In ancient times, reading the Lives of the Saints was one of the favorite activities of all layers of the Russian people. The readers were interested not only in historical facts from the lives of Christian ascetics but also in the profound instructive and moral-ethical meaning. Today, the Lives of the Saints have taken a…

A nachotnik is a man well-versed in sacred texts. Every Christian ought to be a nachotnik— that is, one who knows his confession, is capable of defending his belief, and therefore must be well-read, first of all in the Holy Scriptures, and then in all other ecclesiastical writings.— Fyodor Yefimovich Melnikov “Sanctify the Lord God…

The literature of Ancient Rus’ is divided into translated and original works. Translated literature appeared in Kievan Rus’ with the adoption of Christianity and had Byzantine and South Slavic (Bulgarian) origins. First and foremost, this included the biblical books of the Old and New Testaments, apocrypha, lives of the saints (hagiographic literature), religiously infused historical…

For centuries, it remained a persecuted body of literature. On the one hand, this meant that its authors were not subject to state censorship and therefore enjoyed a high degree of creative freedom; on the other hand, it also meant they had to pay a very high price for the ability to write in accordance…

There is perhaps no more useful invention that holds within it one of the spiritual treasures of humanity—knowledge. A book must not be regarded as a mere vessel of information. A thoughtful book is far more to a person than the volume of information measured in printed sheets, number of pages, or physical thickness; a…