Article

Name: VISIONS AND THEIR FUNCTION IN THE SIBERIAN LEGEND ON THE APPARITION AND MIRACLES OF OUR LADY’S ICON OF ABALAK IN TOBOLSK

Authors: T. I. Kovaleva

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Russian Literature of Siberia: Plots, Motives, Biographies

Abstract: The monuments of Siberian hagiography of the 17th – early 18th centuries arose on the basis of visions. The first hagiographic composition is the Legend on the apparition and miracles of Our Lady’s Icon of Abalak in Tobolsk. It was very popular in the people’s environment and played a significant role in the cult of the icon that became the most revered Siberian shrine. The analysis of the Siberian Legend in the context of the Old Russian compositions, including visions, revealed assimilation of the previous tradition and conservation of the main function of unfolding an event in the local visions. At the same time, they primarily disclose an image of the visionary widow Mary becoming the protagonist of the composition. She was awarded the visions of the future icon\’s sacred images (the Virgin, Nicolas of Myra, Mary of Egypt). It differences the Siberian composition from other legends on miraculous icons, dedicated to the existing shrines, where heroes have only service role of receiving instructions from the icon. The writing of the new Icon of Our Lady of the Sign, named Abalatskaya, takes place after the story of the widow Mary about visions, which is also unique and not found in any of the legends known to us. Features of the visions in the Siberian composition are explained by new tendencies in the literature of the 17th century, on the one hand, and by extraliterary factors (geographical distance of the «Siberian kingdom» from Russia, its autonomy and late Christian Enlightenment) on the other. The considered example of the visions makes it possible to talk about a new stage in the development of the genre at the end of the Old Russian literature – its transformation. Since the fact of the writing an icon is inseparable from its image, the article includes illustrations which help form an idea on the prime image of the Theotokos of Abalak that is lost now.

Keywords: traditions of the old russian literature, siberian hagiography of the 17th century, genre of visions, legends on miracle-working icons, icon of our lady of the sign, abalak

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