Cyril of Turaw
Encyclopedia
Cyril of Turaŭ (1130–1182) was a bishop
and saint
. He was one of the first and finest theologians of Kievan Rus'
; he lived in Turaw
, now Southern Belarus
. His feast day in the Orthodox Church is on April 28
.
enjoyed considerable prestige as a writer; his works were continuously copied and imitated. According to Zenkovsky’s assessment of Kirill’s heritage: “Cyril, Bishop of Turov, was probably the most accomplished master of Orthodox
theology
and the Byzantine
style of writing. He had an excellent command of Greek and his literary achievements surpass those of any other Russian man of letters of that era ... Of all his works, Cyril’s sermon with the triumphant description of spring as the symbol of the Resurrection was the most popular.” Indeed, this sermon
is one of his best known works in which he creates some of his more compelling images like a simile
comparing the melting of ice in the spring and Thomas’s dissolving doubts about Christ’s resurrection: “Ныне зима греховнаа покаянием престала есть и лед невериа богоразумием растаяся... лед же Фомина невериа показанием Христов ребр растаяся.” [Today the winter of sin has stopped in repentance, and the ice of unbelief is melted by wisdom spring appears...] It is often emphasized that Kirill was an accomplished author who exerted influence on subsequent generations of East Slavs
(continuing through the 17th century). The question of Kyrill’s heritage is problematic to some degree. First of all, there is the problem with the historically verifiable existence of Kirill of Turov; the questions as to whether he ever existed and who he was have not been answered definitively.
Life: Life of Kirill of Turov (28 April) which was written no earlier than the mid thirteenth century. This terse formulaic composition draws heavily on the hagiographic
conventions and yields very few historical details. He was born in a thriving town of Turov
, the son of wealthy parents. He was characterized by extreme piety at a young age and he entered a monastery still a young man. In the monastery he was respected for his asceticism
and his learned interpretation of biblical texts. He is said to be the consecrated bishop
of Turov in 1160s. With the support of the Metropolitan in 1169 he became involved in deposing Fedor, who occupied the bishopric of Rostov
. Usually he is thought to have died in 1182. According to an alternative line of thought, he became a bishop after 1182, remaining a monk throughout the period of 1160s and 1170s. Even the dates of Kirill’s life and work are debated. The dates 1130-1182 had been commonly accepted but among notable scholars, Simon Franklin vigorously disputes them. (See Simon Franklin’s Sermons and Rhetoric of Kievan Rus’). Kirill’s title the Bishop of Turov is usually agreed to be a later invention arising out of a desire to designate an appropriately high status to the author of extremely popular and influential words. Even though Kirill came to be known as the Bishop of Turov his works deal most extensively with a theme of monasticism
. It is often emphasized that Kirill’s points of reference are located within the walls of the monastery
. Monks are Kirill’s most frequent addressees.
(ca. 315-386); Cyril of Alexandria
(d. 444); Cyril of Scythopolis
(mid-sixth century); Constantine-Cyril
, apostle of the Slavs(d. 869); Metropolitan
Kirill I of Kiev
(1223–1233); Metropolitan Kirill II of Kiev (1243–1290); Bishop Kirill of Rostov (1231–1262); Kirill of Turov. There are also numerous Kirills who may have been active but were not recorded by chroniclers and hagiographers. Matters are further complicated by the fact, that these labels appear to have been used interchangeably as Simon Franklin points out.
, monastic commentaries, some letters, and a cycle of prayers, other hymnological texts, several versions of a penitential Prayer Kanon, a Kanon of Ol’ga and an abecedarian prayer. These works constitute what came to be known as Corpus Cyrillianium (which at its core has only eleven works which are agreed by the majority to be by Kirill of Turov.) This is a nineteenth-century consensus which is generally assumed but continuously questioned.
In manuscript
sources, there are 23 prayers attributed to Kirill, as well as an additional 9 unattributed prayers that are regularly copied together as a group. The prayers form a seven-day liturgical cycle. His homilies are also a cycle based on the ecclesiastical calendar
from Palm Sunday
to the Sunday before Pentecost
. His allegorical
commentaries are directed at a monastic audience.
