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Visions of Glory
This book is about hagioraphical patterns and their transformations. It is concerned with the ways in which writers of saints' Lives in Kievan Rus' and in Muscovite Russia took over the prototypes inherited from early Christian and Byzantine literature, adapting them to their own historical context.
- GenresNonfiction
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
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November 24, 2025This is a book about hagiographical patterns in East slavic saints' lives written in the period before Peter the Great, however the author became interested in this topic because they noticed motives in nineteenth century writers including Leskov and Dostoevsky that were taken from this much earlier and to contemporary readers more obscure form of literature.
Part of the appeal of Saint's lives came from their strongly didactic nature - this was writing designed to have an impact upon the reader. Topoi, language, literary allusions and structure could all be used to affect the reader or listener, particularly through a structured and carefully constructed appeal to the emotions. This became a source of inspiration for nineteenth century Russian writers.
Bortnes looks at three works in detail: The Life of Saint Theodosius by Nestor written during the 1080s, The Life of Saint Stephen of Perm written by Epiphanius the Wise written in 1397 and Archpriest Avvakum the Life Written by Himself which was written between 1669 and 1675 and has come down to us in a complex manuscript (MS) tradition
We are first introduced to Early Christian writing by Bortnes, but which itself was derived from the classical tradition and folk tales but adapted when necessary to suit new needs. Bortnes writes: neither the late-antique novel nor early Christian hagiographical literature is pure entertainment or even even entertainment with an additional didactic function, as has often been maintained. Rather, they are the verbal expressions of a mythical world-view in which conceptual contrasts such as life and death, affirmation and negation, deification and abasement, are not absolutely opposed to each other, but are complementary: life is fraught with death and death with birth, affirmation implies negation, humiliation is the other side of theosis. Both the Christian protagonist of the Acts of the Apostles and the Isis-mustes in Apuleius' Golden Ass, conquer death through their suffering and prove worthy of deification through the god for whose sake and in whose image they have undertaken to suffer. p34 That comparison points to the potential power and freedoms possible through reference to this kind of writing, you can have knock about humour and spiritual transformation, indeed possibly the two have to skip hand in hand together.
There were two general models in early Christian writing - the life (Vita) and the martyr-passion (passio martyrum) which featured a dramatic dialogue between the accused and the Roman Emperor or his representative followed by the execution of the martyr. This draws not only on the Gospels with the martyr imitating Christ but also on pagan martyr stories which follow the same pattern. In later literature we might think of the dialogues between Raskolnikov and Porfiry in Crime and Punishment (the latter as a Detective is literally the representative of the Emperor) and the story of the Grand Inquisitor (with the Grand Inquisitor playing the part of the persecuting Emperor - Dostoevsky wasn't a fan of the Catholic church) in The Brothers Karamazov.
The first chapter is the shortest. Saint Theodosius as monk and later Abbot of the Caves monastery near Kyiv died only a few years before Nestor wrote his Life. However Bortnes' argument is that his account is deliberately ahistorical. Outlandish details, like the description of the saint's mother - monstrously strong and with a voice like a man's - are not a sign of veracity but a function of the story telling. At first the mother's role is to hinder her son in his efforts to become a monk, only when she submits and allows that, then becoming a nun herself does she become "properly" female herself. Then son can imitate Christ and the mother the Virgin Mary. The monastery is an inversion of the temporal realm of daily life. Outside the monastery the world is topsy turvy - an inversion of the divine realm - therefore the mother tries to prevent her son becoming a monk and the mother herself is unwomanly and manly. Accepting the divine order allows for a return to normality . What is crazy in the one world is normal in the other and vice versa. Other narrative techniques used in the life are repetition, the prefiguring of later events by earlier ones and the use of images of light in allusion to the Gospels. But this kind of inversion is something we see in Crime and Punishment too - a young man goes to university however success is not a good career in a government ministry and marriage to a woman of good social standing rather a prison camp and a relationship with a prostitute. He loses the world, but like a saint wins the spiritual battle.
Epiphanius knew Saint Stephen of Perm, both had spent time in the same monastery, and Epiphanius started work on the life soon after Stephen's death, but the life is again (probably deliberately) vague in its historical details. The focus is on relating Stephen in the unfolding of divine, not worldly history. This is achieved through Biblical allusions and quotations. Saint Stephen is continuing the work of the apostles - bringing the word to all nations - by converting the pagan people of Perm to Christianity and creating for them a written version of their language. The stress is on Saint Stephen as an exemplary role model he is a person "who did not seek office...ingratiate himself nor strive to get promotion nor seize office by force, nor let himself be bought, nor promise to give bribes" p140 and exists in dramatic contrast to the merchants of Novgorod and Moscow who on the contrary turn up and take furs from the pagans, while the man who has nothing, takes nothing instead he gives the gift of redemption - Sonia Marmeladova in Crime and Punishment is pressed out of the same literary mould. Having nothing in material terms, she has the power to make spiritual gifts
The use of allusion and reference to put the hero in a particular context can be used in different ways - the description of the hero's mother's hands in Andrei Bely's Petersburg echoes that of Anna Karanina or the use of the Bronze Horseman as an actual character puts the book in the context of literary history and invites dialogue and comparison between texts. An example in English literature of the use of this technique might be Vanity Fair - the title is from Pilgrims Progress which in turn alludes to Ecclesiastes, therefore Vanity Fair is a novel without a hero because the reader is the hero, who is in the position of the Pilgrim (and ultimately of the wise man author of Ecclesiastes), passing through the novel, seeing the vanity of vanities from a superior perspective (although in this case not necessarily an explicitly Christian one - the model is adaptable).
