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The Ukrainians’ Secret Weapon

For those looking for an explanation as to the notable success of the Ukrainians on the battlefield in the current unpleasantness taking place in their country, look no further.

In a thread of tweets, the biblophile Incunabula reveals the Ukraine’s secret weapon: the Peresopnytsia Gospels (Пересопницьке Євангеліє).

“All six Ukrainian Presidents since 1991,” Incunabula writes, “including Volodymyr Zelensky, have taken the oath of office on this book: the sixteenth-century Peresopnytsia Gospels, one of the most remarkably illuminated of all surviving East Slavic manuscripts.”

“The Peresopnytsia Gospels were written between 15 August 1556 and 29 August 1561, at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Iziaslav, and the Monastery of the Mother of God in Peresopnytsia, Volyn.”

“This manuscript is the earliest complete surviving example of a vernacular Old Ukrainian translation of the Gospels. Its richly ornamented miniatures belong to the very highest achievements of the artistic tradition of the Ukrainian and Eastern Slavonic icon school.”

“The Peresopnytsya Gospels were commissioned in 1556 by Princess Nastacia Yuriyivna Zheslavska-Holshanska of Volyn, and her daughter and her son-in-law, Yevdokiya and Ivan Fedorovych Czartoryski. After its completion the book was kept in the Peresopnytsya Monastery.”

“The last entry in the Peresopnytsia monastery inventory for this Gospel book dates back to 1600. Most probably, the Gospels were kept there until 1630, when the monastery, together with its property and land, passed into the possession of the Jesuits.”

It later ended up in Poltava.

“During the Second World War, in 1941, as the German forces approached Poltava, the head of the local museum put the Peresopnytsia Gospels in a porcelain box, and evacuated them to Ufa in Bashkortostan. 70,000 volumes that remained in Poltava were destroyed by bombing.”

“After the war, the Peresopnytsia Gospels ended up in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the historic Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, where the book initially lay unrecognized. In 1948, it was rediscovered and transferred to the Vernadsky National Library in Kyiv, where it still remains.”

The Peresopnytsia Gospels have thus been sworn on in the inauguration of every Ukrainian president, including the so-far only Jewish president, Mr Zelensky.

The Russian president, meanwhile, takes his oath only on a copy of the Russian constitution. As Dr Beddard would say, “Make of that what you will!”

Published at 1:35 pm on Saturday 22 July 2023. Categories: Books Church Errant Thoughts History Tags: , .
Comments

One correction:

“In an thread of tweets”.

I often point out to the pro-Russian right wing how Ukraine practices Christianity significantly more than Russia. This is one more data point. Great little post, thank you.

— D.U. 9 Sep 2023 4:18 pm
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