The Legends of the Ilyosha Village Chapel in Votian Folk Tradition *

The legend of the Ilyosha (Ilyeshi)1 village chapel is one of the most peculiar folk

narratives in Votian folklore. The legend belongs obviously to the common Christian

tradition shared by Orthodox peoples of the area. On the other hand, several motifs of

the legend, the story pattern in general and contextual information have led to

scholarly interpretations according to which there has been lively pre-Christian cult

connected with the site preceding the construction of the chapel. Both textological and

contextual analysis are combined in the article in order to perceive the meaning and

genesis of the story. The first introductory chapter of the article concentrates on the

ethnic history of the Votians, presents a brief outline of the study of Votian folk belief

as well as the status of the small village chapels in Votian popular religion.

1.

1.1. Remarks on the ethnic history of Votians

Votians are considered to be the oldest indigenous inhabitants of Ingermanland,

now the Leningrad Province of the Russian Federation, a people whose predecessors

likely became distinguished from other Balto-Finnic tribes in the 1st century B.C. In

referring to themselves, the Votians have used the names vad´d´alaizõD, vai rahvaz,

maavätši. Votians have also been identified with the ethnonyms chud´ (ƒ¡ä…) and vod´

(¥îä…) occurring in Old Russian chronicles and documents. The Votian language is

one of the least-spoken of the Balto-Finnic languages. In the summer of 1997, Votian

as a mother tongue was spoken by approximately 30-40 people in three villages at the

mouth of the Lauga (Luga) River: Liivtshülä (Peski), Luuditsa (Luzhitsy) and

Jõgõperä (Krakolye) (see map). The most extensive documented (so-called

* The original title of the article: Ergo-Hart Västrik, The Legends of the Ilyosha Village

Chapel in Votian Folk Tradition. – Studies in Folklore and Popular Religion, Vol. 2. Papers

Delivered at the Symposium Christian Folk Religion. Edited by Ülo Valk. Department of

Estonian and Comparative Folklore, University of Tartu: Tartu 1999, 173–207. ISBN 9985-4-

0080-1; ISSN 1406-1090. 1 The toponyms used in the article follow the Votian or wider Balto-Finnic usage. The Russian

forms of these names, which are usually also fixed on maps, are added in brackets. The apostrophy in

transcriptions designates palatalised pronounciation of the preceding letter.

ethnographic) area to have been inhabited by the Votians comprised, in the second

quarter of the 19th century, 37 settlements inhabited by a total of 5148 Votians in

what was then the Guberniya of St. Petersburg (von Köppen 1867: 20). Based on

historical, linguistic and archaeological sources, it may be confirmed that the area

inhabited by Votians has in earlier periods extended further to the west, east and

south. At the beginning of the 13th century, the area occupied by the Votians likely

extended from East and Northeast Estonia in the west to the Inkere (Izhora) River in

the east and from the Gulf of Finland in the north to the limits of the town of Oudova

(Gdov) in the south (cf. Heinsoo 1998: 16, Viikberg 1993).

From the end of the 1st millennium A.D., Votians have belonged to the

administrative and cultural sphere of influence of the East Slavs, which was

accompanied by the imposition of taxes on the area and the spread of the Greek

Orthodox faith. The Votian population was certainly diminished as early as the 11th

to 13th centuries by the raids and campaigns which devastated the land of the Votians,

and also by the famine of 1215, mentioned in the Russian chronicles (cf. NPL 1950:

54 [81]). The Votian elders initially held a position in the hierarchy of power of the

Novgorod feudal republic and a say in decision-making, but the indigenous social

elite had likely even then adopted Russian as a more prestigious means of

communication (cf. Ligi 1993: 174-175). At the end of the 15th century, the land of

the Votians came under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Moscovy, at which time

particular attention began to be paid to the conversion of the indigenous inhabitants to

Christianity. At the same time, extensive missionary work was taking place in Votian

villages, old Votian names disappeared and were replaced by Russian forenames

(Viikberg 1993). When at the beginning of the 17th century Ingermanland was

incorporated into the Swedish state, a campaign for the Lutheranisation of the Votians

and Izhorians who had by that time accepted the Orthodox faith was begun (cf.

Mikkola 1932). The areas depopulated in the course of war were settled by Lutheran

peasants from Southeast Finland, yet despite the efforts of the authorities, Votians

remained Orthodox Christians and did not extensively mix with Lutheran Finns.

Assimilation with Russians became even more intense after the Great Northern War

(1700-1721), when the region was once again incorporated into the Russian state and

St. Petersburg was founded on territory mainly inhabited by Balto-Finns.

The Votian language and identity endured longer in the above-mentioned

ethnographic territory, since these villages were located at a distance from the large

trade and transport routes and were economically and politically less tightly

connected with the centres of the time. Statistics on the decrease in the Votian

population during the 19th and 20th centuries, however, graphically illustrates the

Russification which took place even in that area (cf. Ernits 1996).

The main issue is the catastrophic decline in the number of Votian-speakers and

those considering themselves to be Votians, since time and conditions have not

encouraged the Votians to define themselves as a separate ethnic group. The Votians

have never had a written language or school instruction in their own language.

Located in a territory of ethnic contact, Votians have not been able to consolidate

themselves into a nation, for which reason it is more correct to speak of the Votian

tribe and Votian dialect (Heinsoo 1998: 23). According to first ethnographic

descriptions, the Votians still possessed a strong ethnic self-consciousness at the end

of the 18th century (cf. Trefurt 1783: 11-12; Öpik 1970: 53-54, 85), which was,

however, almost completely absent by the beginning of the 20th century (Moora &

Moora 1964: 200-201). As Dimitri Tsvetkov, one of the few scholars of Votian

descent, wrote in 1925, it was precisely as a result of fusion with the Greek Orthodox

faith that the Votians had renounced their own language and national consciousness:

Votians began willingly to consider themselves Russians on the basis of their

common religion, and on the other hand began to make a sharp distinction between

themselves and Finns and Estonians, of a different faith (i.e. Lutheran), yet

linguistically closer to the Votians (Tsvetkov 1925: 41-42).

1.2. Brief outline of the studies on the Votian folk belief

One may discover allusions to the religious customs of the Votians in the

archaeological material (cf. Ryabinin 1987, Ligi 1993), and to a lesser extent in

documents connected with the Christianisation of the Balto-Finnic peoples. In the

14th century, Jaama (Jamburg, now Kingissepp) Abbey and Church were founded for

missionary work, although in as late as the 16th century, Archbishops of Novgorod

mentioned that the Votians, Izhorians, Karelians and Russians of the Votian Fifth

(Âîäñªàà øÿèæà) “hold forests, stones, rivers, bogs, springs, mountains and hills, as

well as the sun, moon, stars and sea, to be sacred, and all of them worship creation as

the Creator and make sacrifices of bulls, sheep, other livestock and birds to impure

spirits”, and dispatched the monk Ilya on missionary work (von Köppen 1867: 10,

Honko 1991: 29). Whereas this may be considered to be a typical description of not

entirely Christianised peoples, more specific information is contained in a 1534 letter

of Archbishop Makarius, in which the condemnable habit of burying their dead in

graves in the forest (øî ª¡ðµàæàì« è ªîºîìèùàì«), sending new-born children to a

soothsayer (Àð¥¡è) to be named, as well as women’s habit of not cutting their hair,

wearing distinctive shroud-like clothing and saying spells are mentioned (Mansikka

1922: 226-228).

