Eulogy by Leo Philologist
Nicholas Zharkikh
The eulogy of Leo Philologist in honor of Michael and Fedor (PSLF) did not attract the attention of SMF researchers, as it turned out – in vain.
Little is known about Leo. He is a native of Serbia (as well as Pachomius), worked in the Moscow state in the first half of the 16th century. His indisputable works are eulogies (1) to Michael and Fedor and (2) to Zosima and Savati Solovetsky. [Dmitrieva R. P. Leo Philologist. – Dictionary of Librarians and Literature of Ancient Russia, Leningrad, 1989, vol. 2, part 2]
History of writing the work by Leo Philologist
Sources of the work by Leo Philologist
From the texts of the SMF Lev indisputably used NikL and some of the texts of Pachomius Serb (probably S-8).
Additional sources of the work by Leo Philologist
"Tale of the Princes of Vladimir".
"Tale of victory over the Volga Bulgarians."
The ideological direction of the work by Leo Philologist
The picture of Michael’s feat unfolds in PSLF in two dimensions – earthly and heavenly:
Act | Earthly (real) world | Heavenly (supernatural) world |
The reason for the ruin from the Tatars | Batu’s attack | sins: envy, pride, untruth |
Evil force | King Batu | Devil |
Michael’s refusal | disobedience to the king | victory over the devil |
Because of this refusal | Batu later left to demand apostasy from the Rus’ princes | Michael saved the entire Orthodox Church |
Leo in his work leads the reader to believe that Michael was at the crossroads of not only earthly political forces but also supernatural forces of good and evil, and his action not only saved his own soul from hell, not only proved to be a worthy descendant of ancient martyrs of Christianity, but and turned the history of all of Rus’ towards Orthodoxy and autocracy.
The idea of the work is majestic and important, and its verbal design is magnificent and solemn.
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