Stavrotheotokia troparia of the Great and Holy Friday Antiphons (tentative textological analysis of the 11th – 14th century manuscripts)

Abstract The paper deals with certain troparia found in several Church Slavonic manuscripts as a part of the Great and Holy Friday Antiphons which don’t respond to the described Greek versions of the text. Troparia which appear in the penultimate place of each of the 15 Antiphons are devoted to the Mother of God and could be attributed to the Stavrotheotokion type. The Stavrotheotokia appear regularly almost in all East Slavonic manuscripts up to Patriarch Nikon book correction of the 17th century, while in the South Slavonic tradition they appear regularly only in two early Serbian manuscripts, in the most of the Antiphons in two early Bulgarian manuscripts and in one Antiphon in another Bulgarian manuscript. In the 14th century after the Mount Athos book correction the Stavrotheotokia disappear completely from the South Slavonic manuscript tradition. The goal of our study was a scientific critical edition of the Stavrotheotokia troparia based on 13 East and South Slavonic manuscripts (Triodion and Pentecostarion, Pentecostarion, Lent and Pentecost Sticherarium) of 11th – 14th centuries as well as their textological analysis. Based on the results of the textological analysis we distinguish two versions of the text: the first one is present in East Slavonic manuscripts and Zagreb Triodion, the second one – in two Serbian Triodia, and their compiled type – in the Orbele Triodion. Although no Greek correspondence to these texts have been found so far, the textual evidences argue for the Byzantine origin of a certain text. The outstanding poetic characteristics of certain troparia as well as their remarkable correspondence with the whole poetical structure of the Antiphons cause us to believe that unlike the Theotokia which are included in the Antiphons in the modern Greek and Slavic tradition, the Stavrotheotokia were the part of the initial text of the hymn. Since two versions of the Church Slavonic text are not located on a certain territory, the translation of these texts into Church Slavonic was probably made in the South Slavic area and later transferred to the East Slavonic tradition. Keywords textology, Church Slavonic literature, hymnography, Great and Holy Friday Antiphons, Stavrotheotokia troparia