Abstract:
The paper aims to identify the Greek original of an Old Church Slavonic tale
included in the Old Russian Sinodik and known in manuscript copies from the
16th c. Previously, the tale was provisionally ascribed to the Latin tradition and
thought to have reached the Old Russian literature via a Polish milieu. Recent
aË empts to identify its Greek original remained unsuccessful. The author argues
that the tale is an Old Church Slavonic translation of the Byzantine text BHG
1449d, a spiritually benefi cial writing ascribed to Paul of Monemvasia (second
half of the 10th c.). The same translation is presented in East Slavonic manuscript
copies of the Patericon, the Plain and Versed Synaxarion, and the Izmaragd.
The earliest of the newly identifi ed manuscript copies is dated to the fi rst half
of the 15th c. The article also contains an edition of the Old Church Slavonic
translation (according to the manuscript copy in Moscow, Russian State Library,
Collection of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, No. 701, Patericon, 1469) in parallel
with the Greek original according to the scholarly edition of the manuscript
version contained in a Greek codex of the 14th c. (ca 1330).
