“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”: analysis. Characteristics of Peter and Fevronia

Target: show the significance of “The Tale...” in the formation of moral family values.

Tasks:

1. Improve students’ ability to analyze what they read: express their own judgment, reveal author's attitude to heroes and events, improve monologue speech.
2. Instill a culture of discussion in the classroom, the ability to defend one’s point of view, and the ability to listen to the interlocutor.
3. To cultivate moral qualities in schoolchildren: kindness, devotion in friendship and love, the ability to forgive.
4. Develop research skills.

During the classes

Teacher's word(presentation – Appendix 1)

Good afternoon Recently, it has become very fashionable to celebrate Valentine's Day, the patron saint of lovers. But in Russian Orthodox calendar has its own Valentine's Day - July 8, associated with the history of the holy spouses Peter and Fevronia of Murom - patrons of family and marriage, whose love and marital fidelity became legendary. The life of Peter and Fevronia is the story of the relationship between a man and a woman who managed to overcome all the difficulties of a long and difficult earthly journey, revealing the ideal of a Christian family.

Since 2008, July 8th has been declared All-Russian Day of Family, Love and Fidelity. It is symbolic that this holiday was first celebrated in 2008, which was declared the year of the family. On this day, many people make a pilgrimage to Murom to thank Saints Peter and Fevronia for their patronage. family life or ask for the gift of family harmony and happiness.

Appeal to the epigraph lesson:

F. Adler said: “The family is a society in miniature, on the integrity of which the morality of human society depends.”

How do you understand this statement, which is the epigraph to our lesson today?

A What, in your opinion, is the most important thing in life? (generosity, kindness, compassion, wisdom, loyalty, honesty...)

Do you think the attitude towards the main truths in human life can change over the centuries or does it remain unchanged?

It is possible that in ancient times we will find the answer to this question, because ancient Russian literature covers a period of 700 years out of 1000 (from the 10th century to the 17th century).

Today we will plunge into the world of ancient Russian literature - calm, solemn, contemplative, wise. Let's fast forward to the distant 16th century...

In the last lesson, we got acquainted with the content of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom,” and today we will turn to the work again to understand what the author wanted to tell us, what topics he raises in the story, what problems worry the writer of the distant past.

The first part of our lesson will take the form of defending your presentations, which you yourself prepared in groups of either historians or literary scholars.

Your projects will be assessed by an expert council (three students) who have a sheet with presentation evaluation criteria. After defending your projects, they will be given the floor.

Criteria for assessing the defense of a student presentation:

Criteria for evaluation:

• Excellent – ​​from 50 points and above
• Good – from 40 to 50 points
• Satisfactory – from 30 to 40 points

Defense of a presentation by a group of “historians”

- “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is one of the masterpieces of ancient Russian literature, and the name of its author should be among the most prominent writers of the Russian Middle Ages.

Who wrote this work? What's his backstory? The floor goes to our historians.

The results of the research work will be presented by the director groups of “historians” (Appendix 1, slides No. 6 - 10):

The 16th century is the time of the formation of a unified Russian state with the capital city of Moscow. The unification of Rus' was followed by the unification of Russian culture. Under the leadership of Metropolitan Macarius, an extensive - 12 huge volumes - collection of all that is being compiled, i.e. books read in Rus'. This meeting was called "Great Cheti-Minea".

In the “Great Cheti-Menaia”, stories about the lives of the saints of the Orthodox Church were presented in order of months and days. A Russian proverb says: “A city does not stand without a saint, a village does not stand without a righteous man.” And Macarius instructs the priests to collect legends from the Russian lands about righteous people famous for their pious deeds. Priest Ermolai, a writer and publicist, was commissioned to write a life about the Murom saints Peter and Fevronia.

While reading the work, we noticed that the author writes: “At one time they took monasticism and put on monastic robes. And the blessed prince Peter was named David in the monastic rank, and the Venerable Fevronia in the monastic rank was called Euphrosyne.”

We were interested in the question: “Is Prince Peter a true hero or was there a prototype?”

Murom was famous for its legends. The most poetic of the Murom legends was the tale of a wise maiden who became a kind and fair princess. It served as the basis for the story. It is still unknown who can be called the prototypes of heroes. But most often, as we found out, the prototype of the hero of the story, Prince Peter, is called Prince David Yuryevich, who ruled Murom at the beginning of the 13th century. He married the peasant woman Euphrosyne in gratitude for the fact that she cured him of a disease that no one could cure. The prince's marriage to a simple peasant woman caused malicious slander, but the couple lived happily until the end of their days. Having grown old, they both took monasticism and died in 1228.

The story became a true masterpiece of ancient Russian literature; it was written after the canonization, that is, the canonization of Peter and Fevronia at the Moscow Church Council in 1547. It was widely read in the Moscow State; 150 copies of this work have survived to this day.

Defense of presentations by groups of “literary scholars”

Job creative groups with the text: “Fairy tale? Life? A story?

As you know, Metropolitan Macarius did not include the life he commissioned in the collection “Great Cheti-Minea” (monthly readings). Why? The answer is in the research of creative groups of students - literary critics, who worked to identify the features of the genre of this work.

During the presentation, students fill out the table in their notebooks:

The results of the research work will be presented by the leaders of each group of “literary scholars”.

1 group of literary scholars - fairy tale (Appendix 1, slides No. 14-16)

Fairy tale - folklore work with a fictional attitude.

After reading “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia,” we identified the following features of the fairy tale:

• The beginning of the story is reminiscent of a fairy tale: “There is a city in the Russian land... Once upon a time a prince named Pavel ruled in it...”
• The story begins with an event that, undoubtedly, came here from a fairy tale: the Serpent began to fly to the wife of Prince Paul and seduce her.
• The first part is similar to a fairy tale about a hero - a snake fighter, the second - to an everyday tale about a wise maiden. As in all fairy tales, there is a fairy-tale hero - the tempting snake.
• According to the laws fairy tale Good always overcomes evil: Peter defeated the serpent.
• There are riddles that fairy tale heroes often have to guess. For example: “It’s bad when the house has no ears and the room has no eyes.”
• Tricky test tasks (Peter's task to sew a shirt from a bunch of flax and Fevronia's task to make a loom from a log)
• Magic items(for example, Agrikov’s sword, about which the Serpent dies)
• Constant epithets (“the crafty serpent”, “the wise virgin”).

Thus, the features we have identified that are characteristic of fairy and everyday fairy tales allow us to classify “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” as a folklore genre.

But it should be noted that as the plot develops, the images of Peter and Fevronia increasingly begin to acquire the features of Russian saints.

2nd group of literary critics - life (Appendix 1, slides No. 17 – 20)

Hagiographic literature was very popular in Rus'. The word "life" means "life." Lives were works that told about saints - state and religious figures, whose life and actions were regarded as exemplary. That is, the life is a biography of the saints.

Lives had a certain structure:

• Introduction, which explained the reasons that prompted the author to begin the story.
• The main part is a story about the life of the saint, his death and posthumous miracles.
• The life ended with praise to the saint.

“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is written in the form of a life - this artistic biography people canonized by the church as saints.

In the course of our work, we identified the following features of the hagiographic genre:

• The author glorifies the saints by creating ideal images. (Peter - pious, holy; Fevronia - saint, reverend, blessed).
• There is a word of praise to the saints: “Let us, according to our strength, give praise to them... Rejoice, venerable and blessed ones, for after death you invisibly heal those who come to you with faith!..”
• The heroes' love for God, the heroes' reverence for the Bible.
• Miracles that the heroes perform (for example, Fevronia heals the sick, bread crumbs turned into incense, dead stumps became lush trees in the morning).
• Unusual death and posthumous miracles (faithful spouses not only died on the same day and hour, but also did not separate after death; at the place of their burial, believers receive healing from the most serious illnesses).

The story uses vocabulary characteristic of spiritual literature: blessed, giving alms, commandments of the Lord, loving children, etc.

But, as we can note, in the story there is no structure of the work traditional for the hagiographic genre (only the ending is a classic example of hagiography).

3rd group of literary critics - story (Appendix 1, slides No. 21 – 24)

The genre of the work is defined in the title: “Tale”. During the study, we discovered the following genre features:

• Specific locations of action are indicated: the city of Murom, Ryazan land, the village of Laskovo. This gives the story credibility.
• Heroes of the story - real people.
  The prince, before starting treatment, wants to test Fevronia’s wisdom and gives her impossible tasks. In a fairy tale, such tasks are completed with magical speed. Not so in the story. Fevronia responds to a crafty task with no less crafty ones.
• Details.
  For example, Fevronia wraps a thread around a needle: “...At that time she was finishing embroidering that holy air: only one saint’s mantle had not yet been finished, but she had already embroidered the face; and she stopped, and stuck her needle in the air, and wound the thread with which she was embroidering around it...” This detail shows Fevronia’s amazing peace of mind with which she decides to die with her loved one. The author said a lot about her with just this gesture.
• The personality of the peasant woman comes to the fore
• Theme of social inequality
• The story of boyars striving for power who killed each other in civil strife.

Thus, in this work there are elements of a historical story.

So what is the genre of this piece? “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” - is it a folklore or literary work? Can this work be called a hagiography?

A conclusion is drawn on the definition of the genre: a hagiographic story with elements of a folk-fairy tale nature.

A word to the expert council (number of points and rating, commentary).

Summary conversation.

Word drawing: Which episodes of the story would you make drawings for? Why specifically these? What would you like to say with your illustrations?

(A wise girl from the village of Laskovo.
Fevronia's condition and healing.
Conspiracy against Princess Fevronia.
“Give me what I ask!”
Fevronia's insight.
Return to Murom and a happy reign.
“The time of death has come.”
Miracles with the bodies of Peter and Fevronia.)

- You and I know that it was no coincidence that Peter and Fevronia became the heroes of the story. For the writer, Prince Peter is the embodiment of fair princely power: by talking about the reign of Prince Peter, the author showed what this power should be like. But he also showed an example of married life, fidelity and faith. Life according to God’s commandments, a person’s conscious desire to do good is the most important thing for the author.

- But did Peter always act according to his conscience? Didn't it cause condemnation? (I didn’t marry Fevronia right away, I began to test her when the wives of the boyars began to slander her, for example, about the crumbs that she collects).

Why do you think the author chose not a noble girl, but a girl of peasant origin as the main character? (He teaches to value people not by their origin, but by their actions; I wanted to say that among the peasants there are wise, pure, and faithful people). Let's not forget that the heroes of the story are real historical figures.

What feelings did you have towards the heroine while reading about her? (They sympathized and felt sorry when Peter and then the boyars did not accept her; they respected her for her intelligence and loyalty, they rejoiced when everyone realized that she was wise, kind, fair, and accepted her).

- Why doesn't the author draw portraits of the characters in the story? ( It is not appearance, not beauty that is important for him, just as it is not the main thing for Peter and Fevronia. Peter was convinced of his mind, spiritual beauty girls. After all, before Peter took Fevronia to Murom with great honors, they did not see each other and conducted all communication through servants).

Where does the inexhaustible power of mutual love between Peter and Fevronia find its highest expression? ( Both spouses, not thinking of the possibility of outliving each other, die on the same day and hour and are not separated even after death, in defiance of those who tried to separate them).

