Hagiology. Lecture course

The course of lectures has been prepared at the faculty of additional education of the PSTGU, where hagiology has been taught since 2005 as part of the program of professional retraining "Theology" and as a separate short -term continuing education course. Hagology is a relatively new theological discipline that arose at the intersection of several theological sciences. The main subject of its study is spiritual perfection, holiness. Lectures are one of the possible options for an introductory training course in this discipline. In the course, various paths to holiness are comprehended and the characteristic features of the feat of the saints of each rank are revealed, a review of the history of holiness in different countries of the Christian world is given, spiritual continuity and mutual influence of the exploits of saints are shown, the principles of writing lives are revealed, approaches to the canonization of saints in Orthodoxy and Catholicism are explained. The conclusions of the course are based on the Holy Scriptures, the materials of the lives of saints, liturgical texts, patristic reasoning about holiness. Lectures are intended for students of the faculty of additional education of PSTGU, as well as for all those interested in hagiology. Materials can serve as an additional source of information in the study of the history of the Church and the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, to be used in sermons and missionary work