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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2019

Sean Griffin
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
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Summary

The book opens with two historical scenes, separated in time by nearly a thousand years. In the first, Vladimir Putin makes a speech in front of a new sixty-foot monument of Saint Vladimir the Great, the baptizer of Rus. Looking into the television camera, the president retells the myth of Christian origins of Russian civilization—a sacred story that was first written down in the early twelfth century by the clerical authors of the Rus Primary Chronicle (Повесть временных лет). In the second scene, readers are transported to eleventh-century Constantinople, where the Byzantine emperor and the patriarch are celebrating the Feast of Saints Constantine and Helena. They lead a liturgical procession of thousands across the city, and along the route the clergy ritually retell the story of the conversion of the Roman Empire. There follows a brief narrative history of how Byzantine church books were translated and transported into late tenth-century Kiev. The chapter concludes with the principal argument of the book: that the myth of Saint Vladimir and his kin recorded in the Rus Primary Chronicle has its source in the liturgical services of the Byzantine Empire.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • Introduction
  • Sean Griffin, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
  • Book: The Liturgical Past in Byzantium and Early Rus
  • Online publication: 09 August 2019
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  • Introduction
  • Sean Griffin, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
  • Book: The Liturgical Past in Byzantium and Early Rus
  • Online publication: 09 August 2019
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Sean Griffin, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
  • Book: The Liturgical Past in Byzantium and Early Rus
  • Online publication: 09 August 2019
Available formats
×