Church Slavonic translation of the Greek service dedicated to the Kyivan caves saints by Meletios Syrigos based on the manuscript source of the XVII century

The paper deals with the Church Slavonic text of the service dedicated to the Kyivan Caves Saints, which has been preserved in a single copy dating back to the XVII century (Resurrection Monastery collection, manuscript 137). The study was performed on the basis of unpublished Greek and Slavonic manuscripts by descriptive and comparative textological methods. The results of the analysis proved that the studied Slavonic text is a translation of the Greek service written in 1643 by a distinguished scholar Meletios Syrigos, who visited Kyiv as a legate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The description of the manuscript and the analysis of the linguistic peculiarities of the Church Slavonic text revealed that this translation was done in the Kyivan Caves Monastery immediately after the Greek service was composed. Textological analysis showed that some fragments of this service were subsequently used in hymnographic complexes dedicated to the Kyivan Caves Saints, but the service itself was not included in the liturgical practice. Therefore, the creation of both the original Greek service and its Church Slavonic translation was in compliance with the policy of the Kyiv Metropolia for the church glorification of the Kyivan Caves Saints supported by Meletios Syrigos, but was not completed at the time for unknown reasons.