A person who is far from the church, in the phrase “Chetia Mineya” does not understand either the first or the second word. Since the noun is “Minea,” the explanation must begin with it. The church-liturgical book, which includes all the services of the annual cycle, is called "Minea." There are 12 months in a year, and it consists of 12 books (full). The name is borrowed from the Greek language, and in translation means "monthly" - mhnaion (mhn - month). Each book contains texts for a month in the order that corresponds to the services of the daily cycle: evening (according to Moses, the day starts from evening) - the ninth hour, Vespers, supper, etc., before the liturgy.
Difference from Minea
The Chetya Mineya, which exists along with the liturgical book mentioned above, refers not to this type of book, but rather to church ones, and contains the lives of the saints, located also by month, and by month by day. These texts are intended for reading outside the service hours. And the name “Chetya Mineya” is translated, consisting of Old Slavonic and Greek words, as “monthly reading”, which contains great information for hagiography - a science that studies the lives of saints. Here is also the church teaching material, which was the main reading in Ancient Russia. The Great Menas of Mineas, Metropolitan Makarios, were a kind of collection of Russian literature, as he himself testifies: "I collected all the books of the Russian land."
They wrote and read in ancient times
The first books in Russia date back to the 10th century. This period is called "pre-Mongol". In the manuscript of the XII century, known as the "Assumption Collection", there is "The Life of Theodosius of the Caves" and "Tales of Boris and Gleb." They are so formed that they could well be perceived as a couple of Maya in May. But these narratives are not included in church collections, which are entirely composed of translated material. Some attempts to process these reading books were made at different times, for example, in the 15th century, but there are few concrete examples.
The literary feat of Macarius
But already in the sixteenth century the aforementioned Great Beings of Minea Macarius appeared. In addition to translated texts, they contain peculiar accompanying materials - patristic teachings and apocrypha, sometimes very voluminous. They, as a rule, were timed to the days of memory of this or that saint. The Fourth Mineya of the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, one of four known today, is the only one that has been fully preserved. It is kept in the synodal library of the cathedral. The remaining three Minei Chetii are incomplete lists. Minea was written for Ivan the Terrible, which lacks March and April. The other two are lists of the
Chudov Monastery and the Sofia Library. These are the only 4 lists representing the Great Details of Mineas of the Archbishop of Novgorod Makarii, later the Metropolitan of Moscow, which have survived to this day.
Other ascetics in this field
Later, in the XVII century, attempts continued to write church books for non-official reading. So, M. Milyutin in the spiritual scientific and literary magazine “Readings in the Society of Lovers of Spiritual Education”, which was published until 1871, meticulously describes the Fourths of Miney, priest of the Church of the Nativity of Christ, John Milyutin, who he wrote with his three sons from 1646 to 1654. They are stored in the Moscow Synodal Library. Examines M. Milyutin and the Fourth Men of Jerome the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the professional scribe and scribe German Tulupov, written by him in 1627-1632 and stored in the library of St. Sergius Lavra.
Famous Spiritual Writer
Particularly noteworthy are the Children of Minea
Dmitry Rostovsky, which are a multi-volume work, The Book of the Life of Saints, which was published in fragments, in quarters from 1689 to 1705. The primary sources for the book of St. Dmitry were, of course, the Chetii Minei Makarii and the “Acts of Saints”, published by the Catholic congregation of the Bollandists, consisting mainly of learned Jesuit monks. The organization received its name by the name of its founder, Jean Bolland. That is, the works that formed the basis of the "Book of the Lives of the Saints" were the most serious, and the Mineas of Metaeo of Metropolitan Dmitry Rostovsky turned out to be remarkable. For this, the spiritual writer and preacher, bishop of the Russian Church in the world Danilo Savvich Tuptalo, in 1757 was glorified in the
face of the saints of the Russian Orthodox Church. And after his death, the main work of the whole life of Saint Dmitry of Rostov was supplemented by a description of his own life. Memorial Day - September 21. The book has been reprinted repeatedly and has always been in great demand among believers. The popularity of the author himself is such that there is a legend: if a believer asks for protection from Dmitry Rostovsky, all the saints, whose biography he gave strength and knowledge to protect, will protect him.