Cyril of Turov

(Kirill of Turov)

(ca. 1130–1182)

   Cyril was a 12th-century bishop of Turov, in the northwestern part of the Russian principality of Kiev. He was a writer and a renowned preacher, whose sermons are among the most popular in Old Russian, and they are included in sermon anthologies dating from the 15th century, though he based much of their content on Byzantine models. Many of the works attributed to him are considered dcoubtful by scholars, but most agree that Cyril is the author of two parables, eight sermons on various church feasts, between 22 and 30 prayers (known for their asceticism, and some still used today), and two Canons of the Mass (or hymn cycles in honor of saints).

   According to a SAINT’S LIFE dated well after his death, Cyril was born into a noble family and was well educated, but renounced his wealth and position at an early age and entered Borisoglebsk monastery in Turov. Legend says that Cyril, desiring a more ascetic life, left the monastery to become a recluse, but that the prince of Turov, with the townspeople, were so struck by his faith that they pleaded with him to become bishop of Turov. Whether or not this is all true, Cyril was consecrated as bishop sometime after the mid-12th century. Among Cyril’s more interesting works is The Parable of the Soul and the Body, written sometime between 1160 and 1169. The tale was intended to satirize the bishop of Rostov, Theodore, who was attempting through devious means to establish an independent episcopal seat in Rostov, not subject to the Metropolitan in Kiev. The parable is really an ALLEGORY based on a local folktale of a blind man and a lame man. In the tale the blind man convinces the lame man to help him rob a vineyard. In Cyril’s allegory, the blind man is the soul, who is also the spiritual leader Bishop Theodore. The lame man is the body, also representing Prince Andrew Bogolyubsky, that the secular leader Theodore had convinced to champion his ultimately unsuccessful cause.

   The topical nature of this parable is unusual for Cyril, who deals more typically with theology. His sermons are his best-known works. They are characterized by the elaborate use of rhetorical devices, particularly parallelism and antithesis, metaphor and simile, amplification and the use of dramatic dialogue: Cyril typically takes a scriptural text for his sermon and adds details, particularly speeches put into the mouths of biblical characters. In his sermon on the Deposition, Cyril puts a long lament into the mouth of the Virgin Mary as she witnesses Christ’s death on the cross. In his sermon on Easter, Cyril includes a long description of the return of spring, including several details drawn from nature. But each item in the description is part of an ellaborate allegory, in which the renewal of the world of nature parallels the spiritual renewal within human beings. The spring represents faith, the lambs represent the meek, the calves represent the unbelievers, and so on.

   Cyril’s sermons are dramatic, vivid, and figurative, but they are also clearly inspired by Byzantine models, which Cyril certainly read in the original. He was familiar with the art of Greek rhetoric, and Moser (1989) suggests that his sermons follow the structure recommended for declamatory speeches in Greek rhetorics: They follow a three-part structure of a proem, a narrative or exposition of the subject matter, and an epilogue, consisting of a eulogy ending with a prayer.

   Saint Cyril is said to have died on April 28, 1182, of natural causes. His literary and historical influence, particularly through his popular sermons, is felt not only in Russian, Ukrainian, and Byelorussian literature, but in that of the South Slavs of the Balkans as well. Respected for his mastery of Greek rhetoric and Byzantine theology in medieval Russia, Cyril is sometimes known as “the Russian Chrysostom,” after the most influential of saints in the Orthodox Church.

   Bibliography

   ■ Likhachev, Dmitry, ed. A History of Russian Literature: 11th–17th Centuries. Translated by K. M. Cook-Horujy.Moscow: Raduga Pub., 1989.

   ■ Lunde, Ingunn. Verbal Celebrations: Kirill of Turov’s Homiletic Rhetoric and Its Byzantine Sources.Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 2001.

   ■ Moser, Charles A., ed. The Cambridge History of Russian Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.