As a scholar of Kyrill, C.M. MacRobert summarizes the state of scholarship: “Even if further early copies of the texts attributed to Kirill of Turov come to light, it may well not be possible to reconstruct his kanon in the form in which he wrote it—supposing that he did write it—or to determine the original wording of his prayers. The attempt to establish a canon of his liturgical works may ultimately be vain: what we have to deal with is not necessarily the recognizable oeuvre of one man, but rather a devotional tradition, a profoundly penitential spirituality which was cultivated among the East Slavs
during the medieval period and taken up by other Orthodox Slavs under the pressure of social and political vicissitudes.”. Another problem that complicates any precise attribution is the traditionalism of the Corpus Cyrillianum and the genre itself. The Kirillic genres themselves are deliberately constructed so as to give an impression of timelessness and universality. Details of contemporary “relevance” yielding specific clues as to time, place, and people (like Kirill’s admonition of Feodorek – Bishop Fedor of Rostov called so in depreciation) are rare and skillfully disguised. Kirill-the author identifies himself as a humble monk (following the tradition of humility topos) who fades before the ultimate author and authority of God. Here is an example of Kyrill’s humility topos taken from "A Tale of a layman, and on monasticism, and on the soul, and on repentance"; by the most sinful monk Kirill, for Vasilij, abbot of the Caves: “(52) And me: I beg you, do not spurn me like a dog, but remember me even here in your prayers, and there throw me scraps from that holy table, and may all Christians be judged worthy of that life, through Jesus Christ
our Lord, to whom glory with the Father and with the Holy Spirit
, now and ever.” And another one from: A Sermon for Low Sunday by the unworthy monk Kirill in praise of the resurrection
, and concerning the paschal bread, and concerning Thomas’s resting of the Lord’s ribs: “(1) The Church requires a great teacher and a wise interpreter to adorn the feast. But we are poor in word and dim in mind, and we lack the fire of the Holy Spirit
to compose words to benefit the soul. Yet, for the love of the brethren that are with me, I shall say a few words concerning the renewal of the resurrection of Christ
.”.
tradition which came to Rus’ form Byzantium via Slavonic translations originating mainly in Bulgaria
. “The homiletic
and exegetic
genres are among the ‘purest’ versions of the rhetorical tradition inherited from Byzantium, relatively uncontaminated in language and structure,” as Franklin affirms. ). These genres within the tradition of Christian rhetoric became Kievan elite culture, eagerly imitated by Rus’ medieval authors who “played the game according to received rules.”. The Byzantines also valued the stability of form and expression-the impression of timelessness. Consequently, in creating their native tradition, Kievan writers drew on the “tradition one of whose higher aesthetic virtues was traditionalism itself.”. As Franklin sees it, Kirill’s “self-imposed task was to perpetuate a tradition, not to change or modernize it; to become authoritative by following authority rather than by challenging it.”.
Kirill’s works are not original in form because they closely follow the Byzantine style. In content it relies heavily on quotes from the Holy Texts. Kirill’s texts are characterized by their extreme citationality. Simon Franklin in his most current English translation of the sermons numbers about 370 biblical quotation and allusions. Further textual sources for almost all of Kirill’s works are also identified. They are works by early Christian and Byzantine
churchmen that would have been available to Kirill in Slavonic
translations: John Chrysostom
, Epiphanius of Salamis, Ephrem of Syrus, Gregory of Nazianzus
, Eusebius of Caesarea
, and the scholia
of Nicetas of Heraclea
, Titus of Bostra
, Theophylact of Ohrid
, and the chronicler George the monk (George Hamartolus). As Ingunn Lunde points out, Kirill’s technique of quotations is based on the convention of the epideictic discourse where the establishment of verbal correspondences and parallels through emphasis and amplification serve to invocation of the authority of the sacred texts. “What is essential is the recognition of certain layer of sacred texts or voice in the orators’ discourse.”. If we accept the conventional attributions of works to Kyrill of Turov, he can be justly named the most prolific extant writer of Kievan Rus’.
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
and saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
. He was one of the first and finest theologians of Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
; he lived in Turaw
Turau
Turaŭ or Turaw is a town in the Zhytkavichy Raion of Homiel Province of Belarus and the former capital of the medieval Principality of Turov and Pinsk.-History:...
, now Southern Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
. His feast day in the Orthodox Church is on April 28
April 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Apr. 27 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - Apr. 29All fixed commemorations below celebrated on May 11 by Old Calendarists-Saints:* Martyrs Aphrodisius, Caralippus, Agapius, and Eusebius * Saint Patricius, Bishop of Prusa, in Bithynia, Martyr...
