Forgotten manuscripts of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk (the history of a set of newly discovered archival documents)

The author of this article considers the history of the literary corpus of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and clarifies the dates of publication for this works. A number of new results are also presented by the author. First, he finds that some editions of the works of St. Tikhon published in 1783 and 1803, as well as the first edition of his collected works and his first vita published in 1794, have been ignored by researchers. Second, it is probable that Metropolitan Gabriel (Petrov) was the editor of the “Nastavleniya o sobstevennykh vsyakogo khristianina dolzhnostyakh” (“Treatise on the Responsibilies of Each Christian”). Third, the year 1803 is important in dating the publication of the works of St. Tikhon. Fourth, the manuscripts in Fund 609 at the Russian State Library are, in fact, the full collection of I. Berdnikov, which was thought to have been lost. Fifh, ten of these manuscripts are part of the first collection of manuscripts, prepared by the saint himself. Sixth, all nine manuscripts from Usman Monastery have been preserved. Seventh, these manuscripts are mostly autographs or texts studied by St. Tikhon, and so are authentic. Eighth, the leters #2-5 formed part of one collection “O vere” (“On Faith”) and the second part of the lost collection “Ob istine yevangelʹskogo ucheniya i o vere” (“On the Truth of the Teachings of the Gospel and on Faith”). Ninth, the mansucript RSL f. 609 k. 1 un. 4 contains a unique draf of paragraphs 419-427 of “O istinnom khristianstve” (“On True Christianity”), the majority of which has not been read by scholars. Tenth, the text of “Sokrovische dukhovnoye ot mira sobirayemoye” has been preserved in two unique copies: the original from 1779 (RSL f. 609, k. 2, un. 5-8) and a copy made in 1781 (RGADA f. 357, op. 1, p. 196, #105, p. 197, #106). Eleventh, the author shows examples of inaccuracies in the earliest and even the later editions of the works of St. Tikhon. Finally, the author concludes that the newly discovered collection of manuscripts allows us to beter study the literary heritage of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk.