The Veneration of the Mother of God and Some Aspects of Naming Tradition in pre-Petrine Russia

• Main Authors: Anna F. Litvina, Fjodor B. Uspenskij
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Izdatelstvo Uralskogo Universiteta 2018-07-01
• Series: Voprosy Onomastiki
• Subjects: Medieval and Early Modern Russia; naming practices; name Mary; baptismal names; nomina sacra; veneration of icons; cult of the Mother of God; Virgin holidays; church calendar; cult of saints; friary and fodder books; traditions of commemoration; patron saints
• Online Access: http://onomastics.ru/sites/default/files/doi/10.15826/vopr_onom.2018.15.2.016.pdf

The paper explores a specific name-giving pattern that came from the ban on appellation after Virgin Mary. In Russia, the name of the Mother of God could neither be given at christening nor, apparently, could it be acquired with the monastic tonsure, with this prohibition being strictly and rigorously observed from pre-Mongolian times to our days. Yet it is also well known that the name Mary could be given in honor of the multitude of saints sharing the same name as the Mother of God. The study illustrates that in the 16th–17th centuries the name Mary could be given on the day one of the numerous icons of the Mother of God was celebrated. Thus, the designated person became the namesake of one of the venerated images of the Mother of God while avoiding a direct violation of the prohibition on the name’s use. The cult surrounding the icons of the Mother of God was part of a complex system of significant dates which determined the choice of personal names for a single person, not only regulating their life from birth to death but also predisposing practices of their posthumous commemoration. It is worth noting that such pattern of naming by the icon did not in any way extend to the name of Christ; however, it may have played a particular role in the cult of St Nikolaos of Myra, whose name in Russia at that time was also included in nomina sacra.