On Sunday,
July 20, in Ukrainian House (Khreshchatyk,
2, Kyiv) the presentation of the facsimile edition of the Peresopnytsia Gospels
(1556-1561) took place, a symbol of national
revival and Ukrainian statehood and a book on
which the Ukrainian presidents take their oath of loyalty to people. .
This prominent event took place within the framework of opening of the
celebrations of the 1020th anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus.
The action was presided over by the Primate of
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All
Ukraine. Taking part also were manager
of Peresopnytsia Gospels project bishop Alexander of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi,
first President of Ukraine Leonide Kravchuk, counselor to the President of
Ukraine Yuriy Bohutskyi, director of the Archaeology Institute of the NAS of
Ukraine Petro Tolochko and others.
Before the ceremony started the Primate got acquainted with an exhibition named
"From the Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir
to Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine", situated in the hall of
Ukrainian House. In particular, the exhibition displays all the
stages of reprinting of the Peresopnytsia Gospels through the photo materials,
there is also one of its copies which His Beatitude reviewed at the end of the
survey. Besides, various ancient icons,
books, church implements and other are displayed there.
The official part of the feast was opened by the Head of the Synodal Department
of the UOC "Church and Culture" Hegumeness Seraphima
(Shevchyk). In particular, she stresses the importance of
this event, presented some historical facts and expressed gratitude to those
who invested a lot of effort for the publication of the Peresopnytsia Gospels
facsimile, and especially to His Beatitude Metropolitan Volodymyr, on whose
blessing this good action was performed.
Then the floor was passed to Metropolitan Volodymyr. Archpastor told of the Peresopnytsia Gospels
and thanked all the benefactors for their response and promotion of the
god-pleasing deed of reprinting the book.
Then Leonide Kravchuk,
Yuriy Bogutskyi,
Petro Tolochko
and others expressed their thoughts and expressions. In particular,
Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations archimandrite Cyril (Hovorun) told that in the spring, present
year, the presentation of the facsimile edition of the Peresopnytsia Gospels in
Great Britain took place in
the most famous educational institutions of Oxford
and Cambridge. Father Cyril also mentioned that in the
measurable future similar event was to take place in the United States of America, in the headquarters of
the UN in New York and in the Library of
Congress of the USA.
Thereafter the Primate conferred the church awards to those who expended much
effort for publication of the facsimile reprint of the Peresopnytsia Gospels.
Among them there were Governor of the Odesa region Mylkola Serdyuk (Order of
the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir of the 3rd class),
director of the Publishing house "ADEF-Ukraine" Igor Shpak (Order of the 1020th
Anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus) and manager of the UOC TV Programmes Chief Editorial Office George Kovalenko (Order
of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir).
The project
manager Bishop Alexander
also informed those present that a few days ago His beatitude Metropolitan
Volodymyr transferred 100000 Hrn to the V.I.
Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in the funds of which the original
of the Peresopnytsia Gospels is preserved. These funds will be allocated for
restoration and preservation of the shrine.
Later the most solemn event of the evening took place: each of the benefactors
who supported the facsimile reprinting of the Peresopnytsia Gospels received a
copy of the greatest shrine from the hands of His Beatitude as a sign of
gratitude. Today the philanthropists received about 100
books. We'll mention among them Leonid Kravchuk, Petro Tolochko, head of the
Culture Fund of Ukraine Boris Oliynyk, Metropolitan Ioannikiy of Luhansk and
Alchevsk, Metropolitan Ilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol, Archbishop Guriy of
Zhytomyr and Novohrad-Volynskyi, Archbishop Volodymyr of Pochayiv, Bishop
Ilariy of Sumy and Okhtyrka, Bishop Anthony of Boryspil, archpriest George
Kovalenko, head of the Palestine Orthodox Fellowship count Mykola Vorontsov,
director of the corporation ‘Stolytsia'
Valentine Isak, director of the
History Regional Studies Museum "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" Sergiy Krolevets, director
of the Book and Printing Miseum Valentina Borkovska, people's deputy of Ukraine
Tetiana Zasukha, and representatives of business Vitaliy Demyaniuk, Anatoliy
Striy, Yuriy Melnychenko, Kateryna Avilova, Olexander Kozodoy, Victor Ivanchyk
and others.
It should be noted that a part of the funds received from the philanthropists
for printing the Peresopnytsia Gospels will be spent for the construction of
the Resurrection Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
After presentation of the copies the documentary film
"Peresopnytsia Gospels - a shrine of the Ukrainian nation" was shown, telling
about the reprint of the "Peresopnytsia".
At the end of the festivities the guests had a possibility to enjoy the
spiritual chant by the coir of the Holy Ascension Church of Kyiv in Demiyivka, which
had prepared a small concert.
More than a year the Ukrainian Orthodox Church worked on preserving the ancient
record of the Ukrainian book print, the first translation of the Gospels into
the living people's language in the history. The pre-print preparation took a
considerable period of time since it was necessary to make the most precise copy of the shrine. The
size and the weight of the facsimile reprint correlate the parameters of the
original. In particular, the weight of
the book published is equal to 8 kg 300 g, which created additional problems
during the process of print, since none of existing industrial vehicle can work
with such weight. Therefore ancient
technologies used by Ivan
Fedorov in the ancient times in
the ХVI century were
employed.
This project was put into effect due to close cooperation of the UOC with the
National Academy of Science of Ukraine
and numerous benefactors. In order to
preserve the rarity of the 450 year old Gospels it was decided to publish a
limited printing run - only 1000 copies.
The Peresopnytsia Gospels id a national shrine of our state and a prominent
record of the Ukrainian written culture. It is a first known translation of the
canonical text of the Gospels into Ukrainian.
The work on the manuscript was started on August 15, 1556 in the Dvoretsky
Monastery of the princes Zaslavsky at the Church of the Holy Trinity. Then the Gospels by Matthew
were translated together with the first part of the text by Mark.
Then the monks stopped their work for some time. It was renewed only in 1561 in
the Monastery of Peresopnytsia at the Church of the nativity of the Theotokos
(now the village
of Peresopnytsia of the
Rivne region). They completed their work on the book on August 29, 1561.
"Peresopnytsia
Gospels" is now inaccessible for publicity. Only once in four years the shrine is
retrieved from the repository for the presidents to keep their hands on the
Book of the Books during inauguration, taking their oaths to the people of Ukraine.
Maxim Sydorenko for,
ORTHODOX.ORG.UA
photos by Maxim
Brusnyka
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