The vita of Mercurius of Smolensk: Russian into Polish and back

Abstract

In the first half of the 17^th century, when Smolensk was conquered by the Poles, the Vita of the Saint Mercurius of Smolensk was translated into Polish. Following the reconquest of the city by the Russians in 1654, a reverse translation was made in 1656. The discovered abridged version of the Polish translation of the Vita is introduced into the academic circulation, showing that certain semantic accents in the story of the Saint have been shifted. The article also traces the subsequent history of the representation of Mercurius in the Polish literature and religion, up to the mid-20^th century; the text of the Vita in Polish is published in the Appendix.