Russian, bishop, traveller and scholar (1804–1885)
Uspensky, 1880s.
Bishop Porphyrius (Russian : Епи́скоп Порфи́рий ; secular name: Konstantin Aleksandrovich Uspensky ; Russian : Константи́н Алекса́ндрович Успе́нский ; 8 September 1804 – 19 April 1885) was a Russian traveller, theologian, orientalist , archaeologist and byzantinologist , founder of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem , and discoverer of several ancient codices . From 1865 on, he was auxiliary bishop of Chigirin .
Life
Lithograph of Saint Catherine's Monastery , based on sketches made by Uspensky in 1857.
Konstantin Uspensky was born on 8 September 1804 in Kostroma , Russian Empire .[ 1] He finished religious school in 1818 and four years after, he finished his studies at the Theological Seminary in Kostroma.[ 1] In 1829, he finished studies at Saint Petersburg Theological Academy .[ 1] That same year, he became a priest[ 1] and received the name of Porphyrius .
In 1834, he became an archimandrite in Odessa .[ 1] While in Odessa, he became interested in Oriental Orthodoxy , learned Modern Greek and Italian . He travelled to Palestine in 1842 and became head of the newly established Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem in 1847, which he headed until 1854.[ 1] In 1845 and 1846, he travelled to Mount Athos in Greece and Mount Sinai in Egypt . He saw the Codex Sinaiticus in Saint Catherine's Monastery in 1844 (one year after Constantin von Tischendorf 's first visit). After a visit to the monastery of Mar Saba , he took a codex, which was later named after him (the Uspenski Gospels ), and he brought it together with other manuscripts such as the Codex Porphyrianus to Russia .[ 2] Four pre-Iconoclast encaustic icons brought by Uspensky from Sinai are still preserved in Kyiv , Ukraine.
In 1869, he received a doctoral degree in Greek philosophy. Uspensky died on 19 April 1885 and was buried in the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow.[ 1]
Works
Путешествие по Египту и в монастыри Святого Антония Великого и Преподобного Павла Фивейского , в 1850 году. Petersburg, 1856.
Путешествие по Египту и в монастыри Святого Антония Великого и Преподобного Павла Фивейского , в 1850 году. СПб., 1856.
'Christian East: Egypt and Sinai' (Восток христианский: Египет и Синай), Petersburg, 1857.
Мнение о синайской Библии (полемика с Тишендорфом, 1862). (About Codex Sinaiticus, polemic with Tischendorf).
"Восток христианский. Абиссиния", in: "Труды Киевской Академии", 1866.
'History of Athos' (История Афона), Two volumes, 1871.
Второе путешествие в афонские монастыри, (Москва, 1880).
Дионисий Ареопагит и его творения, в: "Чтения Московского Общества Любителей Духовного Просвещения", 1885.
Citations
General bibliography
Порфирий Успенский, Первое путешествие в Синайский монастырь в 1845 году , Petersburg 1856.
А. Дмитриевский, Еп. Порфирий Успенский, как инициатор и организатор первой рус. дух. миссии в Иерусалиме , Petersburg, 1906.
А. Дмитриевский, Порфирий (Успенский) по поводу 100-летия со дня его рождения , Petersburg, 1906.
П. Сырку, Описание бумаг еп. Порфирия (Успенского), пожертвованных имп. акад. наук по завещанию , Petersburg, 1891.
External links
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