The role of the first Russian funeral sermon of the late 17th - early 18th centuries in the formation of the obituary genre

The article analyzes the first examples of funeral sermons delivered in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century: the speech of Pastor Stumpfius at the funeral of Franz. Lefort and “The Word for the Burial of Peter the Great” by Feofan Prokopovich, voiced during the burial of Peter I. The text regulating the ceremony of farewell to the emperor by the organizer of the funeral Ya.V. Bruce and “A Brief Tale of the Death of Peter the Great, Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia” by Feofan Prokopovich are also explored. The aim of this study is to learn what role the first funeral speeches played in the formation of the obituary genre in Russian literature. In the course of studying the materials, the author revealed that the most important of the innovations of the funeral ritual was the funeral memorial word, borrowed from the Protestant tradition. The funeral word in Russia existed in both secular and Old Believer culture.“Funeral Teaching on the Day of the Burial of General and Admiral Franz Yakovlevich Lefort” by Pastor Stumpfius speaks not so much about Lefort's departure from life, but about death and virtue in general, about the importance of a righteous lifestyle. Stumpfius closely follows the Lutheran tradition of emphasizing apocalyptic semantics in the funeral sermon. The religious and didactic pathos of the sermon determined the subordinate role of political semantics. In addition, baroque motifs in Stumpfius' sermons have parallels in the Russian medieval tradition. “The Word for the Burial of Peter the Great” was delivered by Feofan Prokopovich at the funeral of Peter I. The speech at the tomb of the emperor went beyond church rhetoric and the main subject was the secular state accomplishments of the late monarch. The most important component of church rhetoric - the significance of the Divine will and the justification of the right of the deceased to enter the Kingdom of Heaven - virtually disappeared from the speech. Prokopovich does not speak about the fate of the soul of the deceased at all. His audience is the subjects and family of Peter I, and the scope of the monarch's accomplishments is the earthly and, moreover, political world. Prokopovich transfers the symbolism of the resurrection from the spiritual and religious plane to the state and political one. Thus, comparing the two speeches, we can say that the word for death at the beginning of the 18th century exists as a dynamic system, on the one hand, it is a form of a journalistic eulogy, where the main emphasis is placed on the sphere of socially significant achievements; on the other hand, it is a funeral sermon that describes the personal qualities of the deceased as merits before God. For the obituary, which was formed later, the first version is a proto-genre source.

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