GARDEN OF EDEN AND HEAVENLY APPLES? THE MONASTERY GARDEN AND ITS PERCEPTION IN EARLY MEDIEVAL RUSSIA
The article is devoted to the peculiarities of perception of the Christian idea of the garden of eden in early Medieval russia and the identification of various plants with the plants of eden. The only one detailed information about the monastery garden is contained in the Kiev Caves Patericon in the part devoted to the monk of the Kiev Caves monastery gregory the Wonderworker, who bred apple trees. The evidences of translated and local texts do not allow us to conclude that in pre-Mongol times, the identification of an apple tree with a tree of the garden of eden, and an apple with a heavenly or forbidden fruit, already established by this time in Byzantium, was fully established. The assimilation of this tradition belongs to a later time. The Patericon's story about the “fruitful trees” by gregory the Wonderworker does not contain direct allusions to the theme of the garden of eden and the history of the Fall. nevertheless, indirect signs suggest that the stories about the apple orchard of the Kiev Caves monk were created under the influence of this tradition.