The bishop of Kolomna and Kashira Paul in the historiographical tradition of the Vyg monastery

Abstract

The bishop of Kolomna and Kashira Paul is the only russian bishop, who publicly opposed the liturgical reform of patriarch Nikon and supported the incipient old-orthodox movement during the church schism in the middle of the 17th century.
The personality of Paul provoked a special interest of the old-orthodox historians for he was considered the first martyr for the «Old Belief», the symbol of the pure Christianity and the role model. Particular care of the bishop Paul was taken by the writers of the famous old-orthodox monastery on the Vyg-river (on the White Sea coast). The original literary tradition was set here in the 18th century.
The most significant writers of this literary tradition were Andrew Denisov, Simon Denisov and Ivan Philippov. They continually mentioned Pauls name in their historical works. This name was used as justification of the old-orthodox history and as a defense of the old-orthodox theology. But throughout the 18th century the bishop Paul turned from the real historical personality into the mythological folk character.
The present article is dedicated to historiography and source studies of the works of the Vyg monastery writers and to the analysis of the alteration of the bishop Pauls image.