About the book: year / Source - http://lib.pushkinskijdom.ru/Default.aspx?tabid=2172 Preparation of the text N . F. Droblenkova, translation and comments by N. F. Droblenkova and L. S. Shepeleva The Life of Alexius the Man of God has been known in Rus' since the 11th century. The earliest text of the Old Russian translation of the Life is preserved in a copy of the 12th century. as part of the parchment collection “Zlatostruy” (more precisely, as part of the “Celebrant” included in “Zlatostruy”). The remaining lists of the oldest edition, the text and translation of which are published, are represented by later manuscripts dating from the 14th-19th centuries. The life is dedicated to the Christian ascetic Alexy (translated from Greek - intercessor, protector from misfortune, savior), who in his youth renounced wealth and worldly vanity and, following his convictions until the last days of his life, stoically accomplished the feat of voluntary begging. Events take place at the turn of the 4th-5th centuries. in Rome under the co-emperors Honorius and Arcadia and Pope Innocent I, as well as in the possessions of the Roman Eastern (Byzantine) Empire, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Osroene and Syria. Legends about the Man of God are known to all Christian literature: the oldest of them is the Syrian (still unnamed), composed in the “Syrian” region of Edessa, where the saint began his asceticism (preserved in the lists of the 5th-6th centuries); the Greek version arose in the middle of the 8th century. (known in lists of the 10th-12th centuries); in the 9th century a Latin version appeared, based on the Greek; Then translations appear from Greek and Latin into other languages, including Slavic. As V.P. Adrianova-Peretz suggests in her monographic study of the monument (Adrianova V.P. The Life of Alexius the Man of God in Ancient Russian Literature and Folk Literature. Pg., 1917), the text of the Life came to Rus' not directly from Byzantium, but through the South Slavic writing; nevertheless, the Old Russian translation is close to the Greek original. (Russian iconography also goes back to the Byzantine tradition, the image of the face of St. Alexis in miniatures of the front manuscripts of the Life). The Life acquired particular popularity during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, whose heavenly patron was the saint; then the Service to Saint Alexis the Man of God was compiled (published in 1671-1674). Second half of the 17th century. - the time of the emergence of the best literary adaptations of the Life, the appearance of dramatic works on the theme of hagiography, the Ukrainian drama “Alexy, Man of God” (1672-1673), “Words” by Simeon of Polotsk, Lazar Baranovich, “Teachings” by Stefan Yavorsky, verse. By the 17th century V.P. Adrianova-Peretz also attributes the composition of a spiritual verse about St. Alexy the man of God, who organically combined the features of the book Life with folklore and epic traditions and until the beginning of the 20th century. spread in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine by professional folk singers, “walking kaliki”, epic storytellers, blind singers, lyre players. The motives of the Life were reflected not only in a number of ancient Russian hagiographic works, but also in the works of writers of the 19th-20th centuries, in particularly in the novel Φ. M. Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov". The text of the Life of Alexius the Man of God was published and verified from a 12th-century manuscript. —RNB, F.p.I.46, l. 98-100, and the beginning missing from it (before the words: “...as he is worthy to eat the kingdom of heaven...”) is reproduced according to the list of the 16th century. —BAN, 21.7.15, l. 31-99. The introduction of the necessary corrections into the publication of the text is based on their detailed justification in the study of V. P. Adrianova-Peretz (with. 457—475).