Manifestations of syncretism may be found in the first recordings of Votian

folklore in the 18th century, when Friedrich Ludolph Trefurt, Baltic-German pastor

from Narva, described the Votians’ water-mother (Seemutter) cult, their celebration of

St. Florus’ and St. Elijah’s Days, marriage customs, witchcraft, etc. Trefurt’s articles

(1783, 1785) on the Chudes encouraged other “antiquities enthusiasts” to collect

similar material. At the end of the same decade, Russian historian Feodor Tumanski

outlined the religious customs of the Votians in his manuscript describing the

Province of St. Petersburg, and the observations of Ludolph And. Zeträus, a student of

professor Heinrich Gabriel Porthan, regarding the Votians’ sacred tree and spring

cults, burial practices and marriage customs were published at the beginning of the

19th century (cf. Öpik 1970, Ojansuu 1906). These, however, are exceptions, since in

the 19th century, the interest of linguists and collectors of folklore was concentrated

largely on the poetic genres of folklore (folk songs, fairy tales, proverbs), which is the

reason for the the lack of material on popular religion recorded in that period.

The Votians’ religious traditions have been better recorded in the turn of the 20th

century, when the systematic collection of Votian linguistic material and folklore was

begun. In 1890s-1910s, collaborators of Finnish Literary Society Vihtori Alava and

J. Lukkarinen collected folkloristic material in Ingermanland, including Votian

villages (cf. Alava 1901, Lukkarinen 1912). Linguist Lauri Kettunen made four

research expeditions concerning the Votian language between the years 1911 and

1915 (cf. Kettunen 1945: 203-263), the Northwest Expeditions of the Academy of

Sciences of the Soviet Union were working in the area in the years 1927-28 (cf. Lensu

1930) and in the 1930s extensive material on folk traditions was gathered from

Votians living in Estonian Ingermanland (cf. Kettunen, Posti 1932, Ariste 1935,

1941). The texts recorded in 1942-43, during the Second World War, when the

Estonian National Museum organised two comprehensive expeditions to

Ingermanland, are very important from the point of view of popular religion (cf. Ränk

1942, Mägiste 1959). These research trips to the area inhabited by the Votians truly

took place at the last moment, since in 1943 the majority of that part of the population

which was of Balto-Finnic descent was deported to Finland, and in the next year back

to the Soviet Union, although then no longer to their home villages, but to the open

expanses of the “great homeland”. Approximately 10 percent of Votians returned to

their birthplace in the post-war years, although a functioning Votian village society

was never restored.

A significant amount of the folklore of this dwindling “fragment of a people” was

nevertheless collected even in the post-war years, among which is a considerable

amount of material on popular religion. The initiator of this collection work was the

Estonian linguist and folklorist Paul Ariste (1905-1990), whose collection of

manuscripts permit folklorists to enter the yet-unknown world of Votian traditions.2

The further folkloristic investigation of the collected material is both justified and

promising, especially the treatment of those facets concerning folk beliefs and

Orthodox traditions, which for ideological reasons was not possible during Ariste’s

lifetime.

1.3. Churches and village chapels in Votian folk tradition

The first churches and chapels in the territory inhabited by the Votians were most

likely constructed in larger inhabited centres (towns, strongholds, abbeys, manorial

estates), which in time became the most important religious centres of the region. The

precise date of the construction of small wooden village chapels is unknown, although

it probably took place in the 15th-16th centuries at the latest, during the expansion of

the influence of the Grand Duchy of Moscovy in the Land of Novgorod (cf.

Pantshenko 1998: 169-171). Written confirmation of the existence of village chapels

in Votian and Izhorian villages may be found in documents concerning the forced

Lutheranisation of Ingermanland in the 17th century (cf. e.g. Mikkola 1932: 3). Some

sacred buildings were abandoned and destroyed in the Great Northern War, which is

illustrated by F. Tumanski at the end of the 18th century, when he wrote of the ruins

of churches and many deserted places in the Province of St. Petersburg (Öpik 1970:

61). In the period following the Great Northern War, chapels were restored or built in

2 A large part of the folkloristic material collected by P.Ariste has been published in Votian

with Estonian translation (cf. below).

almost all of the larger Votian villages, and churches in administrative and religious

centres.3

Churches/chapels and their near surroundings form an area on which several of the

village community’s ceremonies of a religious or social nature have been

concentrated in Votian tradition – the celebration of holidays and saint’s days of the

church calendar, processions from church to chapels, village holidays, as well as fairs

and village meetings. Thus, for instance, communities’ common eating and drinking

on St. Elijah’s Day took place in the direct proximity of sacred buildings. This is

already described as a Votian custom by Fr. L. Trefurt (1785: 105-106) at the end of

the 18th century: according to a detailed description the Votians honoured the prophet

Elijah as defender of flocks, and especially of sheep, killed on that day a white,

unblemished ram and ate it together in a chapel or building specially prepared for the

occasion. Similar St. Elijah’s Day celebrations (brattšinaD or vakkovõ, Russian

áðàƒèæ») are also well known in folk traditions of the 19th century. The celebration

of the day traditionally lasted for three days, and on the first day a priest also

participated. By that day money or malt was collected from the village people, beer

was collectively brewed and an animal killed (cf. Ariste 1969: 105-109, also Haavio

1963: 127-133).4

After the enforcement of Soviet rule, many of the sacred buildings of the land of the

Votians, still in active use at the beginning of the 20th century, have in many places either

decayed or been destroyed. Churches began to be used mostly for other purposes, at best

as museums, clubs or libraries, at worst as warehouses or industrial buildings, which were

abandoned when they had become amortised (cf. Voronina 1994: 72-73). Wooden

chapels were made into residential buildings, allowed to fall into disrepair or demolished.

In villages where sacred buildings no longer exist, elder original inhabitants today still

3 Data on village chapels originate from Pummala (Pumalitsa), Lempola (Ranolovo), Pihlaala

(Pillovo), Mati (Mattia), Velikkä (Velikino), Jarvigoistshülä (Babino), Ildovõõ (Undovo), Kattila

(Kotly), Jõgõperä (Krakolje), Liivtshülä (Peski) and Luuditsa (Luzhitsy) villages. Pärnäspää (Lipovo)

and Ilyosha (Ilyeshi) chapels, and churches in Jõgõperä, Kattila, Jaama (Kingissepp), Ilyosha and

Kabrio (Koporye) have also been well known among the Votians (cf. Lensu 1930: 252-253, Ariste

1969: 50, 127-134, 1977: 28, Talve 1981: illustrations 2, 4, 6, 10, 11, 14, 16; also see map). 4 One must, however, mention that the celebration of St. Elijah’s Day is not unique to the

Votians but is one of the most important celebrations of the year in the whole of Northwest Russia (cf.

