About some features of “The life of Cornelius of the Vyg” as reworded by Tryphon Petrov

Among the hagiographic works appeared in the 18 th century there is a widely-spread “Life of Cornelius of the Vyg” in the Old Believers’ environment. The writing is known in two versions: the original and the literary processed one. The author of the second version is a senior choir singer of the Vyg, Old Believer coenoby Tryphon Petrov. The subject of this article is detection of the artistic peculiarities of his text. The writer made significant alterations to the structure of the text, giving it a three-part format. The main part that is the actual history of the life of Cornelius is divided into chapters, each of which has its name. Along with the text’s structure Tryphon Petrov revised the content of the text too. He eliminated some episodes from the plot and added a number of those non-existing before. Moreover, he introduced topos inherent of the lives of monks and wrote additions aimed at creating the image of the saint. An important part in the work of Tryphon Petrov is assigned to the Vyg community. Cornelius’s spiritual path is represented in the context of its history. Cornelius himself acts as a mediator between the first generation of Old Believers and the residents of the Vyg community. In his image there is embodied the idea of continuity associated with the idea of a special mission entrusted to the community.