This study of Santa Maria del Gualdo Mazzocca, a Benedictine
priory, and then abbey, directly dependent upon the papacy, offers
a remarkable glimpse into the nature of monastic life in the Middle
Ages.
The purpose of this volume is to make accessible to mediaevalists,
church historians and Slavists, texts associated with the Monastery
of the Dormition in Volokolamsk, one of the most important monastic
foundations in mediaeval Muscovy, and with its founder, Iosif of
Volokolamsk. The Volokolamsk Paterikon by Dosifej Toporkov
is the principal focus of the study, but also included in
translation are Dosifej Toporkov’s Funeral Oration for
Venerable Hegumen Iosif, Savva Cernyj’s life of Iosif
and the Life of Kassian Bosoj and Life of Elder
Fatej by Vassian Koška. All of these texts are
contained in GIM Sinodal’noe sobr. No. 927, compiled by
Vassian Koška in the middle of the sixteenth century. Some
recently edited supplementary tales from the Volokolamsk
Paterikon, compiled by Vassian Koška and preserved in
RGB Muzejnoe sobr. No. 1257 of the mid-sixteenth century, are also
included in this translation. All of these texts are valuable
documentary witnesses to the type of monasticism
practised in a monastery which would become a major centre for
literary production and provide the Russian church with numerous
higher clergy.