RECEPTION OF “THE TALE OF THE TWELVE FRIDAYS” IN IVAN NECHUI-LEVYTSKYI’S NOVEL “KAIDASH FAMILY”

The paper traces the reception of apocryphal codes and penitential motifs in Ivan Nechui-Levytskyi’s novel “Kaidash Family.” The research introduces a hypothesis that “The Tale of the Twelve Fridays,” as well as “Blessed Virgin Mary’s Dream” and “Sunday Epistle,” serve as pivotal pretexts for the novel as a whole and as a key to understanding Granny Palazhka’s religious superstitions and the motivation of Omelko Kaidash’s Friday fasts. Two editions of the novel “Kaidash Family” were compared: the 1879 publication in the journal “Pravda” and the 1887 edition, which appeared as part of the book “Ivan Levytskyi’s Stories.” The semantics of the image of St. Paraskeva Piatnytsia in both editions is characterized in the context of Ukrainian vernacular folk iconography, legends, and heortology. Additionally, the paper examines mentions of Christian apocrypha used as amulets, which appeared in the works of other 19th-century Ukrainian writers, specifically in Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko’s novels “God’s Children” and “Hannusia,” as well as in his play “Matchmaking in Honcharivka.” The research also focuses on Ivan Levytskyi’s academic works dealing with the literature associated with penitents and various phenomena of folk religion, such as the so-called ‘heavenly letters.’ It is proved that the writer was familiar with non-canonical Christian legends of Saint Friday, which he carefully investigated in his work “Worldview of the Ukrainian People. A Sketch of Ukrainian Mythology.” He emphasized the dependence of the rites honoring St. Paraskeva on the solar cult (‘the Goddess Sun’). Special attention is given to the phenomenon of intertextuality in Ivan Nechui-Levytskyi’s prose, which must be considered when analyzing realistic prose of the 19th century.