Archaic imitation: history of the cult of Tsarevna Sophia and rhetorical strategies of messages to her

A notable discovery in the study of religious and cultural practices at UNESCO World Heritage Sites is that the cult of Tsarevna Sophia Alekseyevna, associated with the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow, emerged as a secular phenomenon in the 21st century. Unlike pre-revolutionary times, where memories of Sophia were preserved locally without religious connotations, modern veneration has taken the form of wall inscriptions addressed to her, reflecting an eclectic blend of prayer formulas and contemporary epistolary styles. The research analyzed a corpus of these inscriptions from 2010-2014, revealing that authors attempted to imbue their messages with the status of prayers through stylistic markers, despite lacking formal religious support or established liturgical language.

Kravetskii, A. (2020). Archaic imitation: history of the cult of Tsarevna Sophia and rhetorical strategies of messages to her. Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski, 11(1), 145–160. https://doi.org/10.31648/pw.5977