E-mail: antonina.antonina282@yandex.ru Tel.: +7 (8422) 44-11-58
4/5, Lenin sq., Ulyanovsk, 432071, Russian Federation
PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Russian Language, Literature, and Journalism, Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University named after I. N. Ulyanov
The purpose of this article is to consider the grave of a saint as a type of space that acquires special status thanks to hierophany (M. Eliade). The death of a locally venerated saint may thus serve as a “mythical first event” (V. Vinogradov) that entails further veneration of the holy one’s resting place. Such is the case with Vasenka the Blessed, whose veneration has been revived in recent years. The article is based on field recordings made during two religious processions in 2006 to Vasenka the Blessed’s grave, located in the forest between Yazykovo and Tenkovka — villages of the Karsunsky district, Ulyanovsk region. Saint Vasenka lived in the nineteenth century. He was a holy fool, distinguished by his righteous way of life, for which the Lord sent him a miraculous passing: after his death, Vasenka’s body is said to have remained uncorrupted for forty days. St. Gabriel (Igoshkin), who lived in Bazarny Uren in the 1940s, compiled a saint’s life of Vasenka, who was buried at the place of his death, a clearing in the forest. The grave of another saint, Father Vasily, who died in 1950, is located in the nearby Bazarny Uren cemetery. Father Vasily and his grave are also revered, and with a very well-developed ritual practice. The article attempts to assess the influence of Vasenka’s saint’s life and the veneration of Father Vasily on the (re)construction of the cult of Vasenka the Blessed. Furthermore, the author describes two models of veneration. In the first, the object of veneration is primary and the place is secondary (the transfer of relics leads to the creation of a new venerated space). In the second, the place is primary and the object of veneration is secondary (the place continues to be venerated despite the removal of the relics). She describes the case of Vasenka the Blessed as occupying an intermediate position between the two.
Antonova (Lipatova) A. P. (2023) Kak tagaiskie strel’tsy za ikonoi khodili (sostyazanie za svyatynyu kak popytka ee privatizatsii) [How Tagai Archers Went After an Icon (Competition for a Shrine as an Attempt to Privatize It)]. In: Russkaya traditsionnaya kul’tura segodnya: ekspeditsionnye i arkhivnye otkrytiya [Russian Traditional Culture Today: Expeditionary and Archival Discoveries]. Ed. by M. G. Matlin. Ul’yanovsk: UlGPU im. I. N. Ul’yanova. Pp. 50–56. In Russian.
Blank K. (2009) Ierotopiya sokrovennogo grada: nevidimyi Kitezh, nikonovskii Novyi Ierusalim i petrovskii Paradiz [Hierotopia of а Hidden City: Invisible Kitezh, Nikon’s New Jerusalem and Petеr’s Paradise]. In: Novye Ierusalimy. Ierotopiya i ikonografiya sakral’nykh prostranstv [New Jerusalem. Hierotopia and Iconography of Sacred Spaces]. Moscow: Indrik. Pp. 837–849. In Russian.
Vinogradov V. V. (2019) Severorusskie pochi156 taemye mesta: topika svyatyn’. Izbrannye stat’i, dissertatsiya [North Russian Revered Places: Тhe Theme of Shrines. Selected Articles, Dissertation]. Comp. by E. V. Khazdan. St. Petersburg: Proppovskii tsentr. In Russian.
Davydov I. P. (2012) Ot ikonopisi — k ikonike (kriticheskii analiz episistemy pravoslavnoi ikonologii) [From Iconography to Iconics (Critical Analysis of the Episystem of Orthodox Iconology)]. Vestnik PSTGU. Ser. “Bogoslovie, Filosofiya” [Bulletin of the PSTGU. Series “Theology, Philosophy”]. 2012. No. 2 (40). Pp. 49–58. In Russian.
Detelich M. (2014) Mogila v lesu: vzaimodeistvie prostranstvennogo i rastitel’nogo kodov v epose [Grave in the Forest: Interaction of Spatial and Plant Codes in the Epic]. Traditsionnaya kul’tura [Traditional Culture]. 2014. Vol. 15. No. 2 (54). Pp. 105–122. In Russian.
Zherdeva A. S. (2008) Osmyslenie ponyatiya “sakral’noe” v sovremennom filosofskom diskurse [Understanding the Concept of the “Sacred” in Modern Philosophical Discourse]. Uchenye zapiski Tavricheskogo natsional’nogo un-ta im. V. I. Vernadskogo. Ser. “Filosofiya. Sotsiologiya” [Scholarlyc Notes of V. I. Vernadsky Tauride National University. Series “Philosophy. Sociology”]. 2008. Vol. 21 (60). No. 1. Pp. 437–444. In Russian.
Lipatova A. P. (2010a) Obraz svyatogo cheloveka v russkoi traditsionnoi kul’ture (na materiale Ul’yanovskogo Prisur’ya) [The Image of a Holy Man in Russian Traditional Culture (Based on the Material of the Ulyanovsk Region)]. In: Obraznyi mir traditsionnoi kul’tury: Sb. st. [The Figurative World of Traditional Culture: A Collection of Articles]. Moscow: GRTsRF. Pp. 59–76. In Russian.
Lipatova A. P. (2010b) Durak i svyatoi: igra s real’nost’yu ili igra v real’nost’ [The Fool and the Saint: A Game with Reality or a Game in Reality]. In: Lichnost’: igra i real’nost’ [Personality: Game and Reality]. Moscow: IEA RAN. Pp. 215–235. In Russian.
