ЛЕГЕНДА О АЛЕКСИЈУ БОЖЈЕМ ЧОВЕКУ ИЗМЕЂУ ЗВАНИЧНЕ И НАРОДНЕ КУЛТУРЕ
THE ST. ALEXIS LEGEND BETWEEN OFFICIAL AND FOLK CULTURE

Summary/Abstract: The St. Alexis Legend, widespread throughout the Christian world in the form of prose and versified hagiographies, is close to the folk culture as well, on socio-anthropological and cognitive-psychological plane. The model of The St. Alexis Vita corresponds to the general, initiation-like structure of folklore genres, which enables the recognition of common cultural models and similar folk motifs. Born as a divine gift, St. Alexis becomes a particular model of virtue and charity in earthly life, and after his death he continues to give and heal, acting as a mediator between people and God. Because of this, in the popular religiosity and folk culture he connotes symbolic meaning of a gift and divine exchange. The analysis of The St. Alexis Vita in prose and versified legend written by Vićentije Rakić, and folk songs noted down by Andrejević, Vuković, Krauss, Yastrebov, Nikolić, Kašiković and Šaulić, shows that the saint, as a poetic character, mediates between official and folk culture by becoming a gift to the people, to the poor and to his own family. In this way he manages, to a certain extent, to transcend the antithesis between ascetic and folk culture.

• Details
• Contents