Чудото на св. Димитър от ръкопис BAR 327, XVI в.: Книжовни проекции на култа към светеца отвъд Дунава
The Miracle of St Demetrius from the Manuscript BAR 327, XVI c.: Literary Projections of the Cult of the Saint Across the Danube

Summary/Abstract: In the article, the single known copy of the so-called Miracle of the Saracens of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki, translated from a yet unidentified Greek original, is published and analyzed according to the 16th century manuscript BAR 327 from the Library of the Romanian Academy. The manuscript is associated with the monastery of Tsantareni in Oltenia, Wаlachia. The aim is to examine those key motifs and their linguistic expression that provide insight into local accents in the cultural and historical conceptualization of the cult of the saint in a wide Balkan area: narrative nuclei, realia, sacral objects, etc. The deviations from the oldest sources of literary glorification of the saint in the Byzantine tradition, the Passio prima; the Passio altera; the Collection of Miracles of Archbishop John and the Second Anonymous Collection (both composed in the seventh century), prove that details were added to the archaic narrative base, the fruit of a new historical context and intentions. The text is entirely compilative and was created by the accumulation of separate narrative fragments, with the primary source being the anonymous pre-Metaphrastic martyrdom and the first collection of miracles of St Demetrius by Archbishop John. BAR 327 does not offer any new miracles, but it does contain interpretive segments based on the original Byzantine miracles. The future task is to collect and study all copies of the socalled isolated Moldavian redaction, its relationship with the manuscript from Wallachia, as well as the historical and ideological understanding of the cult of St Demetrius in the Balkans during the period of the Ottoman Empire.

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