On the Sources of Slovo na Pogrebenti Archiereia by Simeon Polotskij

The given study aims at identifying the sources of the ‘sample’ sermon ‘Word on the burial of the archbishop’ (Slovo na pogrebenti archiereta) from Simeon Polotskij’s collection of sermons Spiritual Supper (Vecheria Dushevnaia, 1683). The Word is an impersonal version of the sermon compiled by Simeon on the death of Paul, Metropolitan of Sarsk and Podonsk (1675); as a ‘sample’ devoid of biographical details it is included in the Spiritual Supper at the second stage of work on the book (Sate Historical Museum, Synodal Collection № 657). The structure of the main part of the Word is set by the five temptations of the devil to which a Christian is subjected on the deathbed. Having characterised the temptations in the introductory part of his seron, Simeon describes the biography of the deceased hierarch according to this five-part scheme. The plot of the devil’s temptations goes back to Catholic treatises of the genre of ‘ars bene moriendi’, which developed during the 15th century. The absence in Simeon’s version of the temptations of the theological argumentation and consolations of angels, inherent in treatises of this genre, allowed us to suggest that Simeon does not refer directly to the works of the ‘good death’, but uses some kind of intermediary text. An analysis of Simeon’s library collection, as well as the underlines and marginal notes left by Simeon in the books, has shown that such an intermediary text for him was the collection of the Cracow canon Szymon Starowolski’s Arch of the Covenant (Arka Testamentu, Cracow, 1649).