ИЗВЕСТИЯ СОИГСИ

The paper examines the reasons why the month of May (Nikkolæ) in the Alanian church-folk calendar was named in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra. In 1087, the relics of one of the most revered saints of the Orthodox East were transferred to the Italian city of Bari from Myra in Lycia (Asia Minor). Pope Urban II (1088-1099) established a special celebration in memory of this event since 9 May, 1089. It is presumed that the name of this month in the Alanian calendar is not honoring the memory of Patriarch Nikolai Mystic and, thus, is not the result of Alan’s relationship with the Catholic Church. Transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia could have been initiated by the ruler of Alania, in agreement with the metropolit, for the reason of special reverence for the saint among the Alanian warriors. Alans, who visited Byzantium, knew the places of worship of St. Nicholas in Asia Minor and Italy; Alan mercenaries in the Byzantine expeditionary corps fought in 1156/57 in Southern Italy, in the cities of Bari and Brindisi. The convergence in church matters of Byzantium and the West at the end of the eleventh century temporarily promoted the spread of this celebration in the Eastern Christian world, among the Alans as well; the earliest marginal record in the Greek menology of this event, as a holiday, dates back to 1172. Summing up these observations the author considers that the memory of the transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia could be fixed in the Alan church calendar between 1087 and 1172 as a result of direct contacts between the Alans and the Orthodox Greek population of Southern Italy.

Keywords: St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia, church calendar, Alania, transfer of relics, Southern Italy, menology, cult of the saint.

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