LIVES OF SAINTS IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES, AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE IN THE RESEARCHES OF L.M. BERKUT

Andrey Nalivaiko

doi:10.23856/4411

Andrey Nalivaiko Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5518-6637

Keywords: L. Berkut, lives of saints, Christian legends, miracles, the Middle Ages, hagiography, historical-critical method

Abstract

Leonid Nikolaevich Berkut (1879-1940), an outstanding Ukrainian medievalist. He studied the Western European medieval historiography and culture.

L. Berkut’s reseach considers in this article, which dedicated to the Christian hagiography of the pre-Merovingian and Merovingian periods in Western Europe. Despite the special specificity and tendentiousness of the hagiographic material, L. Berkut was not a skeptic in the matter of using the lives of the saints as a historical source. For the Ukrainian professor, the lives of the saints, as well as the Christian legend, revealed the social and spiritual picture of medieval society and they were a special area of socio-cultural research.

Trough his own research, the professor makes it clear to the reader that the genre of hagiography itself always has a certain pronounced specificity. The main task of the hagiographer is not to provide a historically accurate biography, but to create an image of a person who has achieved holiness and serves as a role model for others. Therefore the author deprived his hero of individual “earthly” traits and left him in the form of a supernatural “heavenly”, legendary, mythical role. In a hagiographic work, first of all, a certain “ideal of holiness” plays a role, and then specific information about the character's life. Therefore, a researcher, when studying this kind of sources, must be able to separate one from the other.

Do not forget that the biography of saints occupied a special place in medieval literature. For the majority of the population of medieval Europe, hagiography was the main source about the Christian picture of the world, the relationship between the earthly and the heavenly, about the influence of providence in everyday life.

References

1. Adrianova-Peretcz V. P. (1964) Zadachi izucheniya “agiograficheskogo stilya” Dr. Rusi [Problems of studying the “hagiographic style” Dr. Rus] TODRL. Vol. 20 (in Russian)
2. Afinogenov D. E. (2008) Zhitijnaya literatura // “Pravoslavnaya E`ncziklopediya”. [Life literature // Central Scientific Center “Orthodox Encyclopedia”], Moscov: T. 19. (in Russian)
3. Berkut L.M. (1911) Vvedenie v istoriyu srednikh Vekov. Osennee polugodie. [An introduction to the history of the Middle Ages. Autumn half-year]. Warsaw (in Russian)
4. Berkut L.M. (1911) Khristianskie legendy` i Zhitiya Svyaty`kh rannej e`pokhi srednikh vekov. [Christian Legends and Lives of Saints] Warsaw. (in Russian)
5. Bondurand, E. (1887) L'éducation carolingienne. Le Manuel de Dhuoda 843 [Carolingian education. Le Manuel de Dhuoda 843] Paris (in France)
6. Deutschlands (1858) Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter bis zur Mitte des XIII Jahrhunderts Vattenbakh, Vil`gel`m: istoricheskie istochniki Germanii v srednie veka do serediny` 13 veka. [Germany's historical sources in the Middle Ages up to the middle of the XIII century Berlin: Gercz – X, 574 URL: http://www.mgh.de/bibliothek/opac (in German)
7. Delee`(1905). Les légendes hagiographiques [Hagiographic legends] Bryussel` (in France)
8. Donchenko A.I. (1999) Rol` agiografii e`pokhi Merovingov v stanovlenii zapadnoevropejskoj khristianskoj kul`tury` dis…doktora kul`turologi`yi [The role of hagiography of the Merovingian era in the formation of Western European Christian culture dis … Doctor of Culturology] Blagoveshchensk: URL: http://cheloveknauka.com. (in Russian)
9. Duchesne L., Origines du culte chrétien. Etude sur la liturgie latine avant Charlemagne, 1920 [Origins of Christian Worship. Study on the Latin liturgy before Charlemagne, 1920 [in France]
10. Klyuchevskij V. O. (1871) Drevnerusskie zhitiya svyaty`kh kak istoricheskij istochnik : issledovanie V. Klyuchevskago. [Old Russian Lives of Saints as a Historical Source: Research by V. Klyuchevsky.] Moscow: K. Soldatenkov's edition, III, 465, IV, III (in Russian)
11. Knowles D. (1963) [Great Historical Enterprises: Problems in Monastic History]. London. (in English)
12. Krush, B. (1920).: ed. Arbeo. Arbeonis episcopi Frisingensis vitae sanctorum Haimhramni et Corbiniani SS in us. schol., B. Krush (1888-1910) Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici Hnnovere et Lipsiae Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum: 2-5 t. / Ed. by B. Krush. (1888) [Krush, and their predecessors. Ed. Arber. Arbeonis Bishop of Freising holy Haimhramni and Corbiniani SS in us. schol., The passions of life and of the saints, and the age Merovingici Hnnovere B. Krush; The historical monuments of Germany. Writers Things Merovingicarum: 2-5 T. / Ed. B. Krush.] Hannover; New York (in Latin; in German)
13. Levison, W.: Das Werden der Ursula-Legende Bonner Jbb. 132, 1927, S. 1(in English)
14. Paramonova M. Yu. (2007) Agiografiy // Slovar` srednevek. kul`tury` [Hagiography // Dictionary of the Medieval. Culture] Moscov: Common. ed.: A. Ya. Gurevich. (in Russian)