What is the main value of the book? What life values ​​are affirmed in it?

This story is a kind of hymn to faith, love and fidelity.

Love for people, courage, humility, family values, loyalty, religiosity.

The triumph of faith, wisdom, reason, goodness and love is the main idea of ​​the story.

Essay-miniature: “How did “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” change me?” (2-3 sentences).

Teacher's word. By reading ancient Russian literature, we get to know ourselves, our soul, make our life more fulfilling, and get to know our meaning in it.

Reading excerpts from miniature essays.

Let's sum it up

What do you remember about today's lesson?

How has the story of Peter and Fevronia enriched you?

About which eternal themes did we talk today?

Homework. Make a plan for an essay: “What family values ​​are relevant in our time?”

Bibliography:

1. Eltsova O.V., Egorova N.V. Lesson developments in literature according to the program edited by A.G. Kutuzov: 7th grade. - M., 2006
2. Krupina N.L. The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom. IX class ⁄⁄ Literature at school.-2000.-No.5.-p.78-82
3. Malyukova V.F. Lesson on “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” VII grade ⁄⁄ Literature at school.-2008.- No. 9.-p.37-39
4. Turyanskaya B.I., Komisarova E.V., Kholodkova L.A. Literature in 7th grade: Lesson by lesson.-M., 1999
5. Uzhankov A.N. The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom ⁄⁄ Literature at school.-2005.- No. 4.-p.13-18.

Course work

The image of the family in “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”

Introduction

IN last decades V modern society There is a problem for which a solution has not yet been found. This is a problem of relationships within the family. Back in the era of the 20-30s of the twentieth century, the collapse of traditional Russian family life, and to this day the problem of the ethics of family relationships remains one of the most pressing in the lives of modern youth.

In the era of the emergence of socialism, freedom of family relationships and the complete destruction of the traditional understanding of family and marriage were actively promoted in literature. In Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?” we are encountering a completely new way of family life, what is called today “open relationships”, when the husband and wife are not related to each other by marriage, and the family exists until the husband or wife decides to destroy the family. This model of relationship was completely new for Russia at that time, and was perceived as something extraordinary, but in modern society it became the most popular and was called “civil marriage.”

Subsequently, socialist society returns to the external forms of the traditional family, but the loss of the spiritual foundations of marriage, which were previously established by the church, gives rise to numerous problems, including divorce, difficulties in raising children and many others. Behind the shell strong family Often the complete indifference of husbands and wives to each other and their own child was hidden; the problems of such families, for example, were repeatedly highlighted in his work by Yuri Trifonov.

During the years of “perestroika,” the collapse of the family occurs again, since divorce ceases to be a deviation from the norm, while the spiritual foundations of marriage become a completely vague concept that is lost against the background of various models of relationships offered to society by means of mass media. However, in last years a reverse reaction occurs - many young people strive to restore the lost traditions of family relationships, and understand what lies at the heart of the traditional Russian family.

The answer to this question should be sought in Russian classical literature, reading the works of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev and other great writers, but the origins of their understanding of the family should be sought in the works of more ancient ones, such as “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”.

In our work, we will consider this work in the aspect of family relationships presented in it, we will analyze how they are built in “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” family relationships heroes.

There is no doubt that “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” reflects the Christian view of family and marriage. The author of this work, Ermolai-Erasmus, was a priest in Pskov, and then the archpriest of the palace Cathedral of the Savior on Bor in Moscow, which means the origins of the understanding of marriage in the “Tale” must be sought in Orthodox Christianity.

The purpose of our work is to identify, using the example of the work “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom,” how the spiritual values ​​of Christianity and the Christian understanding of family and marriage are reflected in ancient Russian literature, as well as to consider “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” in the aspect of family relationships .

In the first part of the work, we will turn to the history of the creation of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” and the personality of Ermolai Erasmus, the author of the story, we will consider the features of this work of art, which formed the basis of our analysis.

In the next part of the work, we will analyze how “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” reflects the Christian understanding of marriage and what spiritual values ​​underlie the traditional Russian family.

We will devote the third chapter to an analysis of the images of Peter and Fevronia and, using their example, we will find out how “roles” are distributed in the family and what kind of relationship exists between husband and wife in a traditional Russian family.

In our work we will use terms such as:

Lives - (bios (Greek), vita (Latin)) - biographies of saints. The life was created after the death of the saint, but not always after formal canonization. Life is characterized by strict substantive and structural restrictions (canon, literary etiquette), which greatly distinguishes them from secular biographies. The science of hagiography studies the lives of people.

Old Russian literature of the lives of Russian saints itself begins with biographies of individual saints. The model by which Russian “lives” were compiled was the Greek lives of the Metaphrastus type, that is, whose task was to “praise” the saint.

The main task of the life was to glorify the saint, which always began with the praise of his courage, perseverance or ability to overcome difficulties.

The main book containing the lives of Russian saints was the “Cheti-Minei” or “Minai chetii” - the same as the Chetiy (that is, intended for reading, and not for worship) books of the lives of saints Orthodox Church, set out in the order of the months and days of each month, hence their name “menaia” (Greek μηνιαίος “monthly, one-month, month-long”).

legend - (from the Latin legenda - something that must be read) - one of the genres of non-fairy tale prose, a folk legend about an outstanding event or human act, based on a miracle, fantastic image or a representation that is perceived by the narrator as authentic.

At the same time, the plot of the legend is based on real or acceptable facts.

Tradition is an oral story based on real or completely acceptable facts; tradition is something that needed to be passed on to future generations.

Parable - a small instructive story in didactic-allegorical literary genre containing moral or religious teaching (wisdom).

Symbol - (from the Greek symbolon - conventional sign) - an image that expresses the meaning of a phenomenon in objective form. An object, animal, sign becomes a symbol when they are endowed with additional, exclusively important, for example, the cross became a symbol of Christianity, and the swastika - a sign of the fast-flowing wheel of time - a symbol of fascism.

The meaning of the meaning is implied, so how it is perceived depends on the readers.

It should be noted that “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” in the Christian interpretation is perceived precisely as a story about love and marriage, however, there are few serious studies on this topic; individual articles and notes include this aspect of this work, but they consider it superficially, individual There are practically no works on this topic.

In this chapter of our work, we turn to the personality of Ermolai-Erasmus, the author of the “story of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, consider some features of the plot of this work, which allow us to conclude that the story must be considered not only as an example of the hagiographic genre, but and as an instruction to spouses, following which they can create harmonious relationships married.

Ermolai-Erasmus (Ermolai the Pregreshny) is an outstanding Russian thinker, writer and publicist. In the 40s–60s. In the 16th century, he was first a priest in Pskov, then served as archpriest of the Kremlin Cathedral of the Savior on Bor, and later became a monk under the name Erasmus. Currently, a large number of works are known that are signed with his name (before becoming a monk - the name Ermolai, after tonsure - “Ermolai, monk Erasmus”, in addition, he called himself “a sinner”). Ermolai-Erasmus showed his greatest creative activity during the years of his Moscow residence, since he was attracted by Metropolitan Macarius to participate in the creation of various kinds of works of a theological nature, including Lives for the Great Menaions of the Four.

The theological works “The Book of the Trinity” and “The Sighted Paschal” and the journalistic treatise “The Ruler Who Wills the Tsar”, containing a project for carrying out social reforms, lives “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” and “The Tale of Bishop Vasily”, a number of messages and some other works. Thanks to serendipity his works (with the exception of his messages) have come down to us in two collections written by the author himself.

The most famous work of Ermolai-Erasmus was “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”. Researchers call this story one of the most outstanding ancient Russian works hagiographical genre, however, in its style and content the story is very different from most lives written during this period.

The plot of this work is based on a story about the love of a prince and a peasant woman. Prince Peter saves his brother's wife from a serpent visiting a woman in the guise of her husband. Having killed the snake with a sword found under mysterious circumstances, Peter was splashed with snake blood, causing his body to become covered with scabs. The youth sent by Peter to find a doctor ended up in the Ryazan village of Laskovo, where he met a girl who amazed him with her wisdom. Fevronia agrees to heal the prince if he marries her. Peter makes this promise to her, but, having barely been healed, refuses to marry: “Well, how is it possible for a prince to take the daughter of a poison dart frog as his wife!” - he exclaims. However, the illness strikes Peter again and, only having been healed a second time, he fulfills his promise. The peasant princess displeased the boyars' wives, and they demanded that Fevronia be expelled. She agrees to leave if she is allowed to take whatever she wants with her. The delighted boyars do not object, but the wise Fevronia takes away her husband, who prefers the duty of a spouse married in the church to the princely power. The strife that struck the boyars after the departure of the princely couple prompted them to call the prince and princess back. For the rest of their lives, Peter and Fevronia lived in love and harmony and died on the same day. And after death, placed in different coffins, they miraculously end up in a single tomb.

According to some studies, the plot of “The Tale” is so unusual that it resembles not so much a hagiographic work as a folk tale or an artistic work about the power of love. The main characters are spouses who jointly experience the trials that befall them along the path of life; the story seems to tell readers what the relationship between spouses should be like so that they can harmoniously build their family.

A certain fabulousness is also emphasized by the style of the “Tale”, designed in a bright narrative manner, close to parables, filled with riddles and legendary images and objects, such as Agrikov’s sword or a snake taking the form of a person. Researchers note that “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom is closer to a literary work than to a classic “life.”

However, recently studies have appeared that give a completely different interpretation of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia”, in particular, the work of M.B. Plyukhanova “Plots and Symbols of the Moscow Kingdom” (M., 1995), which indicates that by the 16th century, apparently, there already existed a fairly popular body of oral traditions about Peter and Fevronia, which served as the basis for the establishment of their church veneration. However, not a single one oral legend has not reached our time.

Consequently, the question arises: why in the middle of the 16th century there was a need for the canonization of these particular heroes, whose holiness was not recorded in any written monument? And what meaning did Ermolai-Erasmus put into the life he wrote?

“The Tale” is filled with diverse Christian symbolism: the image of the tempting serpent and the serpent fighter, but the indication of divine providence about the fate of the main characters, and, finally, the heroes of the story themselves - husband and wife - add another aspect to the meaning of the hagiographic genre for a believer. The life becomes not only an indication of the righteous life of a particular person, but also shows a model of harmonious family relationships and becomes a kind of “guide” to family life.

The image of the husband, a serpent fighter, the bearer of divine power, is not only presented on an equal basis with the female image, but is even relegated to the background in comparison with the image of the wise wife. In the story, strength and power and meekness and healing wisdom, “mind of the mind” and “mind of the heart” come into union.

The image of the wise Fevronia finds parallels in the Bible and in various ancient Russian monuments. In the “Book of the Trinity” by Ermolai-Erasmus himself, a number of earthly wives are presented, creating with their wisdom human history.

“Such an interpretation of the symbolism of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” allows us to conclude that “The Tale” glorifies not just two patron saints, but two principles on which the Orthodox world stands and from which Orthodox power is composed - serpent-fighting and Wisdom.”

“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” caused a mixed reaction among contemporaries. Thus, Metropolitan Macarius did not include it in the Great Menaions of Chetya. At the same time, the story about Peter and Fevronia itself became very popular in Ancient Rus', and received its development both in literature and in icon painting.

