Petrushko L. Emotional world in the Kyivan Cave Patericon: Sadness and tears.

The dissertation analyzes the state of the scientific development of the topic, reviews the most significant works related to the study of the Kyivan Cave Patericon and the tears in the culture of the Middle Ages. The source base of work and its representativeness are outlined and analyzed. The peculiarities of understanding the sorrow and tears in the Eastern Christian tradition presented in the texts of Egyptian and Palestinian monasticism are reviewed and summarized on the basis of modern research methods and multiple written, figurative, and material sources. The circumstances of the unhappy emotions mentioned in the Patericon are established and systematized in comparison with Rus’ translated and original texts including the Cave (Pechersk) tradition. The estimations and other critical aspects of the perception of the unhappy emotions by the Cave community are revealed in the comparative analysis with the Eastern Christian and Old Rus’ (Kyivan Rus’) traditions. It is revealed that the monastic tradition of the Christian East used to discern three sorts of sadness and tears (right, natural, and wrong). They are characterized by relevant assessments, which depends on how those unhappy emotions correlate with the cause of the salvation of the soul.