The Relationship of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky with the Latin West through the Eyes of Ancient Russian Hagiographers

Abstract

The Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Yaroslavich is viewed in the historiography of the XX — beginning of the XXI century through the prism of the East — West relationship, and the “West” is understood as the collective Catholic West of the Middle Ages. Did the ancient Russian hagiographers look at the situation this way? The analysis of various editions of the “Tale of the Life of St. Alexander” shows that such a view was unusual for the Old Russian consciousness. In the first edition there is no opposition of the Holy Prince to the West or the East at all. The anti-Latin mood appears gradually through two or three specific plots and reaches its apogee only at the end of the XV — the first half of the XVI century.