Thus, considering the history of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” and turning to the images that fill it, we can say that this work can be considered as a symbolic indication of the way to create a harmonious, “correct” marriage in which both spouses are capable reach the heights of spiritual development.

Chapter 2. “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” as a reflection of the Christian understanding of marriage. Spiritual values ​​underlying the traditional Russian family

In this chapter of our work, we will analyze how “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” reflects the Christian understanding of marriage, what spiritual values ​​the traditional Russian family is based on and how they are implemented in the text of the story.

To do this, we will turn to the Christian understanding of family and marriage, as laid down in the Bible, and consider what spiritual values ​​are at the heart of the Christian family.

In the next paragraph of our chapter we will turn to the analysis of the text of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” and identify how they are reflected in the text of the work.

2.1 Understanding family and marriage in the Christian tradition. Spiritual Foundations of the Christian Family

In modern society, which is characterized by an abundance of conflicting information, it is very difficult for a person with little education in the spiritual sphere to understand what actually is the correct interpretation of the biblical laws of marriage and family. A huge number of different religious movements interpret the Bible in completely different ways, depending on their own goals. in order to understand the meaning of marriage in the Christian tradition, one should turn directly to the Bible and its interpretation by clergy.

“The marriage union in the New Testament is elevated to the level of the great mystery of God; it is he who is the image of the union of Christ with the Church. But the union of Christ with the Church is full of grace and truth (John 1:14), i.e. is a union of grace, true; therefore, the marriage union must be considered full of grace, i.e. a union to which the grace of the Holy Spirit is sent from God and which is therefore a true union. From these words we can conclude that the marriage union is concluded not only at the desire of a man and a woman, but with the blessing of the Church. Marriage is a spiritual union, performed with the blessing of the Lord, a sacred rite, a special sacrament that carries the grace of the Holy Spirit over a married couple.

The Christian union, symbolically repeating the union of Jesus Christ with the Church, is holy and spiritual, therefore, marriage must preserve the purity of the relationship, which consists in the honesty and fidelity of the spouses to each other. In the Bible, marriage is compared to a vessel that must be kept “holiness and honor,” and the marriage bed must be “undefiled.” These words do not mean the material “purity” of the marriage bed and the marriage union in general, but the spiritual connection between spouses, which denies deception and betrayal. “Real” husband and wife spiritually belong to each other, so they simply cannot lie to one another, or break the vow of fidelity.

Marriage must be indissoluble: “what God has joined together, let no man separate” (Matthew 19:6). Marriage is made and broken only by the will of God, and not by the desire of people. In modern society, among young people you can often hear phrases that go something like this: “Let’s get married, and if anything happens, we’ll separate.” This is unthinkable for a Christian marriage, because your “half” is destined for you by God. A Christian getting married in a church realizes that he binds himself to his spouse for the rest of his life, and must steadfastly endure the trials that will befall him in family life, including those related to the relationships between people in marriage.

In the Middle Ages, when pagan culture was replaced by Christian culture, the family became not just a “unit of society,” but a sacrament into which two Christians entered, declaring a joint decision before their community. By Christian teaching, have a family small church. But the church cannot be created “for a while” - it is created forever, held together by love, which does not seek only its own benefit and convenience. It is worth noting that the crowns that are put on the bride and groom during a wedding in the Orthodox Church are not royal ones, as many people think, but martyr’s crowns, that is, spouses should not stop at any suffering if they are needed for the good of the other. Those getting married are likened to the early Christian martyrs who suffered for Christ.

What are the goals of Christian marriage?

One of these goals is directly stated in the Bible: “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:27-28) - that is, the multiplication of the human race on earth.

The second goal can be called the spiritual unification of people, so that they can go through life path: “And God said: It is not good for man to be alone; let us make him a helper after him” (Gen. 2:18).

Another goal of marriage is to curb the carnal in a person. The apostle points to this purpose of marriage when he says: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman, but to avoid fornication, each one should have his own wife, and each one should have her own husband” (1 Cor. 7:1-2).

The last and most important duty placed on Christian spouses by the sacrament of marriage is to “prepare” themselves, their children, for the “future life”, for future eternal bliss. This can be achieved by people united by marriage if they, loving each other, then At the same time, they will love the Lord God if they fulfill the commandments and, by their example, encourage one another to be patient, if they help one another in ascending to the “heights of the spirit.”

Parents should consider it a great and sacred duty to take care of the upbringing of their children in the spirit of Christian piety, since parents are responsible not only for physical life children, but also for their spiritual education.

What is the relationship between spouses in marriage?

In order to clarify this issue, we must again turn to quotations from the Bible.

“The head of a woman is the husband” (1 Cor. 1:3); “Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord” (Eph. 5:22); “Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives are subject to their husbands in everything” (Eph. 5:24). Submission of wives to their husbands is the first principle... Scripture places decision making in the hands of the husband. The husband becomes the “support” of the family “church”, its foundation.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Eph. 5:25); “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them” (Col. 3:18).

The call for wives to submit to their husbands is coupled with the call for husbands to love their wives. Love is, first of all, the husband’s care for the life partner given to him by God, the ability to forgive her shortcomings, help her in everything and make his wife’s life happy and joyful.

“Let the wife study in silence, with all submission; But I do not allow a woman to teach, nor to have authority over her husband, but to be silent” (1 Tim. 2:11,12).

A wife should not dominate her husband, she should respect him and be able to come to terms with his shortcomings.

“Legitimate marriage is a symbol of a properly established world. The right world is when people do what God says. That's right - this is when the house is cozy, when a woman is the keeper of the hearth, when children are well-mannered and well-groomed, and care is taken for them. When the foundations of the Christian faith, taught by their father and the Church, are enshrined in children.”

Thus, we can say that the basis of a Christian marriage are such spiritual values ​​as fidelity, patience, mutual assistance in physical and spiritual life, honesty and love between spouses, as well as their joint concern for the spiritual and material benefits of their family. Spouses, according to the canons of Christianity, are destined for each other by God and are responsible for their family not only to each other, but also to the Lord, and must love and honor each other, despite the trials of life.

2.2 “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, as a reflection of the traditions of a Christian family

The author of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, the monk Ermolai-Erasmus, put in his work the key to a true understanding of Christian marriage. Already in the first part of the story we see a picture of harmonious family relationships built on the trust of spouses in each other:

“There is a city in the Russian land called Murom. It was once ruled by a noble prince named Pavel. The devil, who has hated the human race from time immemorial, made it so that the evil winged serpent began to fly to the wife of that prince for fornication. And, by his magic, he appeared to her as he really was, and people coming it seemed as if it was the prince himself sitting with his wife. This obsession continued for a long time. The wife did not hide this and told everyone what happened to her, the prince, her husband.”

The wife of the Murom prince had a choice: either she would hide everything that was happening, or she would confess to her husband - the princess chose confession. Such an act is fully consistent with the canons of Christian marriage: the wife had nothing to be ashamed of before her husband, since the serpent committed violence against her, that is, betrayal of her husband was not a consequence of the woman’s sin, but the machinations of the devil. Paul's wife knew that her husband would not condemn her, would not turn away from her after learning the truth, and her confession would not bring her husband's wrath upon her. Prince Pavel, in turn, could not condemn his wife, and did not abandon her, because his purpose in marriage was to take care of his wife, and he had to save her from the serpent in any way, since he was her husband.

The family of Prince Paul passed the test of life, maintaining love and honor, because their relationships were built according to the Christian canons of family relationships. On the other hand, the spouses’ mutual confidence in each other helped them get rid of the serpent and defeat the machinations of the Devil.

It is worth noting that when discussing with his wife the method of getting rid of the serpent, Paul does not say a single reproachful word to his wife, but at the same time he shows concern for her soul, telling her that having learned from the serpent the secret of his death, the wife will be pure before Christ after of death. The wife, without contradicting her husband, but “imprinting his words in her heart,” sets out to “seduce” the serpent, although she hardly wanted to do this.

But a family is not only a husband and wife, but also relatives - brothers and sisters, who also support each other in life, so Prince Pavel turns to his brother Peter for help, who without hesitation decides to help Pavel.

Let us turn to another episode, which also reveals to us “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” as an example of Christian family relationships. Peter, after the death of his brother, becomes the ruler of Murom. The boyars, dissatisfied with the fact that the prince married a commoner, are trying to separate husband and wife different ways, and in the end they come to Fevronia with a request to “give them whoever they have piglets,” that is, give them Prince Peter, saying modern language- divorce him, and in return offer her any gifts.

Fevronia, in response, asks the boyars to “give her the same” - that is, to remain the wife of Prince Peter. The boyars give Peter a choice: either kingship or a wife. For Peter, this is a really difficult situation, since he is responsible to the city he rules and cannot leave it; on the other hand, by refusing Fevronia, he will violate the commandments of marriage - he will commit adultery himself, and push Fevronia to do it. The prince chooses not “reign in this life,” but the Kingdom of the Lord, and remains with his wife, leaving the city in poverty.

In this situation, neither the husband nor the wife hesitated in choosing a solution. Fevronia did not agree to exchange her husband for gifts, but she also had no doubt that her husband would not exchange her for power. On the other hand, she fulfilled such a commandment of the Christian family as obedience to her husband. A woman in marriage is subordinate to a man, and her decision depended only on the decision of her husband. It was Peter who had to take responsibility for their fate.

The prince also made a decision based on Christian canons - he must take care of his wife, walk her life’s path with her, therefore marriage is above power for him.

It should also be noted that both Peter and Fevronia remembered the commandment that marriage was predetermined by the Lord, and only he could destroy it, but not the decision of any of the spouses.

The next episode, which we will pay attention to, in its structure resembles a parable; it can even be “removed” from the story and presented separately. When Peter and Fevronia left Murom, they sailed along the river in boats:

“There was a certain person on the ship of Blessed Fevronia. His wife was also on the same ship. That man, tempted by the evil demon, looked at the saint with lust. She, having guessed his evil thoughts, quickly denounced him and said: “Scoop up water from the river on this side of the ship.” He got it. And she told him to drink. He drank. And again she told him: “Scoop up water from the other side of the vessel.” He got it. And she told him to drink again. He drank. She asked: “Is the water the same or is one sweeter than the other?” He answered. “The water is the same, lady.” Then she told him this: “And female nature is the same. Why are you, having left your wife, thinking about another!”

This episode is a moral lesson for those spouses who are ready to succumb to the temptation of adultery - Fevronia tells them that the flesh of all people is the same, and physical desire should not lead to the severing of the spiritual bonds of marriage. Thus, we see a direct reference to the commandments of marriage - the fidelity of spouses to each other and the purity of the marital bed. In a few words, simply and reasonably, Fevronia explained the absurdity and unnecessaryness of betrayal.

The story ends with a description of the death of Peter and Fevronia, but even in this episode we see the fulfillment of the commandments of marriage. After their reign, the spouses take monasticism, that is, both of them fulfill the covenant of love for the Lord, they are united in their decision, and together they walk the path to spiritual growth.

The final episode of their earthly life is indicative in this regard. Prince Peter, feeling his death approaching, calls Fevronia to him to finish his life’s journey together. Fevronia is bound by the rite of obedience, and must embroider “air” - a special cover for the temple bowl, and asks the prince to wait. The prince waits for her for two days, but on the third he informs her that he can wait no longer.

Fevronia-Efrosinia was faced with a choice: to complete the work of obedience, or to fulfill the previously given word. She chooses the latter so as not to leave an unfulfilled debt. Her work can be completed by someone else, but only she herself can fulfill this word. The author emphasizes the priority of the word over worldly deeds, even if they are pleasing to God.

Then Blessed Fevronia-Efrosinia, who had already managed to embroider the faces of the saints, stuck a needle into the fabric, wrapped it with thread, like a zealous needlewoman, so that someone could continue the work she had begun, and sent to Blessed Peter-David to inform about her readiness to repose together.

Thus, Fevronia fulfills the covenant of a faithful Christian wife, she puts the will of her husband and her duty to him above her spiritual work, but at the same time she shows true spiritual greatness, because her husband turns out to be above her own soul. The couple die on the same day, showing the unity of the family even by their very death.

But even after death, Peter and Fevronia are inseparable. They bequeathed to bury themselves in one coffin, making a thin partition, but people decide that it is impossible to bury monks in one coffin, and separate them. However, miraculously they end up in the same grave, and although people separate them three times, they still return to each other. This is also a parable episode - God unites a husband and wife who remained faithful to each other and his covenants after death, showing that they were reunited in heaven, that is, they reached the Kingdom of Heaven together.

The story ends with praise for Peter and Fevronia, which reflects the semantic nodes of the work - the trials that the blessed spouses endured together without violating the commandments of marriage. It is this obedience to God in marriage that is rewarded from above:

“Rejoice, honest leaders, for in your reign you lived with humility, in prayers, doing alms, without being arrogant; For this, Christ has overshadowed you with His grace, so that even after death your bodies lie inseparably in one tomb, and in spirit you stand before the Lord Christ! Rejoice, reverend and blessed ones, for even after death you invisibly heal those who come to you with faith!

We pray to you, O blessed spouses, that you also pray for us, who honor your memory with faith!”

Peter and Fevronia become an example of an ideal marriage for believers.

The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom shows not only the marital relationships of the main characters; Using the example of Paul and his wife, the author shows that not only Peter and Fevronia live in a “correct” marriage, that is, harmonious family relationships should exist not only among “blessed” people close to the Lord, such as Peter, chosen to defeat the serpent , or Fevronia, endowed with the gift of performing miracles, but also among the laity. It is also significant that it is the ruling spouses who keep the commandments of marriage; by their behavior they set an example for their subjects. According to the Russian tradition, the state system repeats the global order, therefore it is those in power who must be righteous, only then can they demand compliance with Christian laws from their wards.

Thus, analyzing the text of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, we can discover several episodes that directly relate us to the Christian commandments of family life. Such episodes are the story of Paul and his wife, which conveys the idea that spouses should always be honest with each other and take care of each other’s souls. The episode with the expulsion of Peter and Fevronia from Murom, in which we see that the bonds of marriage are above worldly power and wealth. The story of Fevronia explaining the meaninglessness of adultery and the final chapter of the story, in which we can see an example of marital unity in death and after it. An example of harmonious relationships is the relationship of the ruling family, thus, the Christian commandments of marriage seem to overshadow all families of the principality.

“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” is an excellent example of how Christian family traditions found their reflection in Russian literature.

Chapter 3. Images of Peter and Fevronia, as an example of harmonious marriage relations in the Christian understanding

In this chapter we will analyze the images of Peter and Fevronia, and use their example to find out how “roles” are distributed in a harmonious marriage, and what kind of relationship exists between husband and wife in a traditional Russian family.

Before you begin your analysis, it is worth paying attention to some features of the system of images in the story, which should be taken into account when analyzing the characters. Undoubtedly, the main character of the story is Fevronia, since the main part of the story is devoted to the description of her actions, but the story is named after the names of both spouses, and the name of the husband comes first. Thus, the author makes it clear that despite Fevronia’s chosenness, main theme The work is still not a separate female image, but rather the family relationships of the heroes.

The second distinctive feature of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” is that in the first parts of the work we observe the heroes separately from each other, in subsequent chapters they are inseparable and act together. As a result of this, it is created big picture, in which there are no longer individual characters, but rather a pair of heroes undergoing joint tests.

Focusing on these features of the story, we will divide this chapter into two paragraphs. In the first paragraph we will analyze the images of Peter and Fevronia separately from each other, in the second - the analysis will cover the relationships of the heroes in marriage.

3.1 Images of Peter and Fevronia in the first chapters of the story

We will devote this part of our work to the first two chapters of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom,” which tell the background to the marriage of the main characters. Although Peter and Fevronia in these parts of the story are not united by marriage, it is in them that we can trace the formation of the relationship between the spouses, which is of great importance in the formation of a family.

In the first part of the work we see the motive of temptation and snake fighting. A snake began to fly to the wife of the Murom prince Pavel and forcibly persuade her to commit adultery. She, not afraid of shame, opened up to her husband, and together they came up with a way to outwit the snake and find out the secret of his death.

As a result, the heroes find out that the serpent’s death is destined “from Peter’s shoulder and from Agrikov’s sword.” The prince cannot solve this riddle and calls on his brother Peter for help.

Prince Peter, not lacking the necessary courage for the feat, easily solves the first riddle with his mind, that it is he who is destined to kill the snake, but he knows nothing about Agric’s sword. But Peter's piety helps him solve the second riddle of the serpent. He was a “prayer man” and loved solitary prayer in the country church of the Holy Cross Monastery. During his prayer, the Lord sends him a youth who shows him the location of Agric's sword.

It is significant that Prince Peter finds the sword in the altar (a sacred place where access is open only to a select few!) of the Church of the Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross.

The sword itself has the shape of a cross and is its symbolic reflection, and the name Agric, or Agirka, is the hero-snake fighter. Thus, Peter appears as God's chosen one, who becomes the new serpent fighter, along with Saint George and the fabulous Agrica.

We see before us an extraordinary person, fulfilling the divine will, marked by higher powers.

Peter defeats the serpent, but the serpent's blood gets onto his body and he becomes covered with scabs. This also has a symbolic meaning, since this episode allegorically says that it is not Peter’s body that is struck, but his spirit. Many researchers, translating the author’s original text, note that we are talking specifically about spiritual illness. For example, Alexander Uzhankov

writes: “It seems that the snake bit the prince’s body, but not his soul! External, worldly. only if?

The prince began to look “in his possession” (i.e., in his possession) for help from the doctors under his control, but not for healing, but for healing (a significant difference!), and did not find it, although there were many doctors. Maybe if I had been looking for a doctor to heal my body, I would have found it. To heal the soul (and not just treat the body), an independent doctor was needed.” Fevronia becomes such a doctor.

She is also an extraordinary girl, throughout the story we see that she is endowed with a special gift, she is not only able to heal wounds, but also works real miracles, as in the episode with sticks that become trees.

That is the real reason The meeting of Peter and Fevronia becomes a spiritual illness of the hero, which can only be gotten rid of in alliance with the “blessed” Fevronia. The characters are driven to marriage not by physical attraction, but by the need for spiritual healing.

The reader gets to know Fevronia, seeing her through the eyes of the prince's servant: one of his youths ended up in the village (that is, there is a church in it) Laskovo. And going into one of the houses, he saw a “wonderful vision”: a girl was sitting at a loom, and a hare was jumping in front of her, creating noise so that she would not fall asleep from the monotonous work. Taken by surprise, she said sadly: “It is not good for a house to have no ears, and a room to have no eyes!” “The young man... did not heed the verb of those” (p. 634). I didn’t take it into my mind, I didn’t understand the girl’s words. I neither understood them with my mind, nor comprehended them with my mind.

The hare is one of ancient symbols Christianity. Long, quivering ears symbolize the Christian's ability to listen to the voice of heaven. Blessed Fevronia feels the Providence of the Lord. We see that Fevronia is spiritually a match for her future husband; she was also chosen by the Lord for special service.

Fevronia is able to heal the prince, but her condition is Peter’s promise to marry her. This is not a desire to rise by using her gift; the heroine says that if the prince does not become her husband, then she should not treat him. In such a statement of the condition, another meaning is hidden; perhaps it is open to Fevronia that she will become the wife of someone whom she will heal from a spiritual illness, that is, she puts the divine will above her desire. The Lord unites husband and wife, not human will, and Fevronia follows this covenant, speaking about marriage with Peter. It should be noted that another condition for the prince’s recovery is humility; he must come for treatment himself, which emphasizes the fact that the prince’s illness is not a disease of the body.

Two heroes move towards each other: Prince Peter - driven by illness; Fevronia - spiritually foreseeing the future with her wisdom. The prince does not have such knowledge; he needs to make sure that this woman is capable of becoming his wife. He asks her a riddle: he asks her to spin fabric from one flax stalk and sew him clothes. The reaction of a modern girl to such a wish would most likely be laughter or anger at the prince whom she heals, and he, instead of gratitude, sets her impossible tasks, but Fevronia shows how a wise woman should react to such things.

She gives the prince a piece of log through a servant and asks him to make a loom for her so that she can cope with her task. Peter exclaims that this is impossible, and Fevronia asks if it is possible to sew clothes for an adult man from a single flax stalk. The future wife of the prince behaves as a Russian wife should behave, she does not create a scandal, she gently points out to the prince the impossibility of his request, and does it in such a way that Peter himself utters the word “impossible”.

This is what a wise wife should do - she should not openly contradict her husband, but if she has been given more wisdom, she should make the husband himself realize his own mistake. This is how the story teaches one of the lessons of family life, one of the commandments of family harmony.

But the prince does not want to follow the path indicated by God, and opposes Fevronia’s condition; he wants to send her gifts instead of fulfilling the promise. However, Fevronia foresees this, and having given the prince the medicine (leavend leaven consecrated by her breath), she orders him to smear all the scabs on his body, except one. Therefore, the prince’s illness returns: by opposing the divine destiny, Peter provokes the return of a spiritual illness, but perhaps the fact is that the prince is not yet ready to start a family, since he needs to humble his pride. In a Christian marriage, not only the wife must be able to be submissive to the will of her husband, but the husband must also love his wife and be ready to make any sacrifices for her, but Peter is still too proud, loves himself too much to get married.

Fevronia deliberately orders the prince to leave a scab on his body, from which new ulcers will appear; she is undoubtedly wiser than the prince, and understands that until his soul is healed, the prince’s body cannot be cured. Fevronia is ready to wait for Peter’s spiritual healing; she humbly follows the path indicated by God.

But the prince humbles his pride and returns to Fevronia to be cured and take her as his wife. And if before the prince simply promised to marry her, without feeling the Divine will, then this time he “give her his word with firmness.” And having received healing of body and soul, “they give water to their wife.” “Princess Fevronia was just as guilty,” notes the author. Providence was fulfilled for them: if the Lord had not sent illness to the prince as a test, he would not have found a wife in the person of the tree frog’s daughter...

