Until now, the time of writing by Nestor, a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves" (hereinafter - "Life") has not been established. It is important not only for reconstructing the history of writing the "Life" itself, but also for dating the "Reading about Boris and Gleb" that preceded it, since in the" Life " Nestor noted: "I thank thee, my Master, Lord Jesus Christ, that thou hast enabled me, an unworthy confessor, to be Thy holy companion, for thou hast written to me about the life and destruction of Boris and Gleb, and about the children of the holy and blessed passion, and hast forced me to come to another confession, which is beyond my power, and he cannot bekh dostoyin... " ("The Life of Theodosius of the Caves" / / Monuments of Literature of Ancient Russia. XI-beginning of the XII century. Moscow, 1978).
To clarify the time of St. Nestor's work on the "Life of Theodosius of the Caves" helps the remark of the hagiographer, placed at the end of the work: "See how much above about the blessed and great father Theodosius of smallpox and hearing from the ancient men of my father, who were at that time the same in the writings of the sinful Nestor, who lived in the manastyrs of the blessed and father Theodosius" (Uspensky sbornik of the XII - XIII centuries, Moscow, 1971).
page 57
These words of Nestor can be understood so that he, being the youngest of all ("mnii vseh") I. I. Sreznevsky in" Materials for the dictionary of the Old Russian language "in the comments to the words mnii-mnii-menshii gives the first exactly the meaning of" younger in age "with the following example:" Man nekyi ime dva sona, i reche mnii sonia ei "(Sreznevsky I. I. Slovar ' drevnerusskogo yazyka [Dictionary of the Old Russian language]. Reprint edition, Moscow, 1989, vol. 2, Part I).
In the words of Nestor, there is a clear comparison, or rather a contrast, between the age of himself, who wrote down the stories about Theodosius, and the age of the monk ...
Read more