Russian Pilgrims of the 12th–18th Centuries on “The sweet land of Cyprus”

Svetlana V. Bliznyuk

doi:10.35765/pk.2020.3003.06

Svetlana V. Bliznyuk Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8533-0863

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35765/pk.2020.3003.06

Keywords: pilgrimages, crusades, Cyprus, Russia, Jerusalem, Byzantium, Christian relics, Orthodox church, Turks, itinerary, history, literature

Abstract

The era of the Crusades was also the era of pilgrims and pilgrimages to Jerusalem. The Russian Orthodox world did not accept the idea of the Crusades and did not consider the Western European crusaders to be pilgrims. However, Russian people also sought to make pilgrimages, the purpose of which they saw in personal repentance and worship of the Lord. Visiting the Christian relics of Cyprus was desirable for pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. Based on the method of content analysis of a whole complex of the writings of Russian pilgrims, as well as the works of Cypriot, Byzantine, Arab and Russian chroniclers, the author explores the history of travels and pilgrimages of Russian people to Cyprus in the 12th–18th centuries, the origins of the Russian-Cypriot religious, inter-cultural and political relationships, in addition to the dynamics of their development from the first contacts in the Middle Ages to the establishment of permanent diplomatic and political relations between the two countries in the Early Modern Age. Starting with the 17th century, Russian-Cypriot relationships were developing in three fields: 1) Russians in Cyprus; 2) Cypriots in Russia; 3) knowledge of Cyprus and interest in Cyprus in Russia. Cypriots appeared in Russia (at the court of the Russian tsars) at the beginning of the 17th century. We know of constant correspondence and the exchange of embassies between the Russian tsars and the hierarchs of the Cypriot Orthodox Church that took place in the 17th–18th centuries. The presence of Cypriots in Russia, the acquisition of information, the study of Cypriot literature, and translations of some Cypriot writings into Russian all promoted interactions on both political and cultural levels. This article emphasizes the important historical, cultural, diplomatic and political functions of the pilgrimages.

Author Biography

Svetlana V. Bliznyuk, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Dr hab., graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1985. In 1990 she defended her PhD thesis, and in 2016 her habilitation. Now she works as an associate professor of the Faculty of History of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, is an author of six monographies and numerous articles on the history of Cyprus and the Crusader states in Orient in the Late Middle Ages in Russian, Italian, English and German languages. She was a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), a participant in numerous international and Russian scientific projects on the history of international relations and international trade in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Middle Ages.

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