Information about the author:
Olga A. Krasheninnikova, PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1518-7923
E-mail:
Abstract:
The article examines the last stage of Markel Radyshevsky’s work, who was the outstanding church publicist, writer and preacher of the first third of the 18th century. The former archimandrite of the Novgorod Yuriev Monastery has been mistreated in 1731 for his works criticizing the Spiritual Regulations, the church policy of the Holy Synod and the Lutheran orientation of Feofan Prokopovich’s works. Empress Elizabeth Petrovna after her accession released Radyshevsky under an amnesty and elevated him to the rank of Bishop of Karelia and Ladoga. During this period he prayed Empress Elizabeth Petrovna as the defender of the Russian nation and the support of the Orthodox faith in Russia in his solemn sermons. Her main merit was the liberation of the people from foreign customs imposed on them during the years of German domination, the fight against church heretics, the return to the customs and foundations of traditional Orthodox piety, such as the veneration of icons and relics, and fasting. Radyshevsky compared Russia of the beginning of 1740s with the era of the Triumph of Orthodoxy in Byzantium in the mid-9th century, after the period of iconoclastic persecution. The article analyzes three Radyshevsky’s Sermons of the 1740s, that have come down to us in rare lifetime editions. The author selected two most important sermons for the publication. They give a vivid idea of the unprecedented spiritual ascent after the accession of the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna.