Irina Kuzidova-Karadzhinova

Aisit. Prof., PhD Institute for Literature, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

Dietetic Texts in Medieval Slavonic Literature. Preliminary Remarks


St Jerome’s Lives and the Formation of the Hagiographic Canon

  • Summary/Abstract

    This article approaches the question to what extent Jerome, as the first author who composed hagiographical works dedicated to hermits, constituted the hagiographical canon, to what extent he borrowed from the prior tradition and how he enriched Christian hagiography. Irina Kuzidova reconsiders the well-established opinion that his works Vita Pauli, Vita Malchi, and Vita Hilarionis, also known as Vitae Patrum eremitarum, are strongly influenced by the great example of Vita Anthonii by Athanasius of Alexandria. Without trying to deny the obvious effort and ambition of Jerome, the Bible’s translator into Latin, to surpass Athanasius of Alexandria’s hagiographic techniques and methods of glorifying an anchoret, St. Antonius, Kuzidova outlines the basic differences in Jerome’s and St. Athanasius of Alexandria’s narrative models. She focuses on innovative ideas and descriptions of important spiritual phenomena of the fourth century that were reflected for the first time in Jerome’s hagiography, such as anchoretic practices and regimes, formation of religious communities, shaping the Palestinian hierotopy, intellectual partnership between women and men and female activity in Christian societies.


A Glance at Medieval South Slavonic Anthologies of Wise Sentences (Genre Peculiarities, Terminology and Text Headings)

  • Summary/Abstract

    The article is an attempt to track down and sup up problems related to genre terminology in the wisdom literature. A comparison is made between Greek and Slavic titles of collections of wise sentences and apophthegms in order to shed light on their genre specifics. The titles emphasize the act of selection and compilation, as well as the instructive discourse within the general notion of the literature of wisdom. Unlike the Greek nominations, the Slavic models miss the refinement of the genre forms. This situation may be a consequence of the lack of cultivated practice for the use of genre names in Slavia Orthodoxa.


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