At this stage one can see that Dostoevsky's novels in particular are wolves in sheeps' clothing. Dressed as realist works including the family crisis novel or the crime story they allow a thoroughly Orthodox Christian story to creep up on the unaware reader and pounce on them in the ending.
Part of the reason for this is the last work discussed by Bortnes - the autobiography of Avvakum. Avvakum's account of his tribulations seemed to have a strange topicality for its readers, published as it was at the same time as Dostoevskys's The House of the Dead, the account of his deportation to a Siberian prison camp. In this context Avvakum's Life appeared as a forerunner of a new genre, and not as the final stage in early Russian Hagiography p229. There is a clear nod to Avvakum in the name Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, Raskol means schism, Avvakum and the rest of the Old Believers were officially known as schismatics, in English then Raskolnikov could be called Mr Heretic, or Mr Splitter, to put the same idea across.
More broadly Russian prison literature from Dostoevsky to Solzhenitsyn has its roots in Christian martyr stories. The state is the oppressor, the punished person innocent (it follows then that earthly suffering at the hands of the state is to be embraced as a signifier that one does stand at the right hand of God).
As a final aside it is worth thinking about Master and Margarita in the context of this kind of religious literature. The real world of 1930s Moscow is an inversion of the divine realm. The appearance of the Devil allows a foretaste of the apocalypse - hence the women with disappearing clothing. The role of the state is to be the oppressor under which the martyr endures suffering, but through the in-story parallel with the gospel we see that the persecuting state is a necessary and required actor in the drama of redemption. If there is no Emperor to interrogate and condemn the saint to martyrdom how is salvation possible?
Here everything comes back to Mikhail Bakhtin and his idea of carnival (ie inversion of the norms of the earthly, mortal realm) in literature from classical writings to Dostoevsky via Rabelais in which everything is turned upside down.
I ought to close with a humility topos in true hagiographical style, but this morning that feels a little too cheesy even for me...
Part of the appeal of Saint's lives came from their strongly didactic nature - this was writing designed to have an impact upon the reader. Topoi, language, literary allusions and structure could all be used to affect the reader or listener, particularly through a structured and carefully constructed appeal to the emotions. This became a source of inspiration for nineteenth century Russian writers.
Bortnes looks at three works in detail: The Life of Saint Theodosius by Nestor written during the 1080s, The Life of Saint Stephen of Perm written by Epiphanius the Wise written in 1397 and Archpriest Avvakum the Life Written by Himself which was written between 1669 and 1675 and has come down to us in a complex manuscript (MS) tradition
We are first introduced to Early Christian writing by Bortnes, but which itself was derived from the classical tradition and folk tales but adapted when necessary to suit new needs. Bortnes writes: neither the late-antique novel nor early Christian hagiographical literature is pure entertainment or even even entertainment with an additional didactic function, as has often been maintained. Rather, they are the verbal expressions of a mythical world-view in which conceptual contrasts such as life and death, affirmation and negation, deification and abasement, are not absolutely opposed to each other, but are complementary: life is fraught with death and death with birth, affirmation implies negation, humiliation is the other side of theosis. Both the Christian protagonist of the Acts of the Apostles and the Isis-mustes in Apuleius' Golden Ass, conquer death through their suffering and prove worthy of deification through the god for whose sake and in whose image they have undertaken to suffer. p34 That comparison points to the potential power and freedoms possible through reference to this kind of writing, you can have knock about humour and spiritual transformation, indeed possibly the two have to skip hand in hand together.
There were two general models in early Christian writing - the life (Vita) and the martyr-passion (passio martyrum) which featured a dramatic dialogue between the accused and the Roman Emperor or his representative followed by the execution of the martyr. This draws not only on the Gospels with the martyr imitating Christ but also on pagan martyr stories which follow the same pattern. In later literature we might think of the dialogues between Raskolnikov and Porfiry in Crime and Punishment (the latter as a Detective is literally the representative of the Emperor) and the story of the Grand Inquisitor (with the Grand Inquisitor playing the part of the persecuting Emperor - Dostoevsky wasn't a fan of the Catholic church) in The Brothers Karamazov.
