Constantinople’s “topography of mercy” in Anthony of Novgorod’s “The Pilgrim’s Book” and its reception in Rus (13th-15th centuries)

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Manuscript. 2026. Volume 19. Issue 1

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Abstract. The article analyzes the missionary-pilgrim transfer channel of Byzantine practices of mercy and healing into the cultural space of Ancient Rus (13th-15th centuries), based on “The Pilgrim’s Book” by Dobrynya Yadreykovich (Archbishop Anthony of Novgorod), compiled circa 1200. The research aims to demonstrate how the image of Constantinople as a “topography of mercy” is constructed in “The Pilgrim’s Book”, focusing on the role of water and chrism as material carriers of grace, the regulated forms of access to them, and the subsequent reception of these models in Rus. The objectives of the study are to analyze episodes involving water distribution and chrism-making at the Great Church (Hagia Sophia); to describe contact healing practices and associated forms of ecclesiastical charity; to compare Anthony’s observations with architectural-liturgical data and normative regulations, distinguishing stable practice from genre rhetoric; and to trace the reception of the Byzantine experience in Russian pilgrimage texts of the 14th-15th centuries and in Old Russian literature. The study examines key “channels” of sacred therapy: the distribution of water in Hagia Sophia, mentions of chrism-making as a standardized production of a healing-sacred substance, “contact” healing through temple surfaces and objects, myrrh-streaming and water-giving tombs, the drinking of water from sacred vessels, the laying on of relics, and elements of institutional charity. The concluding section traces the cultural transfer of these models to Rus (13th-15th centuries) through Russian pilgrimage accounts, Old Russian hagiography, and chronicles. The scientific novelty lies in interpreting Anthony’s testimony not as a collection of “miraculous episodes”, but as the recording of a stable, infrastructurally and liturgically supported system of grace distribution (“medicine of grace”), and in examining pilgrimage as a mechanism for the cultural transfer of these models to Rus. The results show that the described practices form a cohesive complex combining technical infrastructure, ritual norms, and social accessibility. Anthony acts as an active transmitter of the Byzantine experience, while subsequent Russian pilgrims of the 14th-15th centuries confirm the continuity and reproducibility of this “map of healings”, clarifying the role of pilgrimage in shaping Old Russian conceptions of ecclesiastical care and sacred healing.