It is worth adding one more note. Analyzing the first chapters of the story through the prism of the traditional wedding ceremony, we can see that the “acquaintance” of Peter and Fevronia reflects some parts of it. For example, the prince first communicates with his future wife through servants, who can be compared to matchmakers, and then he himself appears to her. According to tradition, it is the husband who comes to his wife, and not vice versa. That is why Fevronia calls the prince to her, and does not come to him herself. Tradition is fully respected here.

Thus, using the example of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” we can see what spiritual values ​​are needed for future spouses in order to create a harmonious family - the main virtues for the bride and groom are meekness and humility, which are necessary to maintain harmony and peace in family.

Reading the first parts of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, we can see how the author, using the example of his heroes, shows what spiritual path everyone needs to go through before tying the knot. The last phrase is the crown of the chapter: the couple lived according to the commandments of God and in all piety. As it should be, for which they will receive a reward from God.

3.2 Life trials of Peter and Fevronia of Murom

In this part of our work, we will analyze how the relationship between Peter and Fevronia developed in marriage, how their “roles” were distributed in the family, and what character traits of the main characters helped them overcome life’s difficulties and maintain harmonious relationships in the family.

In the following chapters of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” the author describes how the life of the main characters developed after they were united by marriage. Having traveled a long way to each other, Peter and Fevronia become husband and wife, but in order for their family to find true harmony, the heroes will have to go through a series of tests in order to acquire the qualities necessary for Christian spouses.

After the death of Paul, Peter becomes the ruler of Murom, the boyars respected their prince, but the arrogant boyars’ wives disliked Fevronia, not wanting to have a peasant woman as their ruler, and turned their husbands against Peter’s “rootless” wife:

“The boyars did not love his princess Fevronia at the instigation of their wives, since she was not a princess by birth, but God glorified her for her virtuous life.

One day one of the servants came to the faithful Prince Peter and began to slander the princess: “She comes out of the table unruly,” he said. Before getting up, she collects the crumbs in her hand, as if she were hungry!”

The boyars' quibble, at first glance, is insignificant. What’s wrong with carefully collecting crumbs from the table and feeding them to the birds (there is a version that the crumbs were intended for that hare who jumped in front of Fevronia in her hut), the fact is that folk superstitions It was believed that evil spirits could be hidden under the guise of an animal. Perhaps the boyars accused Fevronia of witchcraft.

The prince decided to check, therefore, he doubted his wife, he was seduced by a boyar slander. After a joint meal, when, according to her custom, Fevronia collected a handful of crumbs, he straightened her fingers and found incense and incense in her palm - church incense, that is, confirmation that Fevronia was marked by God. “And from that day,” notes

Thus, Peter received the first lesson - a husband should not doubt his wife, should not believe slander. Trust and honesty are the principles on which relationships between spouses are built. The prince learned his lesson, and when the boyars, “filled with shamelessness,” demanded that he renounce his wife, he chose exile.

Peter is not inferior to Fevronya in piety and wisdom in this test and, in fact, right now he fulfills her last condition before his final healing - he remains a faithful husband. The blessed prince “do not love the temporary autocracy except God’s commandments, but walk according to His commandments, adhering to them, just as the God-voiced (i.e., evangelist) Matthew preaches in his gospel. It is said that if anyone (if anyone) lets his wife go, he develops the words of an adulterer, and marries someone else, commits adultery. This blessed prince, according to the Gospel, create his possession (reign) as if he had placed his skills in nothing, so that (so that) he would not destroy the commandments of God.”

Researchers note that in the previous two parts, Prince Peter is called faithful only three times, only when he follows Divine Providence: he acquires a sword to fight the serpent, defeats it, goes to Fevronia, prepared for him as his wife. The semantics of the word itself, consisting of two roots: “good” and “faith”, is close to the semantics of the words “blessed”, “pious”, at the same time, this is what a spouse is called. That is, Peter approaches the Lord precisely when he follows the commandments of marriage. In the third part, when Prince Peter becomes an autocratic ruler, a married spouse and lives according to the gospel commandments, the author constantly calls him the blessed prince.

The image of the pious prince is contrasted with the figure of “a certain man” who sailed in the same boat with the blessed princess Fevronia and was seduced by her. In this episode, as stated above, the princess showed herself to be a wise woman and explained the meaninglessness of adultery. Thus, Fevronia becomes an example of a Christian wife who not only protects her honor, but also protects someone else’s family.

In the evening, when they landed on the shore, Peter felt longing for the princely life he had abandoned and thought: “What will happen, having been driven out by the will of autocracy (by his own will, he lost his autocracy)?”

Peter's question has nothing to do with ambition, since princely power is given by God, and princely service is worldly service to God. It turns out that he himself, voluntarily, abandoned his princely service to God, violated his duty to people and the Lord, leaving Murom to the boyars, who do not want prosperity for the residents of the city, but wealth for themselves.

Prince Peter “thinks,” i.e. reflects, thinks about this, because he does not have the gift of foresight, and does not know whether he is acting correctly, according to the will of the Lord, or against it. “The first Fevronia” senses God’s Providence with the “mind of her heart” and says: “Do not grieve, prince” - the author emphasizes that here Fevronia addresses Peter not as a husband, but as a ruler: “merciful God, Creator and Provider of everything, will not leave us in low places.” Fevronia, having the gift from God to see the future and create miracles, tries to strengthen the spirit of her husband.

To prepare dinner for the prince, the cook cut down small trees to hang the cauldrons. After dinner, the saint, the author openly calls her that, because she works miracles, Princess Fevronia saw these felled trees and blessed them with the words: “May this tree be great in the morning, having branches and foliage.” Waking up, they saw instead of stumps big trees with branches and leaves, and when they were about to set sail, the nobles from Murom arrived with repentance and humility, asking them both to return.

Thus, Fevronia appears to the reader as faithful wife, ready to support her husband in difficult times. She not only realizes the reason for his sadness, but also shares it: for the princess, the fact that Peter is destined to rule Murom is also important. Fevronia performs a miracle for her husband in order to strengthen his faith in himself and his destiny. It should be noted that the saints worked miracles not of their own free will, but according to the will of God, therefore Fevronia, having performed a miracle, did not seek to emphasize her “status” as a saint (they say, with such a wife, the husband will not be lost), but to assure Peter that his the choice is correct. This is how another law of married life is implemented - a wife should be a support to her husband in difficult times. But not only Fevronia fulfills this covenant: Prince Peter also remains a “correct” husband: he does not try to shift even part of the responsibility for what he has done to his wife.

This is how, the author notes, blessed Prince Peter and blessed princess Fevronia returned to their city. And they began to rule in that city, as befits autocrats, “walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blemish, in unceasing supplications and alms and to all people under their authority, like fathers and mothers of children. Besta for love is equal to everyone, not loving pride, nor robbery, nor corruptible wealth sparingly, but growing richer in God. Besta is truly a shepherd to his city, and not like a mercenary.” The blessed spouses govern the people and live according to the commandments of God, becoming rich in God.

The spouses also complete their life's journey together - both accept monasticism and die on the same day, bequeathing to bury themselves in the same coffin. As a reward for their righteous life and fidelity to the commandments of marriage, the Lord unites them after death, contrary to the desire of people to bury them in different places: husband and wife find themselves in a common coffin, separated only by a thin partition. It should also be noted that Peter takes the name “David” according to the monastic rite, and Fevronia takes the name “Euphrosyne”. The name David means “beloved,” which must be understood as both God and wife. Euphrosyne is “joy,” the joy of salvation.

Usually “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” is called a story about love, but this word is never found in the text spoken by the characters in relation to each other. What kind of love is this?

A married husband and wife are one. The saying of the Apostle Paul was already quoted above: “...Neither is man without a wife, nor wife without a husband, in the Lord. For as the wife is from the husband, so is the husband through the wife; yet it is from God” (1 Corinthians 11:11-12).

Now only the words of Fevronia, spoken by her before the healing of Prince Peter, become clear: “It is not appropriate for a wife to treat him!” Fevronia, in fact, is treating her soul mate - her spouse, so that together, as a single whole, they can stand before God and find salvation in the next century.

Fevronia's love for the prince, possessed by an illness, is sacrificial love, love for his neighbor, for the sake of his salvation. By Divine Providence and the efforts of Fevronia, not by verbal instructions - here she did not violate the commandments of marriage, but by examples of humility to help find a spouse higher intelligence- “the mind of the heart,” and the prince showed his will and humility, reaching spiritual heights.

And therefore, both of them received a reward from God - the gift of miracles, and praise, according to their strength, from grateful people who use their gift. The story ends with praise from the author:

“Rejoice, Peter, for you were given from God the power to kill the flying fierce serpent! Rejoice, Fevronia, for in the head of women, the husband of saints, you had wisdom! Rejoice, Peter, for while you bore scabs and sores on your body, you endured sorrow more valiantly! Rejoice, Fevronia, for from God you had the gift of healing ailments in your virgin youth! Rejoice, glorious Peter, for the commandments for the sake of God's autocracy willfully retreat, so as not to leave your wife! Rejoice, wondrous Fevronia, for with your blessing in one night a small tree grew great in age and wore out its branches and foliage! Rejoice, honest leader, for I have lived in humility, in prayer, and in alms without pride; By the same token, Christ will give you grace, as even after death my body lies inseparably in the grave, but in spirit I stand before the Lord Christ! Rejoice, venerable and blessed one, for even after death you invisibly grant healing to those who come to you with faith!” In fact, the praise reflects all the semantic nodes of the story, or more precisely, the lives of the righteous spouses.

Thus, we analyzed the images of Peter and Fevronia, and found out from their example how “roles” are distributed in a harmonious marriage, and what kind of relationship exists between husband and wife in a traditional Russian family. A harmonious marriage is based on the spouses’ trust in each other, on honesty with each other, on mutual assistance, patience and humility. It was these spiritual qualities of Peter and Fevronia that helped them overcome all the trials sent by God and maintain harmonious relationships in the family, following the commandments of marriage.

Peter and Fevronia are an expressive example of spouses whose union is blessed by the Lord and is based on the covenants of the Church.

Conclusion.

In the process of our work, we relied directly on the analysis of the author’s text and several of its translations made by different researchers.

We examined “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” in the aspect of family relationships presented in it, and found that this work is a symbolic indication of the way to create a harmonious, “correct” marriage in which both spouses are able to reach the heights of spiritual development.

Turning to the interpretation of biblical texts by researchers and clergy, we found that the basis of Christian marriage is such spiritual values ​​as fidelity, patience, mutual assistance in physical and spiritual life, honesty and love between spouses, as well as their joint care for spiritual and material benefits of your family. Spouses, according to the canons of Christianity, are destined for each other by God and are responsible for their family not only to each other, but also to the Lord, and must love and honor each other, despite the trials of life.

Analyzing the text of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom,” we considered not only the marital relationships of the main characters, but also the family relationships of secondary characters: Paul and his wife, and the parable element - the story of “a certain man” who was “seduced by Fevronia.” We have discovered that harmonious family relationships should exist not only among “blessed” people close to the Lord, such as Peter, chosen to defeat the serpent, or Fevronia, endowed with the gift of performing miracles, but also among the laity. An important element is that it is the ruling spouses who keep the commandments of marriage, setting an example for their subjects with their behavior.

Thus, in the text of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, we can find several episodes that directly relate us to the Christian commandments of family life. These episodes are:

1. The story of Paul and his wife, which conveys the idea that spouses should always be honest with each other and take care of each other’s souls.

2. The episode with the expulsion of Peter and Fevronia from Murom, in which we see that the bonds of marriage are above worldly power and wealth.

3. A parable about how Fevronia explained the meaninglessness of adultery.

4. The final chapter of the story, in which we can see an example of marital unity in death and after it.

An example of harmonious relationships is the relationship of the ruling family, thus, the Christian commandments of marriage seem to overshadow all families of the principality.

Before starting our analysis, we took into account some features of the system of images in the story, which were taken into account when analyzing the characters:

1. Fevronia, presented as main character story, because the main part of the story is devoted to the description of her actions, however, the story is named after the names of both spouses, and the name of the husband comes first. Thus, the author makes it clear that despite the chosenness of Fevronia, the main theme of the work is still not a separate female image, but rather the family relationships of the heroes.

2. The second distinctive feature of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” is that in the first parts of the work we observe the heroes separately from each other, in subsequent chapters they are inseparable and act together. As a result of this, an overall picture is created in which it is no longer individual characters who act, but rather a pair of heroes undergoing joint tests. This “doubleness” of characters emphasizes the fact that, according to the canons of Christian marriage, husband and wife are one.

Analyzing the first chapters of the story, we discovered that the acquaintance of the main characters and their symbolic “path” to marriage reflects some elements of the wedding ceremony: the prince first communicates with his future wife through servants, who can be compared to matchmakers, and then he himself appears to her. According to tradition, it is the husband who comes to his wife, and not vice versa. That is why Fevronia calls the prince to her, and does not come to him herself.

The motif of an impossible task and riddle is often found in Russian folk tales; one of the common plots is the marriage of a prince to a commoner with extraordinary wisdom, or the motif of a magical bride who asks riddles to her future husband and wields magic. Riddles are also part of folk rituals.

Using the example of the first chapters of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, we can see what spiritual values ​​are needed for future spouses in order to create a harmonious family - the main virtue for the bride and groom are meekness and humility, which are necessary to maintain harmony and peace in future family.

Marriage, as we can observe by analyzing the text of the story, must have spiritual roots, spouses must unite according to divine providence and spiritual attraction.

The future wife, even if she has more wisdom than her husband, should be able to be patient, not try to prove her superiority, but allow her husband to “grow” to her spiritual level, and help him in this. This is what Fevronia did, patiently enduring all her husband’s trials and humbly awaiting the fulfillment of the Lord’s will, gradually pushing Peter to spiritual development.

Future husband must love his wife more than himself, so Peter must be cured of pride before entering into marriage.

Turning to the analysis of subsequent chapters of the story, we revealed that the images of Peter and Fevronia are an example of how “roles” are distributed in a harmonious marriage, and what kind of relationship exists between husband and wife in a traditional Russian family: a harmonious marriage is based on the trust of spouses in each other , on honesty with each other, on mutual assistance, patience and humility. It was these spiritual qualities of Peter and Fevronia that helped them overcome all the trials sent by God and maintain harmonious relationships in the family, following the commandments of marriage.

In a traditional Russian family, a husband and wife become each other’s support in difficult situations, while the husband’s duty is to make all difficult decisions that can affect the fate of both spouses and bear full sole responsibility for them. The wife, by her example, must strengthen her husband’s spirit and guide him on the path to spiritual development in those moments when he is plagued by doubts or tempted by fate.

Peter and Fevronia - shining example spouses whose union is blessed by the Lord and is based on the covenants of the Church.

It is precisely these images, in our opinion, that served as models for the great Russian classics, who created pictures of happy and harmonious families in their works. The problem we have touched upon can be revealed both within the framework of the analysis of works of ancient Russian literature, and in the context of Russian classical literature in general, which shows broad prospects for working with the presented problem.

List of used literature

1. Works of Ermolai-Erasmus. The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom // Monuments of Literature of Ancient Rus'. The end of the 15th - first half of the 16th century. – M., 1984. – 626 S.

2. Izbornik. Tales of Ancient Rus' - M. - ed. “Fiction” - 1986. Introductory article by D. S. Likhachev. – 448 C.

3. Tales of miracles: T. 1. Russian fiction of the 11th-16th centuries. / Comp., afterword. and comment. II section Yu. M. Medvedev. - M.: Sov. Russia, 1990.-528 pp.

4. Likhachev D.S. Great Heritage // Likhachev D.S. Selected works in three volumes. Volume 2. – L.: Khudozh. lit., 1987. – pp. 273-277.

5. Uzhankov A.N. Russian literature XI-XVI centuries. Worldview aspect. – P.271-272.

6. "Literary" encyclopedic Dictionary" - M., - ed. " Soviet encyclopedia" 1987. 1324 pages.

7. Marina Meshcheryakova “Literature in tables and diagrams” - M., ed. "Iris Press" 2003. 222 pages.

8. Multimedia publication “Big Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius”

“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” National historical basis of the story. The story of Peter and Fevronia is a classic example of a historical and biographical ancient Russian story of the 16th century. The place where the heroes of the story lived and where the events took place was the ancient Russian city of Murom and the Ryazan lands. The events that served as the basis for the story took place in the first half of the 12th century, and the story was written in the late 40s of the 16th century by the eminent clergyman and writer Ermolai Erasmus. He created this great work for the canonization of the new Wonderworkers of Murom - Prince Peter (named David in monasticism) and Princess Fevronia (named Euphrosyne in monasticism).

Since then, the day of these saints has been celebrated on June 25. Connection of the story with folklore. The plot of “The Tale” combines two main fairy-tale plots - a magical tale about fighting a snake and a novelistic tale about a wise peasant girl who marries a noble man and undergoes difficult trials. The story describes the honest, righteous life of the Murom prince Peter and his wife Fevronia, a commoner by birth. Their life and, at the end of it, monastic tonsure bring the story closer to the genre of the lives of saints and give it a moralizing character.

The story seems to grow out of folklore: fairy tales, epics, riddles, proverbs. The story embodies a deep thought, coming from the very beginning of the people's understanding of the equality of people before the truth. So, in a fairy tale, the peasant son Ivan marries the princess, and ordinary girl marries the prince. Therefore, the marriage of Prince Peter to Fevronia has roots in Russian folklore and at the same time speaks of incipient changes in Russian society. Peter's feat expresses the ancient mythological, fairy-tale and later epic motif of snake fighting.

By killing the snake, the hero defeats evil and darkness. The snake is depicted in the story as a werewolf; its ability to transform into a human emphasizes the primordial cunning of the devil. It is significant that Peter kills the snake, like a hero, with a treasure sword. Fevronia embodies the fairy-tale image of a wise maiden in the story. Composition of the story. In its structure and composition, “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” is exemplary for its genre: at the beginning it tells about the exploits of the heroes, then follows a story about their life, including a story about the triumph of their virtue over life’s trials, then their death is described and, finally , a miracle that occurs after death. The plot of the story. The plot of the story about Peter and Fevronia differs from the traditional hagiographic plot in the following ways: There is no suffering for the faith, no martyrdom of the heroes; No connection to history.

In the center of the story is the peasant girl Fevronia, who agreed to heal Prince Peter, who fell ill from the snake blood that spilled on him. As a reward for this, Fevronia demands that the prince marry her: “I want to cure him, but I don’t demand any reward from him. Here is my word to him: if I do not become his wife, then it is not right for me to treat him.” The cured prince’s attempt to break his promise ends unsuccessfully: Fevronia prudently ordered to smear all his ulcers (received from snake blood), except one, and for the final cure Peter has to fulfill his promise: “Prince Peter went to his patrimony, the city of Murom, recovered. Only one scab remained on him, which was not anointed at the girl’s command. And from that scab new scabs appeared all over his body from the day he went to his patrimony. And again he was covered all over with scabs and ulcers, just like the first time.

And again the prince returned to the girl for the tried and tested treatment. And when he came to her house, he sent to her with food, asking for healing. She, not at all angry, said: “If he becomes my husband, he will be healed.” He gave her a firm word that he would take her as his wife. And again, as before, she prescribed the same treatment for him, which I already wrote about before. He, having quickly recovered, took her as his wife. This is how Fevronia became a princess.” After the death of his brother, Peter takes the throne of the Murom principality.

When the rebellious boyars decide to expel the peasant princess from Murom, she agrees to leave if she is allowed to take with her what she asks. The boyars agree, and the princess asks “only for my husband, Prince Peter.” Peter follows her: “When evening had come, they landed on the shore and began to settle down for the night. Blessed Prince Peter thought: “What will happen now, since I voluntarily renounced the princedom?”

Precious Fevronia tells him: “Do not grieve, prince, the merciful God, the creator and protector of all will not leave us in trouble!” In the end, Peter and Fevronia safely “rule” in Murom; after their “death in the bathtub” (simultaneous death) and separate burial, they nevertheless find themselves reunited “in a single tomb”: “When the time had come for their pious repose, they begged God to die at the same time. And they bequeathed that they should both be placed in one tomb, and they ordered that two coffins be made from one stone, with a thin partition between them. At one time they became monks and donned monastic robes.

And the blessed prince Peter was named David in the monastic rank, and the Venerable Fevronia in the monastic rank was called Euphrosyne.” The ideological content of the story. The images of Peter and Fevronia, who became husband and wife, express the popular ideal of marriage: righteous and good power the groom is connected with the clarity of the soul, the purity of the bride’s thoughts. The combination of these qualities forms an indissoluble spiritual union of husband and wife, triumphant both in life and in death: “When the time for their pious repose approached, they begged God to die at the same time. And they bequeathed to put both of them in one coffin. And they ordered to make two coffins in one stone, with one partition between them.

They themselves at the same time put on monastic robes. And blessed Prince Peter was called David in monasticism, and the Monk Fevronia was called Euphrosyne in monasticism. In those days, the Venerable and Blessed Fevronia, called Euphrosyne, embroidered with her own hands air for the temple of the Most Pure Cathedral Church, on which the faces of saints were depicted. The venerable and blessed prince Peter, called David, sent to her, saying: “O sister Euphrosyne! My soul already wants to leave my body, but I’m only waiting for you so that I can die together.” She answered: “Wait, sir, until I get air for the holy church.”

He sent to her a second time, saying: “I’ll wait for you a little.” And for the third time he sent, saying: “I want to die and I’m no longer waiting for you.” She embroidered the last air patterns of that saint, but she did not embroider the saint’s robe; Having embroidered the face, she stopped working, stuck her needle in the air and wrapped it in the thread with which she was sewing. And she sent to blessed Peter, called David, the news of his simultaneous repose. And, having prayed, they gave up their holy souls into the hands of God on the 25th day of June.” Image of Fevronia. “The heroine of the story is the maiden Fevronia.

She is wise folk wisdom. She makes wise riddles and knows how to resolve life's difficulties without fuss. She does not object to her enemies and does not insult them with open teaching, but resorts to allegory, the purpose of which is to teach a harmless lesson that her opponents themselves realize their mistakes. She works miracles in passing: she makes the branches stuck for the fire bloom into a large tree overnight. Her life-giving power extends to everything around her. Crumbs of bread in her palm turn into grains of fragrant incense... Fevronia is like Rublev’s quiet angels.

