Abstract

The Tale of the appearance of the Icon of Our Lady of Korsun’ in Yur’yevets Povol’sky is an Early Modern historical and literary monument that has been overlooked in the bibliography. We have found its only manuscript in a Moscow bibliophile collection. It is of great value, largely due to the proximity of the date of its compilation, the late 17th century, to the miraculous events described in it. The Tale of the Appearance of the Korsun’ Icon contributes to the history of the revered objects in Yur’yevets, which became famous in the 17th century. Yur’yevets is a key place on the map of history and literature and is connected to the names of Simon of Yur’yevets, protopope Avvakum and icon painter Kirill Ulanov. The Tale is typologically similar to some other works of the 17th century, and each of them is unique in its own way and closely linked to local hierotopies and histories. The memory of the Yur’yevets icon has been lost and only left a trace in the manuscript in question. The 17th-century wooden church, where the miraculous appearance of the Korsun’ Icon took place in 1695, has not been preserved, but the 19th-century Orthodox church with the same dedication stands on its place. All this allows for a more tangible representation of what is described in the Tale. Yur’yevets is also unique due to the presence here of another especially revered icon of the Mother of God, a replica of a wonderworking Jerusalem icon by Kirill Ulanov, who lived in the neighbouring Krivoyezerskaya desert. Yur’yevets is nowadays devoid of almost all its sacral objects, and the manuscript of the Tale helps to shed light on one of them. The anonymity of this text gives a perspective for further research.