«Кара Божья» и «Чудо Господнее» в рассказах об осквернении святынь в текстах современной украинской крестьянской традиции
‘Lord’s punishment’ and ‘Lord’s miracle’ in the oral stories about the violation of sanctities in the texts of Contemporary Ukrainian Rural Tradition

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the investigation of a concept of ‘Lord’s punishment’ and ‘Lord’s miracle’ in the folk oral stories about violation of the sanctities in modern Ukraine. It is based on a large amount of data collected in different Ukrainian regions in rural environment in 2007–2013. The most representative ninety texts were involved in the research. They could be divided in two main groups due to their plots: 1) the violation of a temple (church or chapel is turned into a grain, vegetables or techniques store, club-house, school; communist activists dance at the altar or defecate inside of the church); 2) the destroying or burning a temple itself. In the number of texts the motives of ‘Lord’s miracle’ and ‘Lord’s punishment’ act in a certain unity. Thus, in one case, the motive of the miracle precedes the motive of the punishment. In the other case, God shows His miracle some time after the punishment came. Anyway, the motive of Lord’s punishment is the main concept in the majority of the texts selected. It is separated in two plots: the punishment immediately gains upon the defiler (defiles) or it reaches them later. It this case it overtakes as a long agonizing death or can reflect the life of the defiler’s children and even grandchildren. The destroying of the church means the annihilating of the whole world order in the traditional worldview of the village-dwellers that influences their everyday life till nowadays.

• Details
• Contents