She is the “wise maiden” of fairy tales. External manifestations of her great inner strength are stingy. She is ready for the feat of self-denial, she has conquered her passions. Her love for Prince Peter is invincible outwardly because she is defeated internally, by herself, subordinated to the mind. At the same time, her wisdom is not only a property of her mind, but to the same extent - her feelings and will.

There is no conflict between her feeling, mind and will: hence the extraordinary “silence” of her image. The first appearance in the story of the girl Fevronia is captured in a visually distinct image. She is found in simple peasant hut a messenger from the Murom prince Peter, who fell ill from the poisonous blood of the snake he killed. In a poor peasant dress, Fevronia sat at the loom and was engaged in a “quiet” task - weaving linen, and a hare was jumping in front of her, as if symbolizing her merging with nature. Her questions and answers, her quiet and wise conversation clearly show that “Rublev’s thoughtfulness” is not thoughtless. Fevronia amazes the messenger with her prophetic answers and promises to help the prince... The life-giving power of Fevronia's love is so great that the poles stuck in the ground bloom into trees with her blessing. She is so strong in spirit that she can unravel the thoughts of the people she meets.

In the power of love, in the wisdom suggested to her by this love, Fevronia turns out to be superior even to her ideal husband, Prince Peter” (D. S. Likhachev. Great Heritage). Artistic originality stories. “The charm of the Tale lies in the simplicity and clarity of presentation, in the sedate slowness of the story, in the narrator’s ability not to be surprised by the surprising, in the simplicity and good-naturedness of the characters in harmony with the calmness of the narrator... Let us also note the restraint of the narrative, as if echoing the modesty of the manifestation of feelings. Gesture of Fevronia sticking a needle into a bedspread and wrapping it around the stuck needle golden thread, is as laconic and visually clear as Fevronia’s first appearance in the story, when she was sitting in a hut at a loom, and a hare was jumping in front of her.

To appreciate this gesture of Fevronia wrapping a thread around a needle, we must remember that in ancient Russian literary works there is no everyday life, no detailed descriptions- the action in them takes place as if in cloth. In these conditions, Fevronia’s gesture is precious, like the gold embroidery that she sewed for the “holy” cup” (D. S. Likhachev. Great Heritage). The story in the assessment of literary scholars. “There are disputes about the time of the appearance of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”.

Subject:

Target :

Ensure the ability to determine the genre of a work through the knowledge acquired in grades 5-7.

To ensure the development of students' reading culture through introducing students to the 16th century writer Ermolai - Erasmus and his work; ; improving skills monologue speech, students’ ability to reproduce text and analyze what they read: express their own judgment, impression, and also reveal the author’s attitude towards characters and events; improve monologue speech skills; synthesize acquired knowledge through the ability to draw conclusions

Foster respect for culture home country And native language;

Equipment: presentation

During the classes

“The touching tale of Peter and Fevronia is one of the pearls of ancient Russian literature.”
G.P. Fedotov
I Org. moment.(Psychological preparation for the perception of works of ancient Russian literature) (SLIDE 4-9)

Many of you guys have been to church. Let's once again plunge into the atmosphere of the temple and peer into the faces of the saints

(Church chants are heard. On the slides are reproductions of ancient Russian icon painting.)

Vocabulary work (SLIDE 10-11)

1. ICON, -y, w. For Orthodox and Catholics: the object of worship is pictorial image God, saint or saints, image.

2.Saint

3. 1. Face- image of the saint’s face on the icon.

2. Face - the image of a saint in Orthodoxy.

4. Metropolitan

5. “Great Chetya-Minea”

6. Pious

7. Righteous, righteous - a saint who lived not in monasticism, but in ordinary conditions of family and social life.

8. Monasticism - literally “solitary, solitary living,” monasticism;Enoch - Orthodox monk.

9. Canonization - canonization.

The history of Christianity contains the names of many people who became famous for their kindness, honesty, firmness in faith and courage in suffering.

Today we will touch on the work of Ancient Russia - the pearl of ancient Russian literature, the heroes of which are Peter and Fevronia.

III . Conversation. Repetition of what has been covered on the topic “Old Russian Literature”:

Tell us about the emergence of the Old Russian literature.(It is associated with the advent of writing and dates back to the 10th century. The first works were translated liturgical books and chronicles).

Name the works of ancient Russian literature known to you - ry (“The Tale of Bygone Years”, “The Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh”)

What did the ancient scribes write about? The chronicles tell about the origin of the Russian land, about the first Russian princes and the most important historical events. In the "Instruction" Vl - r Monomakh enlightens his descendants.

IV. Learning new material

The history of the creation of the story.

Teacher's word.

Who wrote this work? Who is the author of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”? (SLIDE 12) Unfortunately, the author is not indicated in the textbook, but he was a worthy man of his time, a writer and publicist of the 40-60s of the 16th century Ermolai – Erasmus .

In the 40s, Ermolai lived in Pskov and was a priest. At the end of the 40s, Ermolai, at the invitation of Metropolitan Macarius (since 1542, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus'), moved to Moscow and received the position of archpriest of the Moscow court church. It was at this time, on the orders of the Metropolitan, that church writers worked on chronicle collections "Great Four - Menaion" (monthly readings) - a grandiose collection of the lives of all Russian saints in 12 volumes (according to the number of months), representing the history of Russia as a single state. It was to this work that Metropolitan Macarius attracted the most educated writer Ermolai .(SLIDE 13)

However, the writer Ermolai - Erasmus wrote not only the lives of saints. Many journalistic works also came from his pen. The most important is the treatise “To the kindly kings, the ruler and land surveying", which he sends to the Tsar (Ivan the Terrible) with a proposal to carry out social reforms. According to Ermolai, the peasantry suffers unbearable hardships and is greatly oppressed by the boyars. And Ermolai calls on the tsar to act for the good of society - "to the well-being of all those who exist under him, not just the nobles who walk on foot, but also to the last », that is, the author shows himself as a real citizen who is not afraid to point out to the tsar himself that he must think about the well-being of not only nobles, but also peasants.

“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” in the author’s handwritten collection is called a “life”, since it was written in connection with the canonization, that is, with the canonization of the new Murom miracle workers in 1547-49. The full title of the work is: “The Tale of the lives of the holy new wonderworkers of Murom, the blessed, and venerable, and praiseworthy Prince Peter, called in monasticism David, and his wife, the blessed, and reverend, and praiseworthy princess Fevronia, called in monasticism Euphrosyne. Bless, Father." (translation)

The source for this work was the Murom legends for which Murom was famous. And this folklore basis had a strong influence on Ermolai. Researchers believe that the prototype of the hero of the story, Prince Peter, could be Prince David Yuryevich, who ruled Murom at the beginning of the 13th century, immediately before the invasion of Batu’s hordes.

It is significant that the “Tale...” was not included in the “Great Hours - Menaion” of Metropolitan Macarius, because the highest church authorities were dissatisfied. And ordinary readers multiplied the lists and read with interest.

In the 60s, the writer became a monk under the name Erasmus and left Moscow. Why he did this is not known for certain. Didn't he fall into disgrace, like other government and church figures from Ivan IV's entourage? Or did you decide to prevent your disgrace? Perhaps this meager information can be replenished by reading “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”: the author’s inner appearance is reflected here.

At home you read the work in the version in which it is presented in the textbook. But, unfortunately, the text is not given in full. There is no introduction in the school version, which is essentially a real theological treatise: about God, the creation of the world and man, Christ and baptism. The main text, and it is almost completely presented in the textbook, is nothing more than an adaptation of folklore.

Genre of the work(teacher's story and analytical conversation)

- “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is a special work. It is known that Metropolitan Macarius still did not include the life he commissioned in the “Collection of Great Chet-Minea.” Why? We will find the answer to this question by considering the features of the genre of this work.

I will remind you of the full title of this work, “The Tale of the Lives of the Holy New Wonderworkers of Murom, the Blessed, and Reverend, and the Most Praiseworthy Prince Peter, called David in monasticism, and his wife, the Blessed, and Reverend, and the Most Praiseworthy Princess Fevronia, called in monasticism Euphrosyne. Bless, Father."

Tell me, what two genres are stated in the very title of the work? (story, life)

Tell me, what works of oral folk art does this work resemble? (fairy tale)

So, what genres are present in the work? (fairy tale, story, life)

What types of fairy tales do you know? (magical, everyday, about animals)

3.Group work(filling out the table on the board and in the notebook)

(The class is divided into 3 groups. Each of the groups receives the task of finding in “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” features of the genres present in the work.

After students answer, they fill out the table. (Slide 14-20)

Group 1 – fairy tale

A fairy tale is a folklore work with a fictional attitude.

Features of the tale:

Thus, the features we have identified that are characteristic of fairy and everyday fairy tales allow us to classify “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” as a folklore genre.

But it should be noted that as the plot develops, the images of Peter and Fevronia increasingly begin to acquire the features of Russian saints.

2nd group - life

Hagiographic literature was very popular in Rus'. The word "life" means "life." Lives were works that told about saints - statesmen and religious figures, whose lives and actions were regarded as exemplary. That is, the life is a biography of the saints.

Lives had a certain structure:

Introduction, which explained the reasons that prompted the author to begin the story.

The main part is a story about the life of the saint, his death and posthumous miracles.

The life ended with praise to the saint.

“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is written in the form of a hagiography - it is an artistic biography of people canonized by the church.

Features of the hagiographic genre:

Miracles that the heroes perform (for example, Fevronia heals the sick, bread crumbs turned into incense, dead stumps became lush trees in the morning).

The story uses vocabulary characteristic of spiritual literature: blessed, giving alms, commandments of the Lord, loving children, etc.

But, as we can note, in the story there is no structure of the work traditional for the hagiographic genre (only the ending is a classic example of hagiography).

Group 3 - story b

The genre of the work is defined in the title: “Tale”. During the study, we identified the following genre features:

The heroes of the story are real people.


Details.


Theme of social inequality

The story of boyars striving for power who killed each other in civil strife.

Thus, this work contains elements of a historical story.

So, what is the genre of this work? Can this work be called a hagiography?

4. Conclusion(SLIDE21)

A conclusion is drawn based on the definition of the genre (entry in a notebook): this work contains elements of fairy tales, elements of hagiography, and elements of a historical story.

This is a hagiographic story with elements of a folk-fairy tale character.

That is why this work was not included in the collection. The unconventional nature of the hagiography “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia”, folklore motifs, its laconicism, the lack of etiquette features made it obviously unsuitable for the hagiographic canons of the 16th century. (At first glance, the border between biography and hagiography is barely perceptible. But in the Christian tradition it is no coincidence It is customary to talk not about the biographies of saints, but about hagiography. In this word we recognize the same root as in the word “biography” - graphy(write ), but, unlike the word bios(life), agios in Greek it means holy. Therefore, hagiography is a description of holiness.)

V . Reflection.

Did I manage to arouse your interest in ancient Russian literature today?

How was today's lesson useful and interesting for each of you personally?

Did anyone want to continue getting acquainted with this work and with other works of “deep antiquity”?