Oinas 1969).

know the locations of the former chapels and churches. The holiness of these places has

endured in the memory of tradition-bearers, through the village holidays and saint’s days

celebrated there, the commands and prohibitions connected with the site, and stories

explaining the reasons for the founding of the chapel. Thus sanctity may survive even

when the objects of worship no longer exist.5

In observing the locations of sacred buildings in Votian villages, one may in

general differentiate chapels and churches which were located (1) in the centre of the

village, often beside a road leading through the settlement (the church could thus

divide the village into two separate parts or ends); (2) on the edge of the village,

bordered thus by field, forest and often cemetery. A separate group was formed by (3)

chapels located far from inhabited areas – in a forest, bordered by forest and field or

in dips and hollows, in the vicinity of wet places (cf. Pantshenko 1998: 70). At this

point one may indicate a more general tendency, which applies specifically to the

latter-mentioned category. In many cases these latter are more extensive sacred

complexes, in which trees, stones (erratic boulders) and bodies of water (springs,

streams, ponds) located nearby have, in addition to churches and chapels, been

included in the cultic worship. These domains have become closely connected in

Orthodox village Christianity, and for tradition-bearers, there is no opposition, based

on the recordings of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century,

between the two bases – the “cultural” versus the “wild”.

The oral tradition connected with these places often speaks of the miracles or

revelations of the saints, the results of which are visible in the landscape of the area

even today. Holy places are distinguished from the rest of the landscape precisely

because the sacred has made itself visible near those natural objects. Confirmation

and expression of this is provided by icons and sacred figures “discovered” in the

vicinity, for the service and preservation of which chapels and churches were built on

holy sites. These sites were later named after the corresponding saint and his icon, and

activites connected with the worship (prayer, processions, healing, sacrifice, etc.) take

place mainly on the saint’s day, when people from that and surrounding villages

gather at the holy site and in the church.

5 Even on the 1998 field work trip we saw an elderly woman of Votian descent make the sign

of the cross and a low bow as we passed the site of the former chapel which was destroyed before the

Second World War in Lempola (Ranolovo) village (cf. Västrik 1997-1998).

It is clear that, characteristic to village Orthodoxy, such traditions connected with

churches/chapels and incorporated into church practice are presented from a Christian

perspective. The same applies to the interpretations given to the cultic acts performed

there, although sacrifices to stones, trees and bodies of water must evidently be

considered to belong to the stratum of pre-Christian traditions.

2.

In the following the traditions and lore connected with one particular village

chapel in Votian popular religion are observed in detail. Both ethnographic

peculiarities as well as the structure and figures of the folk narratives are analysed.

The aim of the study is to understand the essence and genesis of the legend

concerning the founding of the chapel, to recognise the connections between the

different layers of tradition and consider the probabilities of scholarly interpretations.

2.1. Textological and historical background

It is paradoxical that the most widely-known religious legends of the Votians,

according to folkloristic recordings, concern the chapel and holy site of St. Paraskeva

Pyatnitsa, located near Ilyosha village (Votian Il´l´oša, Russian £º…åøè, Finnish

Iljussa, cf. map) in Moloskovitsa parish, 20-30 kilometres from the ethnographic

territory of the Votians. Traditions regarding the Ilyosha holy site are very well

represented, considering the collections of Votian folklore. The legend of the

founding of the chapel is well known in all Votian village groups in which linguistic

material and folklore have been recorded in the 20th century. Thirteen variants of the

legend from different narrators have been entered in the collections of P. Ariste (most

of which are published in Ariste 1935: 22-24, 1941: 22-23, 60-61, 1969: 100-104,

1977: 11-14). The first recordings date from the 1930s and come from Votians

inhabiting Estonian Ingermanland; the majority of texts have been transcribed in the

course of the Votian expeditions that took place during and after the Second World

War. Even today, the legend is known in both the present and former Votian villages,

where it may be heard from indigenous inhabitants in both the Votian and Russian

languages (Västrik 1997-1998). This tradition does not, however, only belong to the

narrative tradition of the Votians but has also been known to the Izhorians of the

Soikkola Peninsula (cf. Haavio 1963: 133-136) and to the Russians inhabiting the

surrounding area (for variants cf. Pantshenko 1998: 153-156). The reason for the great

popularity of the legend of the origin of the Ilyosha chapel is clearly the fame of the

holy site itself, which according to reports still drew pilgrims at the end of the 19th

century and the beginning of the 20th century from the whole of St. Petersburg

Guberniya (Maksimov XVIII: 282-283).

Ilyosha village, which in documents from the Swedish period is known by the

name of Iliesby, fell, according to the 16th century cadaster, within the parish (pogost)

of Grigorjewskoj Leshskoj (üðèµîðî¥ñªîé •…«øñªîé) of the Votian Fifth. In the mid-

19th century, the village was located in territory inhabited by both Ingrian Finns and

Russians, although the inhabitants of Ilyosha village were predominantly Russians, as

an Orthodox church was located there (von Köppen 1867: 26-27, 82). Russian

scholars identify the village and church with Old Russian settlement (Pantshenko

1998: 59, 157), whereas Estonian researchers are of the opinion that this area may as

late as the Middle Ages have been inhabited by Votians who later became assimilated

with the Russians (cf. Ligi 1989, Viikberg 1993). It is supposed that this may have

been territory deserted by indigenous (Orthodox) inhabitants as a result of the wars

and Lutheranisation policy of the 16th and 17th centuries and settled by Finns by

command of the Swedish authorities, but in which Orthodox believers later gathered,

especially in the church-villages.

The present author lacks information on the exact date of the founding of Ilyosha

Church. The present Classical appearance of the building dates from the end of the

18th century or early 19th century (see Photo1). Accounts of the church’s patron-saint

are contradictory – it was either St. Nicolas (Âåºèªèé Íèªîºà, Maksimov XV: 92) or

the great martyr St. Paraskeva (Köppen 1867: 26). By the end of the 19th century, the

main altar of the church was dedicated to St. Nicolas, whereas the side altar was

dedicated to the Prophet Elijah and the great martyr St. Paraskeva. It is precisely with

the latter saint and her icon, kept in the church, that the cult and folk traditions

concerning the chapel site of Ilyosha are connected.

2.2. Religious practices at the Ilyosha chapel

Until the anti-church repressions of the Soviet period St. Elijah’s Friday (the so-

called Iiliä päätnitsä, the Friday preceding St. Elijah’s Day)6 was celebrated in

6 This particular festival is in Russian Orthodox tradition dedicated to great martyr St.

Paraskeva.

Ilyosha Church with a service, after which a procession took place to a small wooden

chapel away from the village and located on the boundary of field and forest. During

the procession the icon of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa was carried from church to chapel

on a litter and held above the heads of processionaries. Walking under the

processional has been of particular significance, and it was hoped that this would

assist against diverse illnesses and afflictions.

“Behold, on St. Elijah’s Friday a procession took place there. Such a

crowd went there from St. Petersburg. A large icon of St. Elijah’s Friday was

made. It was carried on a litter from the church to the chapel. A service was

held there and then it was carried back to the church. People walked under the

icon again and again. People were queued up. They had queued up for a

distance of a verst. There was a madwoman and six men were not able to hold

her in order to push her under the icon. She raved and raged when the brawny

men pushed her. She cried and swore at the icon, but she recovered. [---]”

(Told by Alexander Andrejev from Itshäpäivä (Itsepino) village in 1942.

Votian text and Estonian translation published in Ariste 1969: 103-104.)

In the second part of the 19th century, a local priest described the icon as follows:

“The icon is made of wood and is 0.7 m in height. There was formerly a manuscript-

like figure in the saint’s right hand, and in the left a cross; now in place of the cross

there is a small depression. The carvings of the icon are old and not particularly

artistic. [---] Before the preparation of the icon’s veil, it was covered with a saffron-

like garb made from different pieces of cloth offered up by pilgrims. The icon is

considered to work miracles and be a divine manifestation; it is said that it appeared

in the field, 1.5 versts from the church, at the place where the age-old wooden chapel

now stands, and which is also traditionally the end of the procession. Diligent

offerings to the icon have mainly been made by ordinary people and consist of sashes,

ribbons, handkerchiefs, pieces of cloth, etc. Sometimes silver representations of the

hand, foot, heart, etc. are hung from the icon in gratitude for miraculous healing.”

(Pantshenko 1998: 155).

After the Second World War, processions to the holy site of Ilyosha were

forbidden, the chapel was demolished, the icon transferred to a Leningrad museum as

a valuable work of art and extensive atheist propaganda carried out among the local

population (cf. Judin 1966: 146-148). Nevertheless, even after the war large numbers

of people gathered at the church and holy site every year on St. Elijah’s Friday. In

Soviet anti-religious literature it is mentioned that in the first post-war years several

thousand people still gathered in Ilyosha on St. Elijah’s Friday and in the 1960s even

a few hundred (Ibid.). The cult of the Iiliä päätnitsa was not interrupted by the

destruction of the chapel or due to extensive propaganda efforts, and the church in

Ilyosha “functions” to the present day (see Photo 2).

The celebration of the St. Elijah’s Friday in Ilyosha was restricted neither in this

century nor in the 19th century to the elements of the “cultural” as described above. In

addition to the miracle-working icon and the chapel, procession and service, a birch

deemed holy, a stone with grooves (imprints) in it and a spring, all located at the

destination of the procession, also held important places in the cult. Thus Ilyosha

constituted (as has been mentioned above) a much broader holy complex, in which

attention, according to recordings, was focused above all on the stone, which was a

flat oval erratic boulder of a diameter of 1-1.5-metres possessing a small yet relatively

deep depression in the shape of a human foot. Rainwater collected in the depression

or water poured into it from the nearby spring was used for healing purposes. The

water was used to cleanse diseased parts of the body, and at the same time prayers

were said to St. Paraskeva.

“Now more and more people who have some disease go to the chapel

to be healed -– all God’s cripples who had lost a hand or leg, or whose arms

and limbs were paralyzed. All these God’s cripples washed the diseased parts

of their bodies there on the stone. It was considered to be a great help by those

who went to the chapel. Many people healed their eyes and recovered from all

kinds of diseases. This place was 25 versts from us. People made vows to go

to the celebration of St. Elijah’s Friday. Many people regained their health

there.” (Told by Grigori Kuzmin from Pummala (Pumalitsa) village in 1932.

Votian text with German and Estonian translation published in Ariste 1935:

23-24; 1969: 100-102.)

Water from the spring located at the holy site, small pebbles and sand were also

taken home for the purpose of healing. After healing on the stone, offerings (võra) were

left – money, food, kerchiefs and pieces of clothing. The author, visiting the holy site

in the summer of 1998, observed ribbons tied to trees near the stone. The holy stone

was covered with a handkerchief and scarf, upon which a clay crucifix had in turn been

placed (see photographs).7 The holy site was also marked by crosses carved in trees

near the stone and a small icon attached to a dried birch.

As mentioned above, the cult has remained alive in Ilyosha until the present day,

as have the legends which explain the holiness of the place and the necessity of the

construction of the chapel. In peculiar fashion, all of the elements of the St. Elijah’s

Friday cult – the procession, the chapel, St. Paraskeva and her icon, the holy tree, the

stone with the print and the spring – are connected with each other in the set of

legends about that particular place.

2.3. Votian variants and normal form of the legend

Despite the fact that the Votian variants of the legend are quite homogeneous, five

examples of the story are given below in order to illustrate the “natural” variation

typical of folk tradition.

Example 1. “There was a large stone near the chapel. There was a

man’s footprint on the stone. It was said that God had stepped on that stone

when walking on earth. Then water was poured into the footstep. Those who

had sore eyes washed their eyes with that water. There was also a towering

birch tree. And hanging in the birch tree there was an icon. In olden times a

shepherd had walked to the spot and realized that the icon was in the tree. He

took a long whip and whipped the birch tree. And the whip bent around the

tree. The shepherd was unable to remove the whip. Now the whip has grown

into the tree. In olden times there was a large forest there. The shepherd came

home without the whip and told people in the village that he had seen such a

miracle. The priest went there and read a prayer but he was unable to remove

the whip. After that the chapel was built and now those who have diseases go

to the chapel to be healed. [---]” (Told by Grigori Kuzmin from Pummala

(Pumalitsa) village in 1932. Votian text with German and Estonian translation

published in Ariste 1935: 22-23; 1969: 100-102.)

7 On the site where the chapel used to stand, a figure in the shape of an Orthodox cross, made

of bricks, has been laid out. It is also significant that the Ilyosha holy site is a field of boulders – an

area of 50 metres by 70 metres once surrounded by a strong stone fence. The spring mentioned in

descriptions has apparently either dried up or collapsed.

Example 2. “It was three versts from Ilyosha village. There was a

large rock. There was a big birch. A woman was in the birch tree. A woman

called Paro. A pretty person in the tree. A shepherd saw her and started to

throw stones. All the stones he threw became attached to the tree. Then he saw

that the stones were again and again becoming attached to the tree. Then he

took a whip. He fastened a stone to the end of the whip. Then he slung towards

the tree. Again and again he aimed at that woman. The whip remained there, it

was impossible to detach it. The whip remained there and in the evening he

went home and said to his grandmother that there was a miracle there. “I

threw, threw a stone. The stones remained stuck in the tree over and over

again. Then I took, fastened the stone on the top of the whip and then slung

with the whip in order to hit her. The whip stayed there with her, it was

impossible to remove it.” – The grandmother says: “We must go and tell the

priest. He is learned, clever. Let's go and see what is there.” – So (she) spoke

to the priest. The priest said: “It is a kind of miracle.” Then the priest went and

looked. The priest ordered a small chapel to be built on that rock. Then there

were such erratic boulders there. Where she/he put her/his foot, there were

imprints on the stone. Then the priest ordered to do as needed. There is a well

there. On St. Elijah’s Friday a lot of people go to look.” (Told by Darja Lehti

from Jõgõperä (Krakolye) village in 1938. Votian text and Estonian translation

published in Ariste 1941: 22-23.)

Example 3. “St. Elijah’s Friday. The speaker’s mother had said: The

shepherd went with his cattle to pasture and saw a girl in a tree. Her hand was

around the trunk and her leg on the tree, the branches of the tree even higher.

The shepherd called to her to come down but she didn’t answer. The shepherd

tried to strike [the tree] with the whip, to frighten her to come down. But the

whip remained lodged in the tree. – The shepherd came to the village to talk

about the event. Some men tried to take the girl down from the tree and into

their arms, but she jumped onto a stone and her footprints remained there. She

started to flee down the field; water flowed at the spot where she jumped. A

stream of water that started near the stone followed as far as she fled. It was

said that she was an angel. – A chapel where prayers were held was later built

there. The chapel was about two kilometers from the village church. –

Gatherings were held on St. Elijah’s Fridays and then people came and came.”

(Told by Maria Saharova from Liivtshülä (Peski) village in 1944. German

translation published in Haavio 1963: 134-136.)

Example 4. “In our home it was told like this. There is a village called

Ilyosha. That once God was walking on earth. Then a shepherd came to meet

God. The shepherd wanted to hit God with a whip. But God went to the top of

the birch tree. And the whip remained hanging in the tree. God walked on

stones, and left footprints. There were footprints resembling those of a three-

year-old child on that stone.” (Told by Olga Ivanova from Mati (Mattiya)

village in 1965. Votian text and Estonian translation published in Ariste 1977:

12).

Example 5. “So, in Ilyosha there is that great celebration. People go

there. It has been told that Pyatnitsa Paraskeva had wandered around there in

days of yore. And behold, she had gone up to the top of that tree, for some

reason to the top of that birch tree. And the shepherd struck her with a whip

where she was high up in the tree and the shepherd’s whip stayed up there in

the tree. And the shepherd was unable to remove the whip. She, Pyatnitsa

Paraskeva, came down from the top of the tree. There was a stone. She

stepped on the stone and a footprint remained in the stone. Behold, now and

sometimes in olden times, if water had collected in that imprint, or if there

hadn’t the priests poured some water there, then all the diseased moistened

their eyes or whatever there. If it rains then there is water in the imprint. It is

very, very good water. Behold, that was the story I have heard. In times past

this story was told.” (Told by Kostja Leontyev from Liivtshülä village in 1976.

Votian text and Estonian translation published in Ariste 1977: 13.)

The examples above are texts in which the events that took place near these

natural objects have been connected with the building of the chapel. Supernatural

events were therefore the stimuli for the construction of the chapel as well as for its

developing to the important religious centre. As we can see, in folk tradition the story

has been directly connected with the “ethnographic reality”, religious practices and

peculiarities of the landscape.

Taking into account all Votian variants, one may compile a normal form of the

story following the operational logic of the Ilyosha legend:

H = holy / supernatural being (also object)

S = shepherd (witness of miraculous / supernatural event)

P = priest (religious expert)

(a) H is walking overland

(b) H climbs a tree / is in a tree

(c) S sees H in the tree

(d) S strikes / whips / throws a stone at the tree in which H is perched

(e) the whip / stone gets stuck in the tree

(f) S realises the peculiarity of this event and informs the villagers / P

(g) H leaves / disappears / flees:

(g1) steps from the tree to a nearby stone, on which the print of his foot remains

(g2) climbs down from the tree, at which spot a spring appears

(h) S / those who have come to the spot / P receive confirmation of the miraculous

event:

(h1) cannot remove the whip from the tree

(h2) find an icon attached to the tree

(h3) find J’s footprint on a stone near the scene of the events

(i) P acknowledges the events to be a miracle and commands that a chapel be built

(j) the site becomes a well-known destination of pilgrims

Below I shall examine the structural elements of the narrative – characters and

activity – as well as the general story pattern of the Ilyosha legend.

2.4. Relations between the basic motifs

The invariant character in the Votian variants of the legend is the shepherd (S)

who notices something unusual (Motif c) – specifically a female being of holy /

supernatural origin (H) – in a tree at a certain place, while with his herd in the forest.

As one may expect, most frequently mentioned is St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, on whose

commemoration day the procession to the Iljesh holy site takes place, although the

nature of the holy person has not always been singularly clear to narrators: in different

variants have been mentioned unspecified female characters, saints, angels, the Virgin

Mary, God or an icon.8 The figure of the shepherd as the witness of the holy or

supernatural is not accidental from the point of view of the logic of the story. A male

character, alone and away from home – a child, or adult of somewhat marginal social

status - seems to be stressed. Another element common to all variants is the fact that

the shepherd at first does not understand whom or what he has encountered, and for

some reason behaves aggressively towards the holy being (d) – this represents the

intrigue or distinctive motif, which has at the same time been the thematic minimum

for many narrators.

The supernatural nature of the figure in the tree becomes clearly and finally

evident following the aggression – the shepherd’s whip remains stuck to the tree and

the same happens with stones thrown by the shepherd (e). The “prints” on the tree and

whip which grew into the tree, which the narrators of the legend have been able to see

with their own eyes, are also confirmation of the miraculous event (h1) for the village

people and priest (P) called to the site. At times a similar connection between the truth

of a legend and ethnographic reality also characterises motifs of the holy being

coming down from the tree and stepping on the stone (g1) – as a result the print of its

foot, feet or hand are left in the stone (h3), which once again provide evidence of the

truthfulness and tangibility of the events which have taken place.

