Quiricus (Kirik) of Novgorod

(towards the 900th Anniversary of His Birth)

Abstract

The paper offers an overview of both preserved works by the early Russian thinker Quiricus of Novgorod: "Doctrine of Numbers" and "The Questions of Quiricus". These books give evidence of the enormous range of interests of their author which transcend the genre patterns and dogmatic standards traditional for the Eastern Christianity; they display a striking array of knowledge and an unprecedented level of scholarly and theological learning, almost never attained by contemporary church authorities. Quiricus formulated and summarized the actual rules of conduct in ecclesiastic, social and family life of his age, and extracted the minimal ethical code adapted to the moral requirements of Christanity in the first period of its grounding in Novgorod.