“A good custom from the old times”: on the experience of compiling a parish synodikon of the Chernigov Patriarchal Compound

Abstract

The article is devoted to the parish synodikons as the most important part of the parish church liturgical life. Having briefly examined the experience of studying parish commemorations of the pre-revolutionary years, the author of the article gives examples of work on synodikons from the modern life of the Russian Orthodox Church in different regions of Russia. This includes the compilation of commemorations, which would contain memories of those whose names are mentioned in the list. As a theological justification for the parish synodikon form development the author offers the theses of St. Athanasius (Sakharov), set out in his book “On the commemoration of the dead according to the Orthodox Church Charter.” Basing on five years of experience in collecting materials about the clergy of the Chernigov Patriarchal Compound in Moscow, the author talks about the methodology for compiling a synodikon of the mentioned Сompound for the period from the end of the 17th century. It is based on the surviving metric books, confessional and clergy records, personal files of students and teachers of the Moscow Theological Academy and seminaries and other documents from different epochs. As an example of the work carried out the author gives the basis of one of the priests’ future biography – the priest of St. John the Baptist Church under the Pine Wood – Pyotr Kuzmich Slavolubov, who was also a teacher and a translator. In conclusion, the article, among other things, provides conclusions about educational work among parishioners regarding the importance of synodikons and outlines possible prospects for this type of activity.