The Veneration of the Mother of God and Some Aspects of Naming Tradition in pre-Petrine Russia

Autor: Anna F. Litvina, Fjodor B. Uspenskij
Jazyk: ruština
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Вопросы ономастики, Vol 15, Iss 2, Pp 87-107 (2018)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1994-2400
1994-2451
DOI: 10.15826/vopr_onom.2018.15.2.016.pdf
Popis: The paper explores a specific name-giving pattern that came from the ban on appellation after Virgin Mary. In Russia, the name of the Mother of God could neither be given at christening nor, apparently, could it be acquired with the monastic tonsure, with this prohibition being strictly and rigorously observed from pre-Mongolian times to our days. Yet it is also well known that the name Mary could be given in honor of the multitude of saints sharing the same name as the Mother of God. The study illustrates that in the 16th–17th centuries the name Mary could be given on the day one of the numerous icons of the Mother of God was celebrated. Thus, the designated person became the namesake of one of the venerated images of the Mother of God while avoiding a direct violation of the prohibition on the name’s use. The cult surrounding the icons of the Mother of God was part of a complex system of significant dates which determined the choice of personal names for a single person, not only regulating their life from birth to death but also predisposing practices of their posthumous commemoration. It is worth noting that such pattern of naming by the icon did not in any way extend to the name of Christ; however, it may have played a particular role in the cult of St Nikolaos of Myra, whose name in Russia at that time was also included in nomina sacra.
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