The Soothsayer Natalia and her Role in the Onomatodoxy Disputes on Mount Athos

The article examines the mythologeme spread by the onomatodox party of the Athos monasteries at the initial stage of disputes about the name of God. According to the ideas that arose among simple- minded zealots, but accepted and approved by educated onomatodox, the criticism of the book “On the Mountains of the Caucasus” came from the followers of the prophetess Natalia. The documents preserved in the archive of the St. Panteleimon Monastery show that this explanation of the onomatodoxy disputes was far from reality, although it had certain grounds in it. The reconstruction of events related to the activities of Natalia Mikhailovna Marchenkova is also of independent interest in the framework of the study of unofficial folk religiosity in pre-revolutionary Russia.