Historical anecdote about Dimitry of Rostov (biographical legends and hagiography)

The article offers an analysis of historical anecdotes, or biographical legends, dedicated to St. Dimitry of Rostov. These texts are read in the collection of the Rostov Museum No. 828. Like most historical legends about outstanding personalities of the 18th century, they differ significantly from modern anecdotes of the folklore and literary type. But they have features that characterize the understanding of the term anecdotes as a moralizing unknown story about an amazing act, often with an unexpected ending. A declaration to historicity, a connection with historiography were their hallmark. Most of the biographical legends about Dimitry of Rostov, both in the collection of the Rostov Museum No. 828, and included in the Life of St. Dimitry, certainly fit into the historical and cultural context. However, in terms of genre they have another side, they were not only part of the hagiographic texts (as the first of Dimitry’s biographies), but they also transformed into another genre, became a stories about the miraculous, and parallels to them are found in Medieval literature.