Lipatova A. P. (2012a) Bolyashchie [Blessed]. In: Traditsionnaya kul’tura Ul’yanovskogo Prisur’ya. Etnodialektnyi slovar’ [Traditional Culture of the Ulyanovsk Region. Ethnodialectal Dictionary]. Vol. 1. Moscow: Indrik. Pp. 213–227. In Russian.
Lipatova A. P. (2012b) Otets Maksim (persona) [Father Maxim (Persona)]. In: Traditsionnaya kul’tura Ul’yanovskogo Prisur’ya: Etnodialektnyi slovar’ [Traditional Culture of the Ulyanovsk Region. Ethnodialectal Dictionary]. Vol. 2. Moscow: Indrik. Pp. 218–228. In Russian.
Lidov A. M. (2006) Ierotopiya. Sozdanie sakral’nykh prostranstv kak vid tvorchestva i predmet istoricheskogo issledovaniya [Hierotopia. The Creation of Sacred Spaces as a Kind of Creativity and as Subject of Historical Research]. In: Ierotopiya. T. 1: Sozdanie sakral’nykh prostranstv v Vizantii i Drevnei Rusi. [Hierotopia. Vol. 1: The Creation of Sacred Spaces in Byzantium and Ancient Russia]. Moscow: Indrik. Pp. 9–31. In Russian.
Lidov. A. M. (2009) Novye Ierusalimy. Perenesenie Svyatoi Zemli kak porozhdayushchaya matritsa khristianskoi kul’tury (vvedenie) [New Jerusalems. The Holy Land as a Generative Matrix of Christian Culture (Introduction)]. In: Novye Ierusalimy. Ierotopiya i ikonografiya sakral’nykh prostranstv [New Jerusalems. Hierotopia and Iconography of Sacred Spaces]. Moscow: Indrik. Pp. 5–10. In Russian.
Melnik A. G. (2015) Praktiki pochitaniya “svoikh” svyatykh v Spaso-Prilutskom monastyre v XV–XVI vv. [Practices of Veneration of “Their” Saints in the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery in the Fifteenth-Sixteenth Centuries]. Yaroslavskii pedagogicheskii vestnik [Yaroslavl Pedagogical Bulletin]. 2015. No. 3. Pp. 278–283. In Russian.
Novichkova T. A. (2001) Epos i mif [Epic and Myth]. St. Petersburg: Nauka. In Russian. Fadeyeva L. V. (2004a) Rasskazy o blazhennykh i prozorlivykh v Inzenskom raione Ul’yanovskoi oblasti. Katen’ka Pyatinskaya [Stories About Saints and Visionaries in the Inzensky District of the Ulyanovsk Region. Katenka Pyatinskaya]. Aktual’nye problemy polevoi fol’kloristik [Pressing Problems of Folklore Field Studies]. 2004. No. 3. Moscow. Pp. 200–217. In Russian.
Fadeyeva L. V. (2004b) Rasskazy o mestnochtimykh svyatynyakh: k probleme tsikla [Stories About Locally Venerated Shrines: On the Problem of the Cycle]. In: Mater. VI Mezhdunar. shkoly molodogo fol’klorista (22–24 noyabrya 2003 g.) [Proc. of the 4th International School of the Young Folklorist (November 22–24, 2003)]. Arkhangel’sk: Pomorskii gos. un-t im. M. V. Lomonosova. Pp. 52–61. In Russian.
Tsekhanskaya K. V. (2007) Pochitanie moshchei svyatykh i mogil podvizhnikov blagochestiya: istoki i sovremennye formy [The Veneration of the Relics of Saints and Graves of Ascetics of Piety: Origins and Modern Forms]. Traditsii i sovremennost’ [Traditions and Modernity]. 2007. No. 6. Pp. 20–36. In Russian.
Chistov K. V. (1967) Russkie narodnye sotsial’no-utopicheskie legendy XVII–XIX vv. [Russian Folk Socio-Utopian Legends of the Seventeenth-Nineteenth Centuries]. Moscow: Nauka. In Russian.
Shevarenkova Yu. M. (2012) Novomuchenitsa Dunyasha Suvorovskaya: zhitie ustnoe i knizhnoe [The New Martyr Dunyasha Suvorovskaya: Her Oral and Written Life]. Zhivaya starina [Living Antiquity]. 2012. No. 1. Pp. 11–14. In Russian.
Shnirel’man V. A. (2014) Mesta sily: Konstruirovanie sakral’nogo prostranstva. Vvedenie k diskussii [Places of Power: The Construction of Sacred Space. Introduction to the Discussion]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie [Ethnographic Review]. 2014. No. 5. Pp. 3–9. In Russian.
Shukurov R. M. (2010) Sozdanie sakral’nykh prostranstv. Dve novye publikatsii [The Creation of Sacred Spaces. Two New Publications]. Vizantiiskii vremennik [Byzantine Annals]. 2010. Vol. 69. Pp. 370–374. In Russian.
Lipatova A. P. A Saint with a Scallion in His Hand: Reconstruction of the Sacred Space at the Site of a Saint’s Death Two Centuries Later. Traditional Culture. 2023. Vol. 24. No. 3. Pp. 144–157. In Russian.