Canonization of St. Seraphim of savor in 1903 and his image through the lens of British newspapers in the first quarter of the 20th c.

Abstract

The article analyzes references to the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov in the British press at the beginning of the 20th c., primarily  inconnection with the events of his canonization in July 1903. Firstly, such an analysis intends to complement the picture of  already
existing studies of this historical event by Russian historians, by describing foreign responses to this event; secondly, it attempts to
study this small fragment of the image of Russia as it is presented in the British press of this period, in order to identify the foci of attention of British journalists and readers, as well as to determine and explain the linguo- cultural perspective of their perception of the Russian Church, socio- political realities and, above all, the concept of holiness. This is the first time that such a study has been undertaken, considering both the novelty of its scope and approach, and the comparative novelty of the modern searchable newspaper databases which have become available to researchers on the Internet.