Cyrilometodějské dědictví ve středověké Rusi: tradice Života Konstantinova, nebo mnicha Chrabra?
Cyrillo-Methodian Heritage in the Medieval Rus’: Tradition of the Life of Constantine, or Monk Hrabar?

Summary/Abstract: The study focuses on the image of St. Constantine-Cyril and the origin of Slavic writing in the interpretation of medieval Russian literary texts. An extensive narrative which quotes the Life of Methodius and is included into the Primary Chronicle to the year 6406 (898), is exceptional because it represents the pope as a defender of the Slavic liturgy. In later texts, the achievement of St. Constantine is distorted by reducing the importance of his work and attribution of his success to the Russians, or emphasizing the achievements of domestic scholars. In the Skazanie o gramote rous’tei, the story is entirely reinterpreted and “russified” with the emphasis on the autochthonous and divine origin of the Russian alphabet. The authors diminish the actions of Constantine, who is deprived of the role of the creator of the alphabet and becomes merely a student of a Russian who received the alphabet from divine revelation. While the narrative of Skazanie radically reduces the role of St. Constantine, Epiphanius the Wise creates a more elaborate and complicated image of the Saint in his Life of Stephen of Perm. Firstly, Constantine is introduced as Stephen’s archetype, then Stephen is presented as an equal, and lastly, Stephen’s work is referred to as a more difficult and greater one. Contrary to the universalist ideas of Life of Constantine, Epiphanius follows Hrabar and constructs a hierarchy of writing systems and thus raises the issue of defining a hierarchical connection between Slavic and Permian writings. The study also aims to outline the consequences of the preference of the two versions of the alphabet’s story, i.e. either the fully “russified” one with a significantly diminished role of St. Constantine, or a version in the spirit of Hrabar distant from the universalist ethos of Life of Constantine.

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