Pskov canon to St. Anthony and St. Theodosius of the Caves and its sources

The article explores a little-studied work of Pskov hymnography – the canon dedicated to St. Anthony and St. Theodosius of the Caves, together with the Venerable Fathers of the Pskov Caves – discovered by N. I. Serebryansky in a mid-seventeenth-century manuscript (Synodal Manuscript Collection of the State Historical Museum, manuscript No 850). According to Serebryansky’s hypothesis, the canon originated at the Pskov Monastery of the Caves shortly after the 1851 siege of Pskov by Stephen Báthory’s forces. This event is closely connected to the legend of the intercession for the city by the Holy Theotokos, St. Anthony of the Caves, and other saints. An examination of the hymnographic sources underlying the canon indicates that its foundation is rooted in established liturgical texts from the service to St. Anthony of the Caves by Pachomius the Logothete, and the service to St. Theodosius of the Caves dating no later than the second quarter of the XV century. However, the borrowed hymns were not simply recomposed; some of them exhibit signs of creative reworking, which, along with the inclusion of original sections dedicated to locally venerated saints of the Pskov Caves, reflects the work of an independent author.