MYTHOPOETICS OF THE CHRISTIAN NAME

Abstract

The article deals with the mythopoetics of the Christian name, which is associated with the sacred meaning of the name as part of the spiritual essence of a person, his fate and purpose, as well as with the association of the name with a holy patron, who becomes a spiritual protector and amulet. The name received at baptism is considered holy, and its secret must be protected from outsiders in order to avoid «devaluation» and use in bad deeds. The name not only determined the place of a person in the ancient Russian Christian society, but also acted as a symbol and the result of his mastery of the world. Therefore, in the consciousness of a person of early Christian society, the name occupied a central place, since it acted simultaneously as a symbol that personifies the emotional-value and holistic image of the phenomenon, and as a symbol that models the mastered world, ideally identical to it. It is in the name, according to the logic of mythological thinking, that the symbolization of the entire mastered world or a significant part of it is possible. To know a name meant to gain power over one's own, because with the acquisition of a name a person becomes a being that can be named, known, according to P. Florensky, proper names have the greatest magical power. The article also emphasizes that in Ancient Rus, a Christian name symbolized belonging to a Christian denomination and was part of a «mystical» function, determining a person's connection with a heavenly patron. There was a system of double names, when a person had a «direct» (non-public) Christian name, which was given in accordance with the holidays. That is, the name correlated with a saint, whose memory was determined on the day of birth, which endowed a person with heavenly protection and patronage. Another name is a «public» (main) –  traditional or dynastic.