ŚWIĘTY STARZEC Z ATHOSU O NOWYM ETAPIE RECEPCJI IWANA WISZEŃSKIEGO
THE HOLY STARETS OF ATHOS. ON NEW STAGE OF RECEPTION OF IVAN VYSHENSKYI

Summary/Abstract: In 2016 the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate canonized Ivan Vyshenskyi of Mount Athos. The basis for creating his vita has become a monograph by Sergei Shumilo Starets Ivan Vyshenskyi: Athonite Ascetic and Orthodox Writer-Polemicist. Materials for а Biography of “Blessed Memory Ivan Vyshenskyi the Athonite” (2016). The author of this essay proposes a detailed discussion and a largely polemical critical analysis of Shumilo’s work. He argues that the reconstruction of the biography of the monk from Sudova Vyshnia proposed in the book is not convincing. Despite the research carried out on Mount Athos, Shumilo could not find any new sources, and his interpretation of previously known documents raises considerable doubts. Although the book bears the external marks of a scientific work, at the same time it belongs to the genre of popular religious literature: it consistently shows Vyshenskyi as a holy starets — the precursor of hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer — who contributed greatly to the Orthodox revival in Ukraine through his writings and activities.

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