Sermons of Prokopovich: from asceticism to the allure of power

Abstract

In his early sermons entitled orationes asceticae Prokopovich presented a vision of the Christian that should be the life concentrated on the and on death as the threshold of eternity. However, in his estimation only extremely small number of people had a chance to be saved. From the earliest sermons he ascribed to the tsar extremely elevated status and the most important virtue of a subject was loyalty to the tsar. While extolling the position of the tsar, God became importance as the divine supporter of the tsar. Prokopovich’s insistence that the person of the tsar should be as important in every person’s life as the awareness of the presence of God meant that not only the afterlife was important in life, but also things of this life such as material goods, praise and fame. Gradually, in the Petersburg period, Prokopovich’s sermons turn into political propaganda justifying every undertaking of Peter.