Miracles in “Mazurinsky chronicler”

Absract. “Mazurinsky Chronicler”, a monument of the late patriarchal chronicles, had hardly attracted any attention of literary theorists. The author, Isidor Snazin, used a variety of sources to compile the chronicle, selecting the information he was interested in and editing the texts of his predecessors. Miracles occupy an important place in the chronicle, their choice is determined by the conception of the chronicle, while text editing reveals the stylistic principles typical of the author. The analysis of the texts showed that Snazin selected miracles related to the adoption of Christianity by Russia and the activities of Russian saints and pious princes in the north-eastern and northern districts of Russia, which was the part of the Moscow state in his time. In addition, the chronicler included miracles from icons glorified in the same territory. Thus, he argued that the patronage of the higher powers of Moscow Russia and the role of Russian princes as guardians of Orthodoxy. Snazin hoped to describe the miraculous event in every detail, but at the same time without either overloading the narrative with rhetorical and poetic techniques or using complex constructions. He was also attracted by the opportunity to enliven the narrative with individual details. Therefore, from “The Book of Degrees of the Royal Genealogy” he chose detailed narrative fragments, removing abundant speeches, digressions, rhetorical devices, but sometimes adding details. When referring to the “Chronicle of 1652”, the scribe mainly resorted to minor editorial changes, such as changing the word order, replacing, inserting or omitting some words, because the style of this code was like his. It is the Novgorod sources that Snazin treated most freely, resorting to omissions, insertions, paraphrasing of the text. Thanks to his goal-directed work with the sources, the chronicler managed to create a single narrative style.