libraries have many such collections. Undoubtedly, in these collections there will be other works by this archpastor. Grateful memory of this archpastor imposes on us Russian people the responsibility to revive in the memory of posterity the bright personality of Archbishop Nikifor Feotoki and, by publishing his numerous fruits of church sophistication, to testify to the high zeal with which he served the Russian Church for the benefit of our people. The title of this new book by Mr. Sakkelion is as follows: Πατμιακὴ Βιβλιοθ ή κη. ἤ τοι ἀναγραφὴ , τῶν ἐν τ ῇ βιβλιοθ ή κ ῃ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ν ή σον Πάτμον γεραρ ᾶ σ καὶ βασιλικῆς μονῆς τοῦ ἁ γ ί ου αποστ ό λου καὶ ἐαγγελιστοῦ Ἰ ωάνου τοῦ Θεολ ό γου τεθησαυρισμἐνων χειρογράφων τεύχων, ἐκπονηθεισα ὑπὸ Ι. Ζκκελ ί ωνος. Αθην 1890. Price 25 drachmas or francs in gold. We will perhaps give a detailed account of this venerable and long-awaited work of the Greek scientist. Translation of this letter by Rev. Nikifor Feotoki printed in Kherson. Eparch. Ved. along with the Greek text, but with large inaccuracies and even errors. Rev. Nikifor was in frequent correspondence, for example, with Joachim, Metropolitan of Pravlovsk (Kherson. Eparch. Ved. 1860, part 1, p. 324), but we know nothing about these letters. The Right Reverend Nicephorus speaks about the special attention the Astrakhan people pay to themselves when they deliver sermons in another of his words “about virtue,” which he delivered on the week of St. Thomas, but also not yet published. “I praise,” he says in the second part of this word, that virtuous inclination that your pious soul has to hear the word of God. This virtue is very great and useful, for the Word of God will sufficiently keep you clean from all sin and will desire to acquire every virtue. I praise your good will, for although due to my ignorance I do not know how to preach the Word of God according to all the rules of ornate art. Although I do not support it with the example of my deeds, because I am a sinner, yes, however, you come to listen to it with eagerness and zeal. So, in reward for your good and laudable inclination, I entrust all of you to the patronage of our common intercessor, the wonderworker Spyridon” ... (Manuscript of the Church of the Architectural Museum of the Kiev Spiritual Academy. No. 163, l. 54). You might be interested in: