THE TRANSLATION OF THE MISCELLANY KRINY SELNYE INTO RUSSIAN AND ITS TRANSLATORS

The article analyzes the principles of the Russian translation of the seventeenth-century moral and ascetic miscellany Kriny selnye (Lilies of the Field). The text was translated by the Athonite hieromonk Feofan (Kharitonov), while the schema monk Khrisanf (Potapiev) supervised the publication of this translation in Odessa in 1905. Besides coping with the usual editorial and translation issues, the translator and the publisher faced the need to adapt the original ascetic instructions for twentieth-century readers. Moreover, they had to deal with some theological issues related to the practice of Jesus Prayer. The theological statements that required correction in the Russian edition turned out to be close to the teachings of advocates of onomatodoxy, which began spreading on Mount Athos several years later. Possibly the work on the Kriny selnye prompted the hieromonk Feofan and the schema monk Khrisanf to become the most important critics of onomatodoxy among the inhabitants of the Athos monasteries.