The first chapter is the shortest. Saint Theodosius as monk and later Abbot of the Caves monastery near Kyiv died only a few years before Nestor wrote his Life. However Bortnes' argument is that his account is deliberately ahistorical. Outlandish details, like the description of the saint's mother - monstrously strong and with a voice like a man's - are not a sign of veracity but a function of the story telling. At first the mother's role is to hinder her son in his efforts to become a monk, only when she submits and allows that, then becoming a nun herself does she become "properly" female herself. Then son can imitate Christ and the mother the Virgin Mary. The monastery is an inversion of the temporal realm of daily life. Outside the monastery the world is topsy turvy - an inversion of the divine realm - therefore the mother tries to prevent her son becoming a monk and the mother herself is unwomanly and manly. Accepting the divine order allows for a return to normality . What is crazy in the one world is normal in the other and vice versa. Other narrative techniques used in the life are repetition, the prefiguring of later events by earlier ones and the use of images of light in allusion to the Gospels. But this kind of inversion is something we see in Crime and Punishment too - a young man goes to university however success is not a good career in a government ministry and marriage to a woman of good social standing rather a prison camp and a relationship with a prostitute. He loses the world, but like a saint wins the spiritual battle.
Epiphanius knew Saint Stephen of Perm, both had spent time in the same monastery, and Epiphanius started work on the life soon after Stephen's death, but the life is again (probably deliberately) vague in its historical details. The focus is on relating Stephen in the unfolding of divine, not worldly history. This is achieved through Biblical allusions and quotations. Saint Stephen is continuing the work of the apostles - bringing the word to all nations - by converting the pagan people of Perm to Christianity and creating for them a written version of their language. The stress is on Saint Stephen as an exemplary role model he is a person "who did not seek office...ingratiate himself nor strive to get promotion nor seize office by force, nor let himself be bought, nor promise to give bribes" p140 and exists in dramatic contrast to the merchants of Novgorod and Moscow who on the contrary turn up and take furs from the pagans, while the man who has nothing, takes nothing instead he gives the gift of redemption - Sonia Marmeladova in Crime and Punishment is pressed out of the same literary mould. Having nothing in material terms, she has the power to make spiritual gifts
The use of allusion and reference to put the hero in a particular context can be used in different ways - the description of the hero's mother's hands in Andrei Bely's Petersburg echoes that of Anna Karanina or the use of the Bronze Horseman as an actual character puts the book in the context of literary history and invites dialogue and comparison between texts. An example in English literature of the use of this technique might be Vanity Fair - the title is from Pilgrims Progress which in turn alludes to Ecclesiastes, therefore Vanity Fair is a novel without a hero because the reader is the hero, who is in the position of the Pilgrim (and ultimately of the wise man author of Ecclesiastes), passing through the novel, seeing the vanity of vanities from a superior perspective (although in this case not necessarily an explicitly Christian one - the model is adaptable).
At this stage one can see that Dostoevsky's novels in particular are wolves in sheeps' clothing. Dressed as realist works including the family crisis novel or the crime story they allow a thoroughly Orthodox Christian story to creep up on the unaware reader and pounce on them in the ending.
Part of the reason for this is the last work discussed by Bortnes - the autobiography of Avvakum. Avvakum's account of his tribulations seemed to have a strange topicality for its readers, published as it was at the same time as Dostoevskys's The House of the Dead, the account of his deportation to a Siberian prison camp. In this context Avvakum's Life appeared as a forerunner of a new genre, and not as the final stage in early Russian Hagiography p229. There is a clear nod to Avvakum in the name Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, Raskol means schism, Avvakum and the rest of the Old Believers were officially known as schismatics, in English then Raskolnikov could be called Mr Heretic, or Mr Splitter, to put the same idea across.
More broadly Russian prison literature from Dostoevsky to Solzhenitsyn has its roots in Christian martyr stories. The state is the oppressor, the punished person innocent (it follows then that earthly suffering at the hands of the state is to be embraced as a signifier that one does stand at the right hand of God).
As a final aside it is worth thinking about Master and Margarita in the context of this kind of religious literature. The real world of 1930s Moscow is an inversion of the divine realm. The appearance of the Devil allows a foretaste of the apocalypse - hence the women with disappearing clothing. The role of the state is to be the oppressor under which the martyr endures suffering, but through the in-story parallel with the gospel we see that the persecuting state is a necessary and required actor in the drama of redemption. If there is no Emperor to interrogate and condemn the saint to martyrdom how is salvation possible?
Here everything comes back to Mikhail Bakhtin and his idea of carnival (ie inversion of the norms of the earthly, mortal realm) in literature from classical writings to Dostoevsky via Rabelais in which everything is turned upside down.
I ought to close with a humility topos in true hagiographical style, but this morning that feels a little too cheesy even for me...
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