KYRIK NOVGORODETS - A SCHOLAR MONK AND HIS “UNIVERSITY” (ON THE VALUE OF ST. ANTHONY`S MONASTERY IN THE CREATIVE DESTINY OF THE ANCIENT RUSSIAN SCRIBE)
The paper, addressing written and nonverbal sources, analyzes the quality of Kirik Novgorodets' scholarship referred to as the higher education of that era. The scientific and theological outlook of Kirik was atypical for the monastery culture of pre-Mongol time. The author concludes that creative heritage of Kirik Novgorodets had no analogues in the ancient Russian literature. That was due to his teachers, who migrated from Europe and became founders of the Nativity of the Mother of God monastery. Kirik's innovation was determined by religious originality of St. Anthony`s monastery, manifested in the architecture, the program of paintings, the book collection and internal order of monastic life. The paper argues in favor of linking the monastery-migrant`s origin with a region of Italy, where both traditions of Eastern and Western Christianity were treated with the same deference. There were found Latin-Greek consonances and a complete absence of anti-Latin bias in the texts of Kirik. This feature reflects the translation of European elements with typological signs of the Kirillo-Mefodian tradition and relic elements of Irish Christianity. The paper considers Kirik to be a representative of the rationalized Christian tradition, displaying an interest in the ancient heritage and methodology of the Pythagoreans.