Literary monuments of the late fourteenth and first half of the fifteenth centuries are characterized by exceptional attention to the psychological life of man, the desire to convey the subtlest shades of human emotions; a distinctive feature of the literature of this period is, according to D. S. Likhachev, a kind of "abstract" psychologism. The peculiarities of Russian culture of the late fourteenth and first half of the fifteenth centuries are largely explained by the so-called second South Slavic influence; At that time, in the South Slavic lands, the ornate style, which is also characteristic of Russian writers, became widespread. The interest κ of the inner life of a person determined the attention of writers to the word, κ to the ability of the word to convey the essence of the depicted. This explains the accumulation of epithets, love κ combinations of words of the same root (figura etymologica), neologisms; Writers' words sometimes seem to lose their semantic function and are connected by assonance and alliteration. This style, which is usually called "weaving of words", was especially clearly manifested in the works of Epiphanius the Wise.

The little information that we have about the life of Epiphanius is drawn from his writings, of which the most important are the lives of his teachers Stephen of Perm and Sergius of Radonezh. Some expressions in the "Eulogy to Sergius" gave reason to assume that Epiphanius had visited Byzantium; here he evidently learned the Greek language, the acquaintance with which is found in his writings. The writer spent the last years of his life in the Trinity Lavra, where he died between 1418 and 1422. "The Life of Sergius of Radonezh", written by Epiphanius at the end of his life (1417-1418), is dedicated to one of the most interesting Russian people of the XIV century. The creator of the largest Russian monastery – the Trinity Lavra, the reformer of monastic life on the basis of the coenobitic principle (coenobia), which excluded the personal property of monks, the educator of an entire generation of abbots – the founders of many famous monasteries (Andronikov, Simonov, Savvino-Storozhevsky, etc.), Sergius was not only a major ecclesiastical, but also a political figure. He consciously put his activities at the service of the centralizing aspirations of the Moscow princes and helped them out in a number of delicate situations (in particular, in bringing the appanage princes Boris Konstantinovich of Suzdal and Oleg Ivanovich of Ryazan to obedience); it was to Sergius that Dmitry Donskoy went to receive a blessing before the Battle of Kulikovo. Wishing to make Sergius his successor to the metropolia, Metropolitan Alexis tells him that "from the great lords to the last, I demand all of you." Pointing to Sergius' connections with the grand ducal family, Epiphanius, however, does not fully share the political program of his teacher; the description of the excesses of Muscovites in Rostov allowed researchers to assume that Epiphanius was not from Moscow.

Unfortunately, the Life of Sergius has not come down to us in its original form: in the middle of the fifteenth century, the Life of Epiphanius, which came from the pen of Epiphanius, was revised by the official hagiographer Pachomius the Logothete. Pachomius wrote after the "uncovering of the relics" of Sergius in 1422 and paid special attention to the "miracles" that took place at the grave of the saint. However, the description of the life of the saint also underwent significant changes under the hand of Pachomius: he significantly shortened the lengthy life of Epiphanius in order to make it suitable for church services, strengthened the element of praise for the saint in a new panegyric style, and removed undesirable political allusions. Satisfying the requirements of his customers, Pachomius gave the Life of Sergius a ceremonial form. In the form in which the Life of Sergius has been preserved, it testifies to the outstanding education of its author. The Bible and the Gospel are repeatedly quoted and paraphrased in the Life; in some cases, a kind of montage is created from biblical quotations, as, for example, in the prayer of Sergius after his tonsure, which is composed of small fragments of Psalms 25, 83, 92. The monuments of Byzantine hagiography were also well known to the author of the Life of Sergius; the miraculous phenomena that accompanied the birth of Sergius are compared in the Life with the stories of various Greek saints; there is also an excerpt from the Russian life of Metropolitan Peter, which was written by Metropolitan Cyprian. To various episodes of the Life of Sergius, scholars have drawn parallels from the lives of Anthony the Great, Theodore of Edessa, and others.

The Life of Sergius has come down to us in several editions. The degree of revision to which each of the redactions was subjected by Pachomius the Logothete was evaluated by scholars in different ways. The published edition of the Life has not been preserved in the copies of the fifteenth century, but is evidently a compilation compiled in the sixteenth century on the basis of other redactions. This is where its significance lies; due to its compilation, this redaction has retained more fragments, the author of which can be recognized as Epiphanius.

"The Life of Sergius" is printed according to the edition: "The Life of Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Sergius the Wonderworker and a Word of Praise to Him, Written by His Disciple Epiphanius the Wise in the XV Century. Archimandrite Leonid reported." Monuments of Ancient Writing and Art, vol. 58. St. Petersburg, 1885, according to the lists: RSL, f. 304, sobr. Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, No 698, fol. 1 —139 rev., 156 rev.—182 rev.; No 663 (chapters "On the Golutvin Monastery" — "On the Repose of the Saint"), fol. 539-553 rev. The edition is verified according to the manuscripts. Insertions and corrections are made according to the edition: "Great Minei-Chetyi". September, days 25-30. St. Petersburg, 1883, stb. 1463-1578 and according to the manuscript of the XVII century: RNB, Sofia sobr., No 1493, pp. 100-311 (according to the edition of Leonid, pp. 22, 64, 70, 74, 142, 146-147). In one case, the insertion is made from a manuscript of the XVI century: RNB, F. 1. 278, fol. 69 ("This is the inner observasha, and not the inner one..." — according to Leonid's edition, p. 96), and in two cases Leonid's conjectures are preserved ("pobivachi" instead of "pobivayuchi"; unpurified is the thought" instead of "the thought is purified" — according to the edition of Leonid, pp. 98, 145), which are not confirmed by manuscript readings. The conversion of dates from the creation of the world to dates from the Nativity of Christ is given according to the March year.

TEXT

Glory to God for all and for all deeds, for which the great and thrice-holy name is always glorified, which is also eternally glorified! Glory to the Most High God, glorified in the Trinity, Who is our hope, light and life, in Whom we believe, for Whom we were baptized, in Whom we live, and move, and have our being! Glory to Him who showed us the life of a holy man and spiritual elder! After all, the Lord knows how to glorify those who glorify Him and bless those who bless Him, and He always glorifies His saints, who glorify Him with a life pure, pleasing to God, and virtuous.

We thank God for His great goodness, which has descended upon us, as the Apostle said: "Gratitude to God for His ineffable gift!" His tomb is with us and before us, and by always coming to him with faith, we receive great consolation for our souls and great benefit; truly this is a great gift given to us by God.

I am amazed at how many years have passed, and the life of Sergius has not been written. And I was seized with great sorrow that twenty-six years had passed since the death of the holy elder, wonderful and most good, and no one dared to write about him — neither people far from him, nor those close to him, nor great people, nor ordinary people: the famous did not want to write, and the simple did not dare. One or two years after the death of the elder, I, accursed and impudent, dared to do this. Sighing before God and calling on the name of the elder in prayer, I began to write down in detail something about the life of the elder, secretly saying to myself: "I do not exalt myself before anyone, but I write for myself, as a reserve, and for memory, and for use." Twenty years before I had scrolls prepared with notes, in which were written some chapters about the life of the elder for memory: some in scrolls, some in notebooks, although not in order, the beginning at the end, and the end at the beginning.