.
Kirill of Turov
For centuries Kirill of TuraŭTurau
Turaŭ or Turaw is a town in the Zhytkavichy Raion of Homiel Province of Belarus and the former capital of the medieval Principality of Turov and Pinsk.-History:...
enjoyed considerable prestige as a writer; his works were continuously copied and imitated. According to Zenkovsky’s assessment of Kirill’s heritage: “Cyril, Bishop of Turov, was probably the most accomplished master of Orthodox
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and the Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
style of writing. He had an excellent command of Greek and his literary achievements surpass those of any other Russian man of letters of that era ... Of all his works, Cyril’s sermon with the triumphant description of spring as the symbol of the Resurrection was the most popular.” Indeed, this sermon
Sermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
is one of his best known works in which he creates some of his more compelling images like a simile
Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things, usually by employing the words "like", "as". Even though both similes and metaphors are forms of comparison, similes indirectly compare the two ideas and allow them to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas...
comparing the melting of ice in the spring and Thomas’s dissolving doubts about Christ’s resurrection: “Ныне зима греховнаа покаянием престала есть и лед невериа богоразумием растаяся... лед же Фомина невериа показанием Христов ребр растаяся.” [Today the winter of sin has stopped in repentance, and the ice of unbelief is melted by wisdom spring appears...] It is often emphasized that Kirill was an accomplished author who exerted influence on subsequent generations of East Slavs
East Slavs
The East Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking East Slavic languages. Formerly the main population of the medieval state of Kievan Rus, by the seventeenth century they evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian peoples.-Sources:...
(continuing through the 17th century). The question of Kyrill’s heritage is problematic to some degree. First of all, there is the problem with the historically verifiable existence of Kirill of Turov; the questions as to whether he ever existed and who he was have not been answered definitively.
Biographic details
Biographic details are scant and because none come from sources contemporary with Kirill, many are debated. All we have in terms of his biography is a short SynaxarionSynaxarium
Synaxarion, Synexarion, pl. Synaxaria —Latin: Synaxarium, Synexarium—the name given in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches to a compilation of hagiographies corresponding roughly to the martyrology of the Roman Church.There are two kinds of synaxaria:*Simple...
Life: Life of Kirill of Turov (28 April) which was written no earlier than the mid thirteenth century. This terse formulaic composition draws heavily on the hagiographic
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
conventions and yields very few historical details. He was born in a thriving town of Turov
Turau
Turaŭ or Turaw is a town in the Zhytkavichy Raion of Homiel Province of Belarus and the former capital of the medieval Principality of Turov and Pinsk.-History:...
, the son of wealthy parents. He was characterized by extreme piety at a young age and he entered a monastery still a young man. In the monastery he was respected for his asceticism
Asceticism
Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...
and his learned interpretation of biblical texts. He is said to be the consecrated bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of Turov in 1160s. With the support of the Metropolitan in 1169 he became involved in deposing Fedor, who occupied the bishopric of Rostov
Rostov
Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:...
. Usually he is thought to have died in 1182. According to an alternative line of thought, he became a bishop after 1182, remaining a monk throughout the period of 1160s and 1170s. Even the dates of Kirill’s life and work are debated. The dates 1130-1182 had been commonly accepted but among notable scholars, Simon Franklin vigorously disputes them. (See Simon Franklin’s Sermons and Rhetoric of Kievan Rus’). Kirill’s title the Bishop of Turov is usually agreed to be a later invention arising out of a desire to designate an appropriately high status to the author of extremely popular and influential words. Even though Kirill came to be known as the Bishop of Turov his works deal most extensively with a theme of monasticism
Monasticism
Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...
. It is often emphasized that Kirill’s points of reference are located within the walls of the monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
. Monks are Kirill’s most frequent addressees.
