KIEV - THE SECOND JERUSALEM. THE IMAGE OF THE CITY IN THE ORTHODOX RUTHENIAN LITERATURE IN THE FIRST PART OF THE 17th CENTURY

The article is devoted to the image of Jerusalem and in particular to the functioning of the concept 'Kiev as the Second Jerusalem' in the Orthodox Ruthenian literature in the first half of the seventeenth century. The source materials for the study are a number of diverse texts of the time: polemical literature, occasional verse, hagiography, epistles, forewords to liturgical books and collections of sermons. The tradition of comparing Kiev to Jerusalem, which arose during the period of Kievan Rus', acquired special significance in connection with the polemics and conflicts that arose after the Union of Brest was concluded in 1596. The tenor and function of the comparison of the two cities also changed over the course of several decades simultaneously with the change in the situation of the Orthodox province of Kiev. In the 1st decades of the seventeenth century - especially difficult ones for Orthodoxy - the motif of the Holy City was used in an eschatological context, and the Church of Jerusalem served as an example for a community, which, although enslaved, had not lost spiritual primacy. In turn, the revival of the Kievan ecclesiastical province and Ruthenian culture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the time of Peter Mohyla was accompanied by usage of the biblical topos of 'Jerusalem triumphant', and the concept 'Kiev as the Ruthenian Zion' reflected the enthusiasm and hopes of Kievan Orthodox elite.