A unique fragment of the “Conversation between a father and his son about female malice”

Abstract

The Center for the Storage of Manuscripts, Old Printed Books, and Rare Editions of the Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences holds a unique fragment of the “Conversation between a father and his son about female malice.” This fragment begins with “...the devil was terrified by his preaching and began tremblingly speaking...” and ends with “also the worst servants of the evil lord, how dared they look at the Holy...” This passage is notable because the story of John the Baptist who suffered (beheaded) because of the intrigues of the Jewish queen Herodias and her daughter Salome is followed by a text about the life and the suffering of Stefan Uroš III of the Serbian dynasty and his conflict with his son over the succession to the throne, which led him to death at the hands of his son and his henchmen. Thus, the “Conversation” addresses the problem of children’s attitude towards their parents, with a focus on one of the main Christian commandments: “Honor your father and your mother.” These lines are not found in any copies of the “Conversation,” preserved only in an Old Believer manuscript of the 18th century, suggesting an Old Believer origin of this version especially since the nature of the alteration is consistent with the desire to strengthen the didacticism. This paper, for the first time, publishes a fragment of the “Conversation” with a short chronological version of the Lives of Stefan Dečanski.