VI .Homework

Group work

1gr. - characteristics of Peter

3.gr - vocabulary work

References

Zolotareva I.V., Anikina S.M. Lesson developments in literature. 7th grade. - M.: VAKO, 2005

Uzhankov A.N. The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom ⁄⁄ Literature at school.-2005.- No. 4.-p.138

Krupina N.L. The story of Peter and Fevronia of Murom. IX grade ⁄⁄ Literature at school.-2000.-№5.-p.78-82

4. Malyukova V.F. Lesson on “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” VII grade ⁄⁄ Literature at school.-2008.- No. 9.-p.37-39

5. Internet resources

View presentation content
"Peter and February are mine"

Literature lesson in 7th grade

Genre originality of “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”

MKOU "General Educational School No. 14"

Zvezdina Olesya Vyacheslavovna,

teacher of Russian language and literature

Miass urban district, 2013

• Find out facts from the biography of the 16th century writer and publicist Ermolai-Erasmus.

2. Determine the genre of the work “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia.”

The touching tale of Peter and Fevronia is one of the pearls of ancient Russian literature.

G.P. Fedotov

Vocabulary work

ICON,-y, w. For Orthodox and Catholics: the object of worship is a pictorial image of God, a saint or saints, an image.

Saint- one who spent his life in consecration to God and after death is recognized Christian Church patron of believers

Face-1. image of the saint's face on the icon.

2. Face - the image of a saint in Orthodoxy

Metropolitan - in the Russian Orthodox Church, a clergyman of the highest level, subordinate to the head of the church (patriarch).

"Great Fourth Menaion" - a collection of the lives of all the saints of the Orthodox Church.

Pious - a person who honors God and keeps his commandments.

Righteous, righteous - a saint who lived not in monasticism, but in ordinary conditions of family and social life.

Monasticism - literally “solitary, lonely residence”, monasticism; Enoch - Orthodox monk.

Canonization - canonization. Canonization means that the Church testifies to the closeness of these people to God and prays to them as its patrons.

Genre originality of “The Tale...”

Fairy tale

Life

Tale

FAIRY TALE

an epic genre of oral folk art, an oral story about fictional events, which depicts the confrontation between good and evil, embodying folk ideas about beauty, justice, and human dignity.

LIFE -

biography of people declared saints by the Christian Church.

STORY -

(between a story and a novel)

epic genre,

which presents a number of episodes from the life of the hero (heroes).

Features of a fairy tale

• The beginning of the story is reminiscent of a fairy tale: “There is a city in the Russian land... Once upon a time a prince named Pavel ruled in it...”
• The story begins with an event that, undoubtedly, came here from a fairy tale: the Serpent began to fly to the wife of Prince Paul and seduce her.
• The first part is similar to a fairy tale about a hero - a snake fighter, the second - to an everyday tale about a wise maiden. As in all fairy tales, there is a fairy-tale hero - the tempting snake.
• According to the laws of a fairy tale, Good always defeats evil: Peter defeated the serpent.
• There are riddles that fairy tale heroes often have to guess. For example: “It’s bad when the house has no ears and the room has no eyes.”
• Tricky test tasks (Peter's task to sew a shirt from a bunch of flax and Fevronia's task to make a loom from a log)
• Magical objects (for example, Agrikov’s sword, on which the Serpent dies)
• Constant epithets (“the crafty serpent”, “the wise virgin”).

Life features

• The author glorifies the saints by creating ideal images. (Peter - pious, holy; Fevronia - saint, reverend, blessed).
• There is a word of praise to the saints: “Let us, according to our strength, give praise to them... Rejoice, venerable and blessed ones, for after death you invisibly heal those who come to you with faith!..”
• The heroes' love for God, the heroes' reverence for the Bible.
• Miracles that the heroes perform (Fevronia heals the sick, bread crumbs turned into incense, dead stumps became lush trees in the morning).
• Unusual death and posthumous miracles (faithful spouses not only died on the same day and hour, but also did not separate after death; at the place of their burial, believers receive healing from the most serious illnesses).

Features of the story

• Specific locations of action are indicated: the city of Murom, Ryazan land, the village of Laskovo. This gives the story credibility.
• The heroes of the story are real people. The prince, before starting treatment, wants to test Fevronia’s wisdom and gives her impossible tasks. In a fairy tale, such tasks are completed with magical speed. Not so in the story. Fevronia responds to a crafty task with no less crafty ones.
• Details. For example, Fevronia wraps a thread around a needle: “...At that time she was finishing embroidering that holy air: only one saint’s mantle had not yet been finished, but she had already embroidered the face; and she stopped, and stuck her needle in the air, and wound the thread with which she was embroidering around it...” This detail shows Fevronia’s amazing peace of mind with which she decides to die with her loved one. The author said a lot about her with just this gesture.
• The personality of the peasant woman comes to the fore
• Theme of social inequality

Conclusion:

“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia” is a hagiographic story with elements folk-fairy tale character.

Homework

Work in groups:

1.gr. - characteristics of Peter

2.gr. – characteristics of Fevronia

3.gr - vocabulary work

It was created in the mid-16th century (but for a long time it was attributed to the 15th century) by the priest and publicist Ermolai-Erasmus. In theory, this work was created as a hagiography. But it was not recognized as a life due to numerous deviations from the canon in the central part, and in the process of reworking it became a story. The basis of its plot was formed on the basis of two oral-poetic, fairy-tale motifs - about the hero-snake fighter and the wise maiden, widespread in folklore. The source of the plot was a local legend about a wise peasant girl who became a princess. Folk tradition had a strong influence on Ermolai-Erasmus, and he created a work not associated with the canons of the hagiographical genre: it is a fascinating narrative narrative, not much like the lives of saints with their exploits and martyrdom for the glory of the church. "The work consists of 4 parts, plot-connected. 1-story about a snake fighter. 2-heroes go to get a doctor for a snake victim. They meet a girl who speaks in riddles. What follows is the motif of riddles and

tests. 3-life of Peter and Fevronia in marriage, there are elements of folklore narrative. 4-story about the death of Peter and Fevronia and the posthumous miracle. The problem with genre is that a work combines many elements from different genres. The work does not say anything about the childhood of the heroes (unconventional for life), folklore motifs can be traced in all parts. For example, a fairy-tale plot about a snake-fighting hero, a motif of riddles, when Fevronia says that “it’s not right for a house to have no ears and a temple to have no ears” (a dog has ears at home, a child has eyes at home) and when asked where her family answers : “Father and mother borrowed posters. My brother went through his legs in Navi zreti,” which means “mother and father went to the funeral, and my brother went to beekeeping.” There is also a folklore motif in the 3rd part, when Fevronya, after a meal, collects crumbs in her hand, and then they turn into incense and incense. This is an echo of the fairy tale about the frog princess, when leftovers turned into swans and a lake. And the departure of Peter and Fevronia from Murom, and then the nobles’ request for their return, also has an echo in the folk tale. But the work also has a spiritual side, characteristic of hagiography. Peter and Fevronia do not talk about love, because Peter does not even want to marry her at first. Their marriage is not carnal, but spiritual and is based on keeping the commandments. Fevronia performs miracles thanks to her spirituality. Another element of life is the posthumous miracle, when Peter and Fevronia, contrary to their dying instructions, are buried in different places, but overnight they still find themselves together in a coffin for two, which remains empty. And their death in one hour is also something unusual, which can only be characteristic of saints. The combination of folklore, hagiography and story elements in one work makes the work multifaceted, but this is the author’s special skill and innovation in literature.

39. “Kazan History” as a new type of historical narrative. Using experience from different genres in a work.

The historical story “Kazan History” was written in the mid-60s 1* in It belongs to the best examples of ancient Russian fiction and occupies a special place in the formation of new forms of historical narration. It poetizes the power of a single centralized state, the activities of Ivan the Terrible and his supporters, and the annexation of the Kazan kingdom to the Moscow state. The author is trying to create new type narratives with a clearly expressed ideological plan, theme and a clearly expressed position of the author. “History” consists of several short stories connected by chronology. The introduction talks about the purpose of the work - to tell about the history of the Kazan kingdom and its relationship with Russia. The author speaks about the novelty of the story: “This red new story deserves us to listen to joyfully.” The author calls Ivan 4 chosen by God, clearly expressing the author’s position. The central part splits into 2 subparts: before the campaigns of Ivan the Terrible and after that. In subpart 1, the narrative follows a chronological path: the beginning of the Kazan kingdom, where folklore motifs about a two-headed snake and a hero-snake fighter who defeated him with the help of magic are traced; The main characters are the Moscow and Kazan kings. The plot is built on the principle of antithesis - Russian victories are replaced by defeats, the action is constantly transferred from Moscow to Kazan and back. This subpart uses a combination of local microplots. There are many military stories of both types here, brought into the general course of events. Basis 2 subparts - stories about the campaigns of Ivan the Terrible. They are presented in the form of military stories with an idealized main character, Ivan 4. But the narrative is multi-figured, Kazan rulers, warriors, and boyars act in it. This part contains less dating of events, but many symbolic elements: signs, visions, wonders. For example, the dream of the Kazan king, where the bright month absorbs the dark one, and the animals that came to Kazan eat the Kazan animals, which predicts future events. Also the vision of Ivan 4 about the construction of Sviyazhsk and the departure of the patron demon of the city from the mosque. They play different roles in the episode. A significant place is occupied by genres traditional for ancient military history: laments (the tribute to the Kazan queen Sumbeki), praises, prayers. Sumbeki's cry addressed to Kazan plays a symbolic role, predicting his death. The “History” ends with chapters in which praise is given to Kazan, the Principality of Moscow and Ivan 4. The author evaluates the significance of the victory, speaking about the Beauty of Moscow, the OGR of the kingdom. The author's innovation can be traced in the image of the main character - Ivan the Terrible is depicted in many ways, his actions and thoughts are shown in different situations. His desire to avoid bloodshed was noted, which was not the case before, as shown in the tsar’s seven embassies to Kazan. All this speaks about the author’s approach to creating character, although the main method of creating the image of the king—idealization—remains. The image of episodic characters also changes: there was no distinction between positive and negative on national and religious grounds. A traitor can be either one of your own or a stranger, and both will be punished. The images of the troops are also drawn in an unusual way: the author often emphasizes the determination of the enemies, evoking respect for them. And the capture of the city by the Russian army is more like a plunder. The author's attitude is also innovative - he expresses his opinion much more actively, which is shown in the introduction and conclusion, digressions, which are most often of a summary nature. Innovation is also manifested in style: the widespread use of tropes, metaphors, military formulas lose their meaning (spreads them in other words, which destroys them). “History” made extensive use of the traditions of life, military stories, walking, teaching, symbolic and lyrical genre formations. A military tale: a combination of local microplots (“The Tale of Mamaev’s Massacre”); indication of the landscape at the time of day; the combination of the traits of a commander with Christian traits in the main character; a vision of the departure of the patron demon of their city, the penetration of rhetorical techniques into the pictures of the battle-traditions of “The Tale of the Capture of Constantinople.” Life: mention of the virtues of Ivan 4, characteristic of him since childhood; rhetorical devices. Walking: static descriptions of nature expressing the author's admiration. Teachings: artistic means used in laments. Due to such an abundance of genres, it is impossible to decide the genre of a work.