Swój czy obcy? Obraz etniczny społeczności Rusi Kijowskiej w przekazach Pateryku kijowsko-pieczerskiego
Native or Foreign? The Ethnic Image of the Community of Kievan Rus’ in the Accounts of the Kievan Cave Patericon

Summary/Abstract: Mariusz Bartnicki’s article is devoted to an aspect of the formation of the community identity of the inhabitants of medieval Rus’, namely the role played in this respect by hagiographic works. On the example of his analysis of the texts included in the Kievan Cave Patericon, Bartnicki seeks to determine the attitude of church authors to ethnic groups inhabiting the territory ruled by the Rurik dynasty. He also addresses the issue of the role of such texts in the formation of a sense of unity among the inhabitants of the Ruthenian lands. Bartnicki’s examination of the Kiev community of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries through the prism of ethnic motifs present in Patericon reveals that even in the mid-twelfth century, the Kiev community was a multi-colored mosaic of various ethnic identities. Numerous references in the texts of the stories to ethnic themes allow us to believe that the memory of the origin of ancestors played an important role in determining identity on both the personal and the social levels. The main pillar on which the communal sense of identity was built was the ruling dynasty and the common faith, which regulated customs and social relations.

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