Eдин непознат славянски псевдоканоничен текст – Въздигане на Пресветата в сборника на Висарион/Варлаам Слепченски от 1547 г

Ms NBKM № 306, compiled in 1547 by Visarion/Varlaam at the Prodromos Monastery near the village of Slepče, today North Macedonia, contains a Slavic translation of the oldest Greek life of St. John Chrysostom ascribed to George of Alexandria, as well as several brief pseudo-canonical texts. Among them the Story of the Elevation of the Panagia is worth noting. It is a short pseudo-canonical text connecting the origin of the taxis of The Elevation of the Panagia with the early Christian tradition of the first agape feasts. The taxis which is still performed mainly at monasteries after the liturgy has a long history. It has been registered in Greek manuscripts as early as in the 11th century. Gradually, the archaic brief liturgical form was complemented with new elements. In the late Byzantine and the post-Byzantine period the extended version was included in the Greek and Slavic Horologion and the Service Psalter. The existing Greek and Slavic pseudo-canonical texts share some common features: on the one hand they show a connection with the apocryphal Narratio Thomae and on the other with some prayers and exclamations present in the Elevation of the Panagia. The comparison between the Story of the Elevation of the Panagia from the collection of Visarion/Varlaam of Slepče with other Greek and Slavic texts dedicated to the apocryphal story of the origin of the taxis suggests that the Slavic man of letters may have used a presently unknown text due to the significant differences with other similar narratives. The hypothesis of an original Slavic narrative is also plausible where the term original is to be understood in its Medieval sense, that is a compilation of different texts and additions made by Visarion/Varlaam. The article is supplemented with a publication of the Story of the Elevation of the Panagia after ms NBKM № 306, ff. 159–161.