Жанрови особености на Пространното житие на св. Кирил – хибрид между агиографския литературен канон и късноантичната философска биография

St Cyril’s Vita features a complex structure, blending various genres, including hagiographical topoi, philosophical biography, Christian apologetics, and exegesis. The current study aims to provide a clearer interpretation of the text, highlighting its intricate genre. The account does not specify who wrote it or where and when this occurred. Suppose the Vita was written in the last thirty years of the ninth century or at the beginning of the tenth. In that case, it falls within the transitional period of Byzantine hagiography, from the restoration of icon veneration in 843 to the second half of the tenth century, when Simeon Metaphrastes completed his ten-volume collection. St Cyril’s Vita bears some of the features of hagiographical works of the post-iconoclastic era: the action in the narrative unfolds dynamically, the events of the protagonist’s life are presented not as separate episodes but in their causal relationship, and multiple dialogues are in the text. In addition, the author provides a vivid description of his protagonist’s life and work while also making exegetical and Christian apologetic statements on behalf of the character, presenting these ideas in a polemical format using expressive rhetorical techniques. The Vita places significant emphasis on the disputes that, according to the hagiographer, Constantine the Philosopher had with heretics, pagans, and representatives of other religions. In his attempt to incorporate thematic elements that would support his commentary on exegesis and Christian apologetics, the hagiographer did not prioritize the credibility of the life events he included or whether they fit together chronologically. What connects St Cyril’s Vita to late antique philosophical biography is a strong secular biographical element in the narrative, along with a summary of the protagonist’s philosophical ideas, presented as a polemic against his opponents. Blending two genre forms – hagiographic composition and secular (philosophical) biography – is a literary achievement that could only have come from the pen of a highly educated man of letters. Whether his work conveys the ideas of St Cyril or served the biographer as a means of exposing his, that is, the author’s, knowledge of exegesis and Christian apologetics, is a question that cannot be answered unequivocally.