The spiritual poems of wandering disabled people in ancient Russia
Article summary proposed by the Contacts review with LLM assistance
This article by Michel Evdokimov is taken from a work devoted to the image of Christ in Russian tradition and literature. It offers a historical and literary study of spiritual poems (*dukhovnyje stikhi*) composed and recited by wandering disabled people (*kaljeki perekhozje*) in ancient Russia. The author shows that these itinerant beggars, blind or crippled, formed a popular poetic brotherhood playing a mediating role between liturgical faith and the piety of the people. Drawing on scriptural, liturgical and apocryphal texts, their compositions bear witness to an elaborate religious culture. The article analyses two translated poems — on the Ascension and the Nativity — situating them within their theological and iconographic context. It highlights the specificity of Eastern Orthodox sensibility in relation to the Western tradition, and underscores the contribution of this popular poetry to an understanding of the Russian religious soul.
This article has not been translated yet — it is available in its French version here.
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