Paroemiae to SS Boris and Gleb: Complementarity of Chronicles and Liturgical Canon in the Creation of the Image of the First Russian Saints

The first Russian saints Boris and Gleb, canonized as martyrs in the twelfth century, put a recently baptized country not only into the context of the Holy Land but also into the context of the first Christians. Hymnography to SS Boris and Gleb shows very important parallels: the protomartyr St Stephen, the apostles, Abel, saint healers, military saints and even Christ. So Rus not only followed Byzantium but became itself a special holy land. By analyzing specific features of SS Boris and Gleb, we can distinguish the main characteristics of the Russian national identity: victimhood, mercy and charity. ‘Historical’ paroemiae based on chronicles and also on biblical canonical literature supported this image, giving an element of reality to the liturgical canon. Later there was an attempt to change these paroemiae into apostolic ones but mainly copyists continued to use ‘historical’ paroemiae. The paper compares the image of SS Boris and Gleb in ‘historical’ and liturgical texts, showing their complementarity, and analyzes the existence of paroemiae in different versions of the service based on typikons and menaions.