"Slovo na pogrebenii chestnyia zheny" by Simeon Polotsky in the context of “exemplary” funeral sermons of the 17th century

The study attempts to investigate sources and the so-called “library resource” or texts that were used by Simeon Polotskij for the funeral sample sermon “Slovo ma pogrebenii chestnyia zheny” (“Sermon for the funeral of an honourable woman”) from sermon’s collection “Vecherya Dushevnaia” (“Spiritual Evening Meal”), 1683. The study confirms existed in the literature disparate observations about the significant commonality of the sources of inspiration and factual material of Simeon’s sermon collections and his poetic encyclopaedia “Vertograd mnogotsvetnyi” (“A Garden of Many Flowers”; poetry sources identified by Anthony Hippisley); in particular, that in both cases Simeon used Latin collections of annual sermons by Bavarian Jesuit Matthias Faber (1586(87)–1653). The study analyses techniques of translation and transposition of the Latin text used by Simeon; notes errors made in the process of working with Faber's sermon that distort the attribution of certain quotations; identifies cases of Simeon's use of Latin winged phrases. The analysis of genry features of Simeon’ “Slova ma pogrebenii chestnyia zheny” in the context of the funeral sample sermons for women in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 17th C. (homiletic collections by Protestant theologian Samuel Dambrowski, 1577–1625, and Polish Jesuit Aleksander Lorencowicz, 1609–1675) showed that the preachers’ funeral sample sermons were often universal and could be used for both “women’s” and “men’s” sermons, depending on the situation.