Regarding a Numerological Plot and its Sources in Paisius Ligarides’ Book on the Trial of Patriarch Nikon

Purpose. The authors of the article focus on the number five, which is considered sacred in Christian culture. This number, like other figures in the top ten, plays a significant role in the literary device used by Metropolitan Paisius Ligarides of Gaza in his work about the trial of Patriarch Nikon. The article demonstrates that the traditional numerical and symbolic meanings of the number five are revealed by the author in the plot, which deals with the structure of the Moscow Patriarchate and the place of the Moscow Patriarchal See within the Ecumenical Church. Results. It has been determined that in order to explain the spiritual significance of the Byzantine pentarchy model, along with authoritative works by the holy fathers of the Christian world, Metropolitan Ligarides draws upon literary texts by Byzantine authors that are not well-known to the Russian Orthodox reader., ex. Patriarch Peter III of Antioch and Nicetas Seidas. Entertaining manipulations with letters, which were popular among Byzantine intellectuals, are also employed by Ligarides. For instance, the letter “P”, which is the seventeenth letter in the Greek alphabet, conveys a meaning that emphasizes the idea of the liberating mission of the Moscow ruler and “Russian people” in the Christian East, as Paisius derived from the prophecies of Emperor Leo the Wise. Conclusion. These devices assist the metropolitan in not only in revealing the symbolic and anthropological significance of the number five, but also in expressing the individual characteristics of his own spiritual and religious experience.