St. George’s day (Nov. 26, old style) has long been one of the most widely
celebrated feasts of the East Slavic Orthodox church(es). Loseva (2001: 71,
95-98) provides one of the most recent and detailed assertions (though not the
first; cf. Stefanovic 1989: xxvi) that this feast reflects the foundation of
a church of St. George in Kiev in Kiev in 1037. Since the Nov. 26 feast appears
in the Codex Assemanianus, it follows from Loseva’s assertion that the
Codex Assemanianus was composed after 1037 and was influenced by an East Slavic
menology. This reasoning may or may not be linked to an unexplained
assertion in Lunt (2001: 8) that Assemanianus was “written after 1038”.
The present paper will suggest that the feast was originally intended to commemorate
the dedication of a church of St. George in Constantinople (see Janin 1969:
70) and that its presence in the Assemanianus tells us little either about the
date of Assemanianus or about early East Slavic influence on the Glagolitic
tradition.
References
Janin, R. La géographie ecclésiastique de l’Empire byzantin: Première partie: Le Siège de Constantinople et le Patriarcat Oecuménique. Vol. 3 Les Eglises et les Monastères. 2nd ed., Paris: Institut français d’études Byzantines, 1969.
Loseva, O. V. Russkie mesiatseslovy XI-XIV vekov. Moscow: Pamiatniki Istoricheskoj mysli, 2001.
Lunt, Horace G. Old Church Slavonic Grammar. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2001.
Stefanovic, Dimitrije E., ed. Introduction to Apostolus Sisatovacensis anni 1324. Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1989.