Panich Tamara V.,
Doctor of Philology Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Siberian Epistles of Ignatius (Rimskiy-Korsakov): Structure and Text Sources
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2019-2-3
Siberian Epistles by Metropolitan of Tobolsk and Siberia Ignatius (Rimskiy-Korsakov) represent a complex composed of three independent works of different volume, which was finished in 1696. The subject is fighting against the church dissent in Siberia. The Epistles are not only an important source of information on the history of Ural-Siberian Old Belief protesters, but are also an interesting memorial of publicism of the late of XVII c. that stands out due to its literary specificity and reflects the artistic peculiarities of Ignatius (Rimskiy-Korsakov). Texts of the complex differ in their compositional structure and content. This refers especially to the Third Epistle. In comparison with two other epistles this one is more voluminous and has a more complicated structure characterized by a large variety of texts included. Within the Third Epistle’s structure there are fragments that resemble a theological or polemic treatise, prone, historical and narrative story. Forms of narrative story occupy a specific place here. Compositional and semantic structure of the text was extended and complicated by literary insertions (novels), which enhance its literary origin. Since the pontifical prone of Ignatius was addressed not only to foes of the Church, but mostly to the laity consisting of country-folk, these narrative literary insertions performed a didactic role: they allowed the author to express his attitude towards the opponents of church reformation and their teaching in an understandable fashion. Siberian Epistles are based on multiple sources of different character: bookish (texts of the Holy Writ, patristic, publications of Moscow Print Yard of XVII c., and service literature), documental, verbal. All these materials provided Metropolitan Ignatius with necessary information or knowledge about his field of interest; they also served as a means of text structuring (as constituent elements of its compositional structure); and most importantly, played a significant role in the author's polemic discourse, being important arguments in solution of the issues faced by Ignatius: to expose the views of church reformation opponents, to justify and protect the views of the official Church, and to warn the laity against probable influence of dissent ideology.
Publishing: 29/04/2019
How to cite: Panich T.V. Siberian Epistles of Ignatius (Rimskiy-Korsakov): Structure and Text Sources // Historical Courier, 2019, # 2 (4). Article 3. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2019/ISTKURIER-2019-2-03.pdf
Links: Issue 2 2019
Keywords: Siberian Epistles; Ignatius, metropolitan of Siberia and Tobolsk; compositional structure; sources