Experience in the Typology of the Visions in Old Russian Hagiography of the 13th – 17th Centuries

The genre of Old Russian visions is a vast, variegated material. This greatly complicates its systematization. However, if we take as a basis the idea of connecting the genre with the medieval picture of the world, possible to describe the visions as an orderly system. In accordance with the dual picture of the world of Old Russian man, visions are divided by content into eschatological and related to the earthly being. The main attention of our work is focused on visions of the last thematic variety, because eschatological ones represent a specific group of material requiring special research. Also, in accordance with the idea of dualism, the characters of another world in visions of the earthly life belong to the sacred or infernal world. Therefore, in general, we can talk about two types of characters in visions. The sacred characters (the Virgin, apostles, saints, angels, etc.) have the main functions of the assistance in different variants, prophecy, punishment, etc. The infernal characters (as a rule, these are demons) have functions of temptation and torment. According to the named of the extramundane characters functions, thematic groups of visions (help”, “prophecies”, “punishment”, etc.) are distinguished. Within each group, their specific thematic varieties form several subgroups (for example, the «help» group has subgroups: the «visions containing any indication of action», the «visions after / during which healing takes place», the «visions in which the expelling demons takes place », etc.). This article presents the experience in the typology of the visions reflecting our initial observations and not pretending to be comprehensive. Therefore, all the thematic sections of the typology are illustrated by particular examples can be corrected further in connection with the replenishment of new material.