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Epistle to Michael, Prince of Bulgaria, of St Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople”. Introduction, Russian Translation and Notes

https://doi.org/10.31802/BCA.2025.26.2.002

Abstract

The readers are offered a new translation of one of the most famous Orthodox spiritual and political instructions («princely mirrors»), addressed to the first Bulgarian Christian ruler, prince Boris-Michael (852–889). The author of the message is St. Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople (858–867, 877–886), the greatest church, state and cultural figure of the Middle Byzantium period. This text enjoyed great popularity both in Byzantium and in Rus’ and became one of the first Byzantine texts translated into Modern Russian in the New Age (1779). The message, representing the archetype of the Christian attitude to power, is structured as a brief outline of church history, accompanied by moral maxims of biblical, patristic and ancient origin.

About the Author

P. V. Kuzenkov
Sevastopol State University
Russian Federation

Pavel V. Kuzenkov - PhD in Historical Sciences, Assistant Professor of Department «Social-Political and Philosophical Sciences» at the Institute of Social Sciences and International Relations

33, Universitetskaya st., Sevastopol 299053



References

1. Иванов С. А. Византийское миссионерство: можно ли сделать из «варвара» христианина? М.: ЯСК, 2003.

2. Плигузов А. И. Полемика в русской церкви первой трети XVI столетия. М.: Индрик, 2002.

3. Синицына H. B. Послание константинопольского патриарха Фотия князю Михаилу Болгарскому в списках XVI в. // Труды Отдела древнерусской литературы. 1965. Т. 21. С. 96–125.

4. Чичуров И. С. Политическая идеология Средневековья: Византия и Русь. М.: Наука, 1990. A Critical Companion to the ‘Mirrors for Princes’ Literature / ed. by N.-L. Perret and S. Péquignot.

5. Leiden; Boston (Mass.): Brill, 2023. (Reading Medieval Sources; vol. 7).

6. Slovník jazyka staroslověnského: v 4 sv. Praha: Nakladatelství Československé Akademie věd, 1958–1994.


Review

For citations:


Kuzenkov P.V. Epistle to Michael, Prince of Bulgaria, of St Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople”. Introduction, Russian Translation and Notes. Bible and Christian Antiquity. 2025;(2):48-96. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31802/BCA.2025.26.2.002

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ISSN 2658−7815 (Print)
ISSN 2713-1122 (Online)