The Church and the Byzantine Empire: Epiphanic link of events

Abstract

The object of the article is the review for the book «The Church and the Empire in the Byzantine ecclesiastical poetry» written by Vladimir Vasilik. The author supposes the book successfully regards a number of subjects from Ante-Nicene hymnography up to the services of the 10th century and from the problem of prayer and martyrdom up to reflexion of earthquakes. Vladimir Vasilik publishes a number of hitherto unknown texts — such as the oldest canon to St. Emperor Constantine and the service to St. Nicholas. He makes a number of findings concerning both Ante-Nicene hymnography (е. с. preaching of St. Paul over Euphrates) and Byzantine ecclesiastic poetry (namely the reflexion of rebellion Nika and great earthquakes of the 6th century, reconstruction of biography of St. Romanos the Melod, veneration of Emperor-martyr Nicephor II and parallels with that of St. Princes Boris and Gleb etc.). The author makes a thorough comparative analysis of image of St. Emperor Constantine and that of St. Equal to Apostles Prince Vladimir in the hymnographic monuments. He makes very interesting parallels between the Cathedral of St. Apostles in Constantinople and the «Desyatinnaya» Church of Dormition in Kiev. The book of Vladimir Vasilik seems to be a great success of the author and a serious contribution to Russian Byzantine and Slavonic studies.