Le funzioni delle citazioni bibliche nello Slovo na verbnoe voskresen'e di Kirill Turovskij

The functions of biblical quotations in the Slovo na verbnoe voskresen'e by Kirill Turovskij In this article the author aims at investigating how biblical quotations function within the Slovo na verbnoe voskresen'e (Sermon for Palm Sunday) by Kirill Turovskij (1130-1182). If compared with the sermons of bishop Luka Židjata († 1059), metropolitan Nikifor I († 1121), hegumen Moisej († 1187) and bishop Serapion Vladimirskij († 1275), which she previously analysed, the Slovo looks somewhat different. In particular, it shares with these writings the hermeneutical and pragmatic functions of biblical quotations, but differs from them by reason of the liturgical function the same quotations serve. Biblical quotations in the text not only refer to the liturgical occasion of the sermon’s declamation, but also, and primarily, advance the chiefly exegetical aim pursued by the preacher. This particular aim recalls in turn the Patristic exegetical model, thus defining the specificity of the Slovo against the sermons of the authors mentioned above. In this way the Slovo seemingly offers a clue to the existence within medieval East Slavic preaching of a practical division between exegetical and instructional sermons that recalls both the Byzantine division between exegetical and festal homilies and the Western one between homily and sermon.