Alternative names and attributions
Generally, Kirill’s autographs are not available and the manuscript sources are separated from the assumed time of composition by centuries. The medieval habit of anonymity and pseudonymity further complicates the process of attribution. Apart from the very rare “Kirill of Turov’ (even when this designation occurs, it tends to be just one of several variant readings), the headings in ‘his’ manuscripts include “Kirill the monk,” “Kirill the philosopher,” ‘Saint Kirill,” “The Blessed father Kirill,” “the blessed monk Kirill,” “Kirill the unworthy monk,” “the venerable Kirill.” Given this variety of labels, ‘Kirill’s’ texts invite several candidates for being their more likely authors (writers whose existence has been substantiated with historical facts). Hypothetically, each work can be allocated to one of several real Kirills and Cyrils: Cyril of JerusalemCyril of Jerusalem
Cyril of Jerusalem was a distinguished theologian of the early Church . He is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. In 1883, Cyril was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII...
(ca. 315-386); Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He came to power when the city was at its height of influence and power within the Roman Empire. Cyril wrote extensively and was a leading protagonist in the Christological controversies of the later 4th and 5th centuries...
(d. 444); Cyril of Scythopolis
Cyril of Scythopolis
Cyril of Scythopolis - Christian monk, priest and Greek historian of monastic life in Scythopolis in the early years of Christianity . Described seven lives of Palestinian saint monks after his arrival to the monastery of New Laura in 555...
(mid-sixth century); Constantine-Cyril
Saints Cyril and Methodius
Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century. They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, Great Moravia and Pannonia. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they...
, apostle of the Slavs(d. 869); Metropolitan
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
Kirill I of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
(1223–1233); Metropolitan Kirill II of Kiev (1243–1290); Bishop Kirill of Rostov (1231–1262); Kirill of Turov. There are also numerous Kirills who may have been active but were not recorded by chroniclers and hagiographers. Matters are further complicated by the fact, that these labels appear to have been used interchangeably as Simon Franklin points out.
Works
Questions of authorship notwithstanding, a remarkable corpus of works in different genres has been attributed to Kirill of Turov: festal homiliesHomily
A homily is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture. In Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox Churches, a homily is usually given during Mass at the end of the Liturgy of the Word...
, monastic commentaries, some letters, and a cycle of prayers, other hymnological texts, several versions of a penitential Prayer Kanon, a Kanon of Ol’ga and an abecedarian prayer. These works constitute what came to be known as Corpus Cyrillianium (which at its core has only eleven works which are agreed by the majority to be by Kirill of Turov.) This is a nineteenth-century consensus which is generally assumed but continuously questioned.
In manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
sources, there are 23 prayers attributed to Kirill, as well as an additional 9 unattributed prayers that are regularly copied together as a group. The prayers form a seven-day liturgical cycle. His homilies are also a cycle based on the ecclesiastical calendar
Liturgical year
The liturgical year, also known as the church year, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches which determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of Scripture are to be read. Distinct liturgical colours may appear in...
from Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels. ....
to the Sunday before Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
. His allegorical
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
commentaries are directed at a monastic audience.
As a scholar of Kyrill, C.M. MacRobert summarizes the state of scholarship: “Even if further early copies of the texts attributed to Kirill of Turov come to light, it may well not be possible to reconstruct his kanon in the form in which he wrote it—supposing that he did write it—or to determine the original wording of his prayers. The attempt to establish a canon of his liturgical works may ultimately be vain: what we have to deal with is not necessarily the recognizable oeuvre of one man, but rather a devotional tradition, a profoundly penitential spirituality which was cultivated among the East Slavs
East Slavs
The East Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking East Slavic languages. Formerly the main population of the medieval state of Kievan Rus, by the seventeenth century they evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian peoples.-Sources:...
during the medieval period and taken up by other Orthodox Slavs under the pressure of social and political vicissitudes.”. Another problem that complicates any precise attribution is the traditionalism of the Corpus Cyrillianum and the genre itself. The Kirillic genres themselves are deliberately constructed so as to give an impression of timelessness and universality. Details of contemporary “relevance” yielding specific clues as to time, place, and people (like Kirill’s admonition of Feodorek – Bishop Fedor of Rostov called so in depreciation) are rare and skillfully disguised. Kirill-the author identifies himself as a humble monk (following the tradition of humility topos) who fades before the ultimate author and authority of God. Here is an example of Kyrill’s humility topos taken from "A Tale of a layman, and on monasticism, and on the soul, and on repentance"; by the most sinful monk Kirill, for Vasilij, abbot of the Caves: “(52) And me: I beg you, do not spurn me like a dog, but remember me even here in your prayers, and there throw me scraps from that holy table, and may all Christians be judged worthy of that life, through Jesus Christ
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
our Lord, to whom glory with the Father and with the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
, now and ever.” And another one from: A Sermon for Low Sunday by the unworthy monk Kirill in praise of the resurrection
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
, and concerning the paschal bread, and concerning Thomas’s resting of the Lord’s ribs: “(1) The Church requires a great teacher and a wise interpreter to adorn the feast. But we are poor in word and dim in mind, and we lack the fire of the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
to compose words to benefit the soul. Yet, for the love of the brethren that are with me, I shall say a few words concerning the renewal of the resurrection of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
.”.
