The article presents archival materials on a phenomenon of folk religion in the 19th century that has been poorly documented in modern scientific literature – stories about the spontaneous changing of positions of Catholic and Uniate figures of saints. The article examines the existence of this narrative in the 1860s and early 1870s on the territory of the Vitebsk and Minsk provinces of the Russian Empire. In these stories, typical plots are identified and possible causes of their occurrence are analyzed. Structural and semantic parallels with European, Byzantine, and ancient evidence of “moving” sculptures are revealed, which allows us to speak of the cultural continuity and stability of the genre. For the first time, the use of Vitebsk and Minsk materials expands the geography and typology of the phenomenon of moving statues and suggests considering similar stories as indicators of deep socio-cultural processes in specific historical conditions. The study of local narratives about moving sculptures also allows us to take a fresh look at the relationship between the sacred and the everyday, as well as the mechanisms of functioning and spreading faith in miracles in the religious culture of the 19th century. It is proposed to consider stories about the miracles of moving statues not as a reflection of supernatural experience, but as a form of cultural text in which the socio-cultural fears, hopes, and experiences of the era are refracted.
Key words: moving statues, miracle, stories of miracles, miraculous figures, folk religion, pilgrimage
DOI: 10.22250/2072-8662-2026-2-82-90
About the author
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Ilya S. Butov – PhD (Agricultural sciences), applicant, National Research University “Center for Research of Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus”; bldg. 2, 1 Surganova St., Minsk, 220072, Republic of Belarus; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |