Вопросы ономастики (Dec 2021)
Avgust, Avgustin, Avgustaly: To the History of Russian Monastic Names Unmentioned in Menologies
Abstract
The paper investigates the history, origin, and use of monastic names unmentioned in menologies (books of saints, their lives and veneration days arranged by months): Avgust / Avgusta, Avgustin, Avgustaly, Ioaram, Kesar, Fortunat / Furtunat. The author comments on use of each of the six names in the Russian monastic environment of the 17th–19th centuries and explores the ways how the monastic namebook could be added with new items. Specifically, the author suggests that the names Avgust (Avgusta), Avgustin, Avgustaly, and Kesar, originally mentioned as titles in hagiographic texts, later become accepted as a part of the saint’s name which made it possible to use them for naming monks. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the functional use of the names Avgust (Avgusta), Avgustin, Avgustaly in the monastic sphere. It is described how these were included in the monastic namebook and a semantic equivalent (the reference to a particular saint) is established for each. Supposedly, they initially referred to Constantine the Great, St Catherine, and St Artemy of Antioch. The paper considers specific cases of these names’ usage in different sources: the missal of Patriarch Nikon of 1658, the supplementary letter of the Kiysk monastery, documents from other monasteries. With the analysis of literary sources, the author undertakes to study the relationship between the book tradition and the monastic namebook. The article assumes that the names Avgust / Avgusta are semantically related to the royal and imperial titles which explains why these monastic names became popular during the reign of Alexey Mikhailovich, as well as Peter the Great. It is also noted that such monastic names as Avgustaly, Kesar, Ioaram, have no direct parallels among the names of saints or biblical characters.
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