А work by Abbot J.-H. Michon “A New Solution to the Question of the Holy Places” of 1852 and its translation into Russian by the members of the first Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem

Abstract

The article focuses on the work of the members of the first Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem, Bishop Porphyrius (worldly Konstantin Uspensky), St. Theophan the Recluse (who was hieromonk at that time) and student Pyotr Sokolov on the translation of the work of the French Abbot Jean-Hippolyte Michon. Michon’s publicistic brochure “A New Solution to the Question of the Holy Places” published in Paris in 1852 and contained proposals for a fair disposal of a dispute between Christian confessions over the possession of the Holy shrines of Palestine. At the height of the Crimean War, the translation of the work was entrusted to members of the Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem. The article traces the history of work on the translation, and it also gives a characteristic to the recently discovered fair copy of the translation, preserved in the collection of Pavel Tikhanov at the Department of Manuscripts of the National Library of Russia. The stages of translation and editing were investigated basing on the textual analysis of a draft manuscript from St. Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a fair copy from Manuscript department of Russian National Library.

Keywords

• russian palestine
• russian orthodox ecclesiastical mission in jerusalem
• bishop porphyrius (worldly konstantin uspensky)
• jean-hippolyte michon
• crimean war
• manuscript monuments