Novgorod in the Znamenskii and Khutynskii Cycles by Pachomius Logothetes

This is a detailed exposition and analysis of what is said about the city of Novgorod in the two cycles of texts composed by Pachomius Logothetes (the Serb) for the two Novgorodian religious feasts—the feast of the icon of the Mother of God of the Sign (“Znamenie”) and the feast of St. Varlaam Khutynskii. Pachomius wrote these cycles to the order of Archbishop Evfimii II of Novgorod at the end of the 1430s. The study shows that the cycles present a new conception of Novgorod that we do not find in any earlier texts, including the main sources for these cycles. Pachomius considers Novgorod separately from its inhabitants and asserts that the city itself enjoys special care from the Mother of God and God himself as the city’s sovereigns, as well as and also from Varlaam Khutynskii. He also distinguishes the archbishop Ioann, a hero of the Znamenskii cycle, as God’s agent. The archbishop communicates with God, helps to strengthen the devotion of the people of Novgorod, and leads them to salvation. I hypothesize that this scheme with the idea of Novgorod as a sacred city could be aimed primarily at the legitimation of the secular political authority of Archbishop Evfimii II. Moreover, the article suggests what territory corresponds to the notion of Novgorod the Great in Pachomius’s texts. It also points out a notable change in the representation of the relations of Novgorod and “the whole Russian land.”

DOI: 10.31168/2305-6754.2024.1.03