It must, however, be mentioned that the motifs of stepping on the stone and

leaving a print are in many variants somewhat less closely and somehow more

accidentally connected with the conflict between the shepherd and the figure in the

tree. The episode is often mentioned as if in passing, either before or after the

characteristic conflictive situation, which keeping in mind the logic of the story,

indicates the independence of these motifs. The distinctiveness of the two “miracles”

– the whip getting stuck in the tree and the prints left in the stone – appears also in the

variant which diverges from the general story model (Example 1), in which the

shepherd sees and strikes an icon in the tree. In this case the confirmation of the

miraculous nature of the event is a holy image later found in the tree (h2), whereas

8 Here one may point out the anonymity of holy figures in Orthodox village Christianity (cf.

Stark 1996: 152-153) – to the tendency, according to which holy entities may replace each other on the

basis of certain common features. Different holy figures would form a continuum in the consciousness

of bearers of tradition, in which the boundary between God, the Virgin Mary, a saint and a holy image

may not be uniquely defined.

God walking on earth and stepping on the stone is presented in the introductory

episode. Also in those elaborated variants (Examples 3, 4, 5) in which the

supernatural events mentioned are smoothly connected with each other, such

“repetition” of the miraculous seems excessive from the point of view of the logic of

the story. Duplication appears most graphically in the variant (Example 3) in which

the shepherd’s whip getting stuck in the tree (e), the making of the print in the stone

(g1) and the emergence of the spring (h2) are all combined.

It is significant that in many variants mention is made of the assessment of events

made by the priest as a religious expert, which becomes decisive for the construction

of the chapel at the scene of the miraculous events (i). This element seems to reflect

historical truth – apparently the initiative to build the chapel in that place came indeed

from the priest and certainly the village clergymen have in turn amplified the fame of

the story. At the same time, the motif of the priest’s confirmation demonstrates the

connection between the legend and the cult of the Ilyosha holy site with official

church practice – after all, the priest plays an important role in the St. Elijah’s Day

procession and the consecration of the site.

2.5. Ilyosha legend as a saint apparition story

Keeping in mind the functional and ideological tendency of the traditions

regarding the Ilyosha holy site, one may see the legend as a stereotypical saint

apparition story, which is common in both Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic

folk traditions.9 In such stories the holy being generally appears in a certain place to a

person of low social standing;10 contact with the divine is brief, during which the saint

is simply seen or relays a specific message to the witness and/or leaves a certain sign

(crucifix, holy image, icon, “print”, etc.) at the place of the apparition as confirmation

of the event. In the traditions of both the Eastern and Western Christian churches,

apparitions of saints have been the reason for the construction of a Christian temple at

the site of the apparition and for the place becoming a destination for pilgrimages.

9 Concerning corresponding stories in Northwest Russia, cf. Pantshenko 1998: 118-119. On

apparitions of saints in 16th century Spain, cf. i.e. Christian 1989: 77-91. Saint apparition stories from

the Middle Ages were the material from which visions of prophets, characteristic of Protestant folk

traditions, developed in the post-Reformation centuries (cf. Beyer 1996: 2). 10 The marginals of society, shepherds and children have also been the media of apparitions in

the Europe of the late Middle Ages (Christian 1989: 81).

The legends of the Ilyosha chapel are in this form nevertheless distinctive in

comparison with both analogous apparition stories from Northwest Russia and also

corresponding themes in the traditions of the Votians and other Balto-Finnic peoples

of the Greek Orthodox faith. All thematic elements characteristic to apparition stories

are present in the Votian variants of the Ilyosha legend, although a more detailed

analysis reveals several other features which diverge from stereotypical revelation.

One gets the impression that the legend concerning the Ilyosha chapel is many-faceted

and “combined” in a special way. That is the hypothesis the validity of which I shall

discuss below. Attention was above directed to the loose connection between the

motifs of striking with the whip (d, e, h1) and stepping on the stone (g1, h3), their

redundancy and duplication. Below I shall present some other “illogical” issues.

The shepherd’s aggressive behaviour towards the apparition (motif d), being also

the most important component of Votian variants of the legend recorded in the 20th

century, is distinguishable from the typical story scheme of apparition legends and

somewhat imperfectly connected with its overall logic. Thus the shepherd is not only

the person who experiences the supernatural/holy, but is in a paradoxical manner also

its opponent. The reason the shepherd begins to assail the unusual being he noticed in

the tree is in most variants unmentioned. It seems that the shepherd is malevolent and

aggressive for no particular reason. In variants in which the worldly nature of the one

in the tree is stressed (i.e. Example 3), the motivating force seems to be the sexual

tension between the male and female figures, which, keeping in mind the overall

corpus of Votian texts, appears to be a relatively incidental interpretation.

From the Christian point of view, the shepherd’s aggression may be interpreted as

sacrilege. Indeed, Aleksandr Pantshenko, a researcher of Russian village Christianity,

interprets the Ilyosha story as the actualisation of the following story model, which is

widespread in Orthodox tradition: A. The appearance of a person or object

considered to be holy – B. Sacrilege – C. The warning or punishment of the

desecrator – D. The implementation of equilibrium (Pantshenko 1998: 250-251). On

the basis of Votian variants, however, we may be certain that no sanctions directly

aimed at the shepherd will result from the conflict. One may interpret the whip’s (the

shepherd’s attribute) supernaturally becoming lodged in the tree as a warning,

although we do not encounter the didactics characteristic of cautionary religious

legends (cf. Järvinen 1981; 1993) in the Ilyosha story. On the contrary, the story’s

thematic emphasis seems to be elsewhere, and the question of the shepherd’s

subsequent fate has not been treated by the narrators.

Nor can one find an all-encompassing explanation in Votian variants of why the

holy being is in the tree and why she goes up there (Motif b). In most variants she just

is there, perched in precisely that birch tree. Thus it appears that the singularity of the

specific tree is emphasised in the legend. Therefore the motif of ascending the tree

neither characterises the specific behaviour of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa herself, nor the

peculiarity of the birch as a species of tree and its connection with a specific saint (cf.

SM 1995: 145). The exceptional Votian variant (example 4) according to which the

holy being ascended the tree only after the conflict with the shepherd is also

noteworthy from the point of view of the logic of the story.

2.6. Saint apparition story vs. aetiological legend?

Clarification concerning the disagreements mentioned above is offered by the

Russian variants of the legend of the Ilyosha chapel, which were recorded in a

somewhat earlier period. At the end of the 19th century, the apparition of the icon of

St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa at the Ilyosha holy site was treated by the researcher of

Russian folk culture S. V. Maksimov. He described the procession to the chapel, the

holy complex itself and paraphrased the traditions surrounding it:

“Right here, beside the chapel, there stands an old forked birch which is

worshipped as a hallowed object of reverent respect. Nearby there lies a large granite

stone which extends only a little out of the ground, so that now it is only barely

visible. According to the legend, this is the stone thrown at St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa,

who had fled into the tree, by the evil and malevolent devil, for tempting the latter.

Yet beside the tree, right near the roots is another stone which catches the attention of

all pilgrims. This is the stone upon which Pyatnitsa placed her foot so as to quickly

bound up the tree, and left a deep footprint. The people consider the water which

gathers there to be the tears of believers, shed for human transgressions.” (Maksimov

XVIII: 282-283).

