Mentions of urban and rural churches. Chapels (“Bozhenki”). Common (“Mirskie”) churches (based on the evidence from the Hypatian codex)

The Hypatian Codex is the main source of information on the history of the Russian Church in the 12th century. It contains a wealth of evidence, including that about parochial churches. It is the Hypatian Codex that contains the first reference to all non-episcopal temples of the 12th-century Rus’ as common (“mirskie”) churches. This unique data testifies that the organizational structure of the Church was an important issue dealt with mostly by princes rather than clergymen. Among the church buildings of Russia of the 12th century., Mentioned in the Hypatian Codex, there are also those which the collector called “bozhnitsa” or “bozhenka”. They were located in places remote from cities, but memorable by events of church-political significance, as well as in places important from a strategic point of view. Small churches or chapels attached to princely houses or in newly founded princely towns were also called “bozhnitsa”.This unique information of the Hypatian Codex indicates that the issue of the organizational structure of the Church was topical in the 12th century, was in the process of becoming and, slowly, but was solved, and, most likely, not so much by its ministers as princes