PASSION OF SAINT IRENEAUS OF SIRMIUM
This paper represents the ﬁrst translation into Russian of the Passion of St. Irenaeus of Sirmium which is a literary monument of Latin hagiography of Late Antiquity. St. Irenaeus had suﬀered martyrdom in the Roman province of Pannonia Secunda during the Great Persecution. Archaeological ﬁnds as well as many manuscripts containing his Passion and preserved in various parts of the Christian world attest to widespread popularity of St. Irenaeus’ cult. The Passion is preserved in two ancient versions, Greek and Latin. This corresponds with the bilingualism of Pannonia, which was located on the border of the Western and Eastern parts of the Roman Empire. All subsequent translations are made on the basis of these two versions. The question about which version, Latin or Greek, is earlier, has not been solved yet. Neither the opinion about the dependence of the Greek text on the earlier Latin version (it had been dominating for two centuries), nor the opposing opinion developed in the mid20th century by Manlio Simonetti are convincing enough. The present translation has been made from the Latin version used according to Dolbeau’s critical edition. The Passion of St. Irenaeus of Sirmium is a literary and theologically elaborate text that goes back to the court interrogation. However, it does not contain a detailed description of the tortures, nor does it mention the miracles, typical of the later hagiographic tradition. Moreover, this text does not contain such traditional topoi as the support for the martyr by his relatives and the subsequent acquisition of his relics by Christians. This allows us to date the text to the 4th or very early 5th centuries.