Here one may notice several differences in comparison to Votian variants.

According to Maksimov, the tempter of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa and the initiator of the

conflict was a malevolent demon/devil, from whom the saint fled into the tree. The

same conflict is also associated with the leaving of the prints on the stone, which in

contrast to the so-called shepherd’s version (i.e. Votian variants) is connected not with

descending from the tree, but rather with ascending it. The motif of the devil throwing

the stone may be equated with the motif of the shepherd throwing the stone at the one

in the tree in Votian variants, although once again the order of motifs has been

reversed – in the devil’s version, aggression is clearly the inducement for ascending

the tree. The motifs of the apparition and discovery of the icon (as well as the

founding of the chapel) are indeed known to Maksimov, although he has kept them

clearly separate from the theme of the saint-devil conflict.

Whereas the shepherd’s version is characterised by a certain memoratic quality,

and the legend speaks of a person and his supernatural experience (i.e. someone from

amongst us, with whom the narrators/listeners can identify; in Izhorian variants, even

the man’s place of residence is mentioned), in the devil’s version the “human”

dimension characteristic of the memorate is lacking. An entirely different topic is

stressed – the dualistic conflict between the holy being (saint) and the devil, which

represents a completely different story pattern. Whereas in the shepherd’s version, we

were able to expect that the events described took place in the recent past, the events

characteristic of the devil’s version take place as though in a mythical past. Thus the

latter is not an apparition story, but more of a dualistic aetiological legend, whose

antagonistic characters form the natural objects of the scene.

Indeed we do not know exactly how the so-called shepherd’s and the devil’s

versions of the Ilyosha legend are related to each other, but upon closer inspection

several of the discordances in the Votian variants described above disappear when it

is taken into account that the shepherd’s version is based on a dualistic story model of

another kind. Thus we may assert that the “aetiological” devil’s version predates the

“memoratic” shepherd’s version, is chronologically older, more archaic and as a result

conveys a different message. In this way the shepherd’s version is a distinct hybrid of

motifs from aetiological legends (the leaving of the footprints on the stone, the

emergence of the spring, the throwing of the stone) and the apparition story, which

carries subsequent ideological content (the apparition of the saint or the holy image).

2.7. Saints vs. giants?

If we examine the Ilyosha tradition in the context of a wider international

background, we find that the opponent of the devil’s version has its similarities to the

chthonic forces, giants who throw boulders; in the Estonian tradition often for

instance at churches or at their enemies (cf. HVM 1959: 152-175, HVM 1970: 44-88,

97-113). A corresponding tradition of stone-throwing giants has wide distribution in

Northern Europe (cf. e.g. Höttges 1937: 26-37, 197-208, Simonsuuri 1961: 126-128,

AÖVR 1976: 10-11, Thompson 1955: A963), and in Votian folk tradition a few

variants concerning the throwing and carrying of stones by heroes (bohattari,

bohattõri) have also been recorded (cf. Ariste 1977: 10-11).

One may also consider the interpretation of small grooves in stones as the foot,

hand, finger or sitting prints of a supernatural being (God or a saint, giant, devil or

mythologised historical figure) to be universal (cf. Thompson 1955: A972). The

association of the above-mentioned stones with healing and sacrifice is also

internationally recognised (HDA 1930-1931: col. 240-241, HVM 1959: 526). In

Votian folk tradition, similar motifs are also connected with (cultic) stones located

near other chapels and churches, the grooves of which have been referred to as the

prints of giants and saints (e.g. the boxatterii jältši on the stone near the village chapel

of Pihlaala, jumalaa jältši on the large flat stone by Kabrio church; Ariste 1977: 11-

12).

Thus we may discern that the above-mentioned aetiological motifs share common

traits with legends concerning giants, which is confirmed by both the Estonian and

broader international background. Motifs characteristic of religious legends and

stories concerning giants have also contaminated each other in the Setu tradition

concerning Kornelius, the founder of Petseri (Pechory) Monastery (HVM 1963: 43),

as well as the legends of Saint Olga known on the east coast of Lake Peipsi (Peipus)

(cf. Pantshenko 1998: 175-177). In analysing the Votian variants of the story of the

Ilyosha chapel site, Paul Ariste (1967: 551) has indeed concluded, regarding the motif

of descending from the tree, that even there a female giant, who left prints on the

rock, was of primary importance, and was later replaced in the story by a Christian

saint. By further developing Ariste’s opinion, one could thus think that the story

connected with the site originally had to do with the conflict between the two giants.

This is, however, only a hypothesis, since it is not uniformly clear whether the saint’s

tradition and the aetiological motifs connected with giants belong to different epochs

of tradition.

2.8. Some interpretations: pagan cult vs. Christian worship?

The traditions concerning the Ilyosha chapel, with all its diversity, has offered

researchers several interpretations. It is precisely cultic activities involving specific

natural objects (birch tree, stone with prints, spring) which have given researchers

reason to treat the complex as originally a pagan sanctuary, “a powerful sacrificial

stone in its time” (Ariste 1969: 99, 1977a: 148) or “an occupied holy grove” (Haavio

1963: 132-136), with which the Christian saint’s tradition was later consciously

joined.

The stratification of Christian tradition is accentuated by apparition stories, which,

as mentioned above, are accompanied by the organisation of processions and the

founding of chapels and churches. The corresponding tradition seems to reflect the

Christian church’s strategy of placing holy pictures and figures in pagan cultic sites

and of incorporating these places into church practice using a method of “peaceful

inclusion” (cf. Uspenskii 1993). The earlier cultic stratification is indicated by several

of the above-mentioned customs, such as for instance the sacrifices to stone and

spring, the use of stone (also pebbles, sand) and water in healing and the organisation

of a procession to a place away from human inhabitation. Another sign of this being a

former place of sacrifice is provided by the apparently man-made grooves in the rock,

which have been at the centre of attention of both the cult of the Ilyosha holy site and

the corresponding oral tradition.

Since one may find pre-Christian (pagan) elements in the cultic activities

associated with the site, researchers have attempted to trace the corresponding oral

tradition back to some pagan myth (a narrative combined with a ritual). For instance,

based on the reconstructions by linguists Vyatsheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov

(1974) in the field of mythology, the Russian archaeologist Vladimir Semenov (1986)

associates the legend of the Ilyosha chapel with the Indo-European basic myth of the

conflict between the god of lightning and his chthonic competitor. The above-

mentioned mythologeme has indeed shared elements with the Ilyosha legend, such as

the contrasting of the beings which are above and below, the chase and the connection

between the pursued and the tree, stone and water, the throwing of the stone as the

characteristic act of the god of lightning (cf. Ivanov & Toporov 1974: 5). In this way

one could see a parallel in the Ilyosha legend between myths of the (god of) lightning

in pursuit of the devil, which is well known in the Balto-Scandinavian cultural context

(cf. Valk 1996).11

11 In Estonian tradition there are, for instance, variants in which the grooves in a specific stone

are explained as the footprints of the devil/ogre pursued by lightning (cf. HVM 1970: 210).

