TOPICS AND MIMESIS IN SERVICE FOR SAINT PRINCE LAZAR

Abstract

In the last few decades, literary historians have widely examined the typology and function of topoi in Byzantine and medieval Slavic literary texts, relying upon the philological method of Ernst Robert Curtius. Grounded in the canon of Byzantine liturgical poetry, early Slavic hymnography adopted and transformed biblical and ancient Greek topoi present in Byzantine texts. The topics of Serbian medieval hymnography, spanning several decades (13th–17th century), remain an almost unexplored field. By analyzing the topoi in the Old Church Slavonic text of the Service for Saint Prince Lazar, this paper aims to explore the role mimesis plays in the liturgical shaping of the ideal hagiotype. Several layers of topoi associated with different types of sanctity (holy martyrs, bishops, monks, and warriors) portray the symbolic figure of the medieval ruler. The poetic reminiscence of the saint’s life forms the collective identity and cultural memory of the participants in the liturgical event.