Krzyż jako symbol władzy kosmicznej w bizantyńsko-słowiańskiej tradycji literackiej

The image of a cross appearing in the sky has been present in Christian literature not only in the body of texts related to several saints, but it has also become one of the most favourite motives of Christian apocryphal literature, especially in its apocalyptic and eschatological section. Revelation of Pseudo-Methodius Patarensis, which is very popular in Medieval literature, is an example of using the motive of a cross as a symbol of cosmic power to illustrate the scenario of the apocalypse and the second advent awaited by Christians. In the apocryphal text, the image of the cosmic cross serves, inter alia, the purpose of graphic and suggestive presentation of the fundamental axiom of that period concerning the existence and co-dependence of two intermingling parallel worlds, namely the earthly (material, mundane) and the heavenly one (divine, eternal). The text constitutes an example of building apocryphal narrative on the basis of a precise semantic code of the Christian vision of times (the past and also the future) testifying to its multi-faceted mythological, biblical, historical and literary implications.