The division of roles in the Ilyosha legend, however, does not match the model of

the basic myth presented by V. Ivanov and V. Toporov (the stone-throwing

shepherd/devil should thus be equated with the god of lightning, and Saint Paraskeva

Pyatnitsa, in the tree, with his competitor), which V. Semenov justifies with the

principle formulated by the same researchers, according to which “each character in

the basic text may transform himself into any element of the integrated classification

system without thereby changing his functional role” (Semenov 1986: 119 refers to

Ivanov, Toporov 1975: 51). With the help of such relatively complicated

modifications, the presumed original characters from the Russian pagan pantheon

have been determined, and these are Perun, the god of lightning, Volos (Veles), his

competitor and representative of chthonic forces and Mokosh, the god of lightning’s

mate (cf. e.g. Semenov 1986, Uspenskii 1982). The legend would then express the

conflict between all parties, and it is as if the distinctions between the masculine

characters in the basic myth had become blurred (they are equated with each other).

The female character, however, has been more clearly portrayed, as the link between

St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa and the pagan Mokosh appears also in other genres of Russian

folklore (MNM 1994: 357). It must also be mentioned that Russian researchers have

treated the Ilyosha legend as the reflection of a pagan myth specifically connected

with the cult of stones (cf. Pantshenko & Kuzmin 1988).

The above-mentioned reconstructions have been heavily criticised by later

researchers: among weak spots that have been emphasised, it has been said that the

identification has taken place only “on the basis of the similarity between the thematic

conflict in two heterogeneous story structures”, and that the researchers have not

possessed “any positive historical evidence” which would confirm the continuity of

the corresponding religious forms and their genetic connection with pagan myth

(Pantshenko 1998: 160-161). A. Pantshenko has indicated in his recent monograph on

village Christianity of Northwest Russia that motifs of wide distribution appearing in

many genres and which refer to a pursued girl who transforms herself into different

objects of the landscape, as well as stories which refer to crimes perpetrated at holy

sites, may possibly be considered to be intertexts of the legend of the Ilyosha chapel.

A. Pantshenko finds that the number of such analogous traditions is very large and in

his opinion there is no point searching for only one proto-text (Ibid.: 161-162).

The positivistic objections which have been put forward are certainly appropriate

and sobering. Without sufficient secondary sources, it is hazardous to make far-

reaching inferences using the texts presently available to researchers, which reflect the

folk traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries. St. Elijah’s Friday, the non-canonic

holiday connected with St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, and the great popularity in Novgorod

and Pihkva (Pskov) provinces of the many cultic sites dedicated to her has also been

explained by specific trends in church politics. In researching the background of the

cult of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, A. Pantshenko (1998: 169-171) has noted that wooden

figures of the saint spread in Northwest Russia in the middle and end of the 16th

century, especially during the rule of Metropolitan Makarius. These were often

located near holy stones, springs and trees and thus Saint Paraskeva gained the status

of a minor mythological being, genius loci. Concerning the cult of the Ilyosha chapel,

we can thus also assume that the site as we know it from the recordings of the 19th

and 20th centuries took form in the late Middle Ages, at the end of the 16th or

beginning of the 17th century. Beliefs and tales concerning local saints clearly found

fertile ground in the peasant religious-mythological archetype, hence soon becoming a

dynamic part of popular Orthodoxy (Ibid.: 178).

It is only possible to speculate about what existed before. As may be expected,

over time changes took place in the interpretation of both ritual behaviour and the oral

tradition explaining it. All that is clear is that the site was earlier also considered to be

holy: the holiness of the site has remained constant, and this has endured despite

changes in ideology.

3. Concluding remarks

In examining Votian folk traditions, it is necessary to be able to orient oneself in

the folklore of the Balto-Finnic peoples and also be knowledgeable regarding the

features of Russian village Orthodoxy. At first sight, the researcher may discern the

multi-faceted and combined nature of a tradition under scrutiny, yet it is very

complicated to present that which has been “surmised” in a reasoned manner and

explain one’s “impressions”, if necessary background knowledge is fragmental.

The legend of the Ilyosha chapel indeed initially aroused interest precisely as a

result of its interesting and unusual thematic development. The different parts and

motifs of the narrative were very familiar, although an equivalent constellation of

these elements was unique. Nor did the further search for direct parallels bear fruit,

and this guided to a more detailed analysis of the narrative itself. In the article

attempts were made to discern the peculiarities of all individual variants, deviations

from the “typical” logic of the folk legend which might in some way explain the

nature of the narrative as a whole and its genesis. It was attempted to examine the

legends of Ilyosha village chapel not as accidental combinations of different motifs,

but instead discover in them an organising logic. The greatest “discovery” was the

realisation that the illogical features of “memoratic” Votian variants could be

explained by their being based on an “aetiological” story model.

Different traditional codes are entwined in the ritual activities and oral traditions

connected with the Ilyosha chapel. We may observe the gradual incorporation of

former holy sites into church practise, using the strategy of so-called “peaceful

inclusion”. On the other hand, the Christian dominant of the folk tradition of the 18th

and 19th centuries has, as a result of the atheistic and rationalistic tendencies

concomitant with the communist system, already become clouded by the 20th

century, leading to an ostensible pagan renaissance.

The great fame of the Ilyosha holy site in the Votian folk tradition has been

assured above all by the pilgrimages to that spot. The location of the holy site in the

direct vicinity of the Votians’ territory also appears to be significant, and has been the

reason for the good knowledge of the tradition in all Votian village groups. It is

precisely the institution of the pilgrimages which has allowed the continual repetition

(re-actualisation) and transmission from generation to generation of the tradition

connected with the site, as well as its dissemination across national and language

borders.

Therefore we are here observing the phenomenon of greatly popular “local” holy

sites. The paradox could be explained by their once central religious position. The

description of the traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries in turn denotes the vitality

of the cult. Legends have a strong force precisely when they justify ritual and lend it

meaning. In this connection it is significant to observe how ethnographic reality and

legendary truth relate to each other. In most cases these two dimensions do not

overlap, but are instead in some special manner incongruous. This means that the

motifs of the story do not correspond entirely to that which is tangible, and cannot

therefore be taken as objective truth, yet are, all the same, consequential and refer

indirectly to specific realia.

The interpretations and conjectures of researchers concerning the origin and

genesis of the tradition have been as absorbing as the legends of the Ilyosha chapel

itself. By drawing on background information and going backwards in time, one may

observe the formation of the cult of the Ilyosha holy site until the late Middle Ages.

About that which preceded, including the “ethnic origin” of the tradition, we can only

speculate.

Translated by Alexander Harding

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