Style: Kirill's Traditionalism
Most of Kievan literature is based on the Eastern ChristianEastern Christianity
Eastern Christianity comprises the Christian traditions and churches that developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa, India and parts of the Far East over several centuries of religious antiquity. The term is generally used in Western Christianity to...
tradition which came to Rus’ form Byzantium via Slavonic translations originating mainly in Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. “The homiletic
Homiletics
Homiletics , in theology the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific department of public preaching. The one who practices or studies homiletics is called a homilist....
and exegetic
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
genres are among the ‘purest’ versions of the rhetorical tradition inherited from Byzantium, relatively uncontaminated in language and structure,” as Franklin affirms. ). These genres within the tradition of Christian rhetoric became Kievan elite culture, eagerly imitated by Rus’ medieval authors who “played the game according to received rules.”. The Byzantines also valued the stability of form and expression-the impression of timelessness. Consequently, in creating their native tradition, Kievan writers drew on the “tradition one of whose higher aesthetic virtues was traditionalism itself.”. As Franklin sees it, Kirill’s “self-imposed task was to perpetuate a tradition, not to change or modernize it; to become authoritative by following authority rather than by challenging it.”.
Kirill’s works are not original in form because they closely follow the Byzantine style. In content it relies heavily on quotes from the Holy Texts. Kirill’s texts are characterized by their extreme citationality. Simon Franklin in his most current English translation of the sermons numbers about 370 biblical quotation and allusions. Further textual sources for almost all of Kirill’s works are also identified. They are works by early Christian and Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
churchmen that would have been available to Kirill in Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
translations: John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom , Archbishop of Constantinople, was an important Early Church Father. He is known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and his ascetic...
, Epiphanius of Salamis, Ephrem of Syrus, Gregory of Nazianzus
Gregory of Nazianzus
Gregory of Nazianzus was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople. He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age...
, Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea also called Eusebius Pamphili, was a Roman historian, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about the year 314. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon...
, and the scholia
Scholium
Scholia , are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments, either original or extracted from pre-existing commentaries, which are inserted on the margin of the manuscript of an ancient author, as glosses. One who writes scholia is a scholiast...
of Nicetas of Heraclea
Nicetas of Heraclea
Nicetas was an 11th century Greek clergyman. A deacon of St. Sophia, Constantinople, he was a nephew of the bishop Serres or Serrae in Macedonia. Eventually he became Metropolitan of Heraclea , at the end of the eleventh century...
, Titus of Bostra
Titus of Bostra
Titus of Bostra was a Christian theologian and bishop. Sozomen names Titus among the great men of the time of Constantius.-Life:...
, Theophylact of Ohrid
Ohrid
Ohrid is a city on the eastern shore of Lake Ohrid in the Republic of Macedonia. It has about 42,000 inhabitants, making it the seventh largest city in the country. The city is the seat of Ohrid Municipality. Ohrid is notable for having once had 365 churches, one for each day of the year and has...
, and the chronicler George the monk (George Hamartolus). As Ingunn Lunde points out, Kirill’s technique of quotations is based on the convention of the epideictic discourse where the establishment of verbal correspondences and parallels through emphasis and amplification serve to invocation of the authority of the sacred texts. “What is essential is the recognition of certain layer of sacred texts or voice in the orators’ discourse.”. If we accept the conventional attributions of works to Kyrill of Turov, he can be justly named the most prolific extant writer of Kievan Rus’.
External links
- История Беларуси IX-XVIII веков: Life
- История Беларуси IX-XVIII веков: Works
- Кирилл Туровский. [Собрание из 68 сочинений]. || По изд.: Мельнікаў А.А. Кірыл, епіскап Тураўскі. Жыццё, спадчына, светапогляд. 2-е выд., Мн., 2000. - Эл. версия: О.Лицкевич, 2002-2003.