“LIKE A SKY-SOARING EAGLE, HE FLEW UP TO THE HEAVENS”: THE POETICS OF THE SERVICE TO ALEKSANDR OSHEVENSKII

This article focuses on two poetic images that are found in the troparion and the kontakion dedicated to St. Aleksandr Oshevenskii, which were composed by the hieromonk Feodosii of the Oshevensk Dormition Monastery in 1566 or 1567. The article analyses the image of a “sky-soaring eagle” within the framework of Byzantine and South Slavic hymnography. The author concludes that while in the earlier instances this image appeared within a specific hagiographic narrative, in 16th-century Russian hymnography, it could be used independently and in combination with other poetic images, particularly the image of Paradise. The “alien” parental home of the saint represents the second poetic image that this study investigates. This image, which is found in the kontakion where it is introduced through a reference to the hymn to Alexis the Man of God, represents an example of poetic assimilation.