S Wostoka na Zapad – rosyjski komentarz poetycki na ogłoszenie Dogmatu o Niepokalanym Poczęciu Najświętszej Marii Panny

Abstract

The subject of the paper is an analysis of Jewdokia Rostopczyna's poem S Wostoka na Zapad, which constitutes an attempt at poetical polemics with the teaching of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. The authoress of the poem, written in 1857, is a Russian romantic writer, popular in the middle of the 19th century though little-known today. The poem under analysis is an extremely critical assessment of the dogma proclaimed in 1854. Its tone is scathing and abusive to Catholics. Rostopczyna's main accusation refers to – in her opinion an unjustified – exclusion of Our Lady from the rest of humanity as a result of exempting her from the burden of the original sin. For the poetess this makes the Mother of God an unreal character, a myth, an apparition, an abstract ideal. The authoress emphasises that for the members of the Orthodox Church Mary, though Spotless, is a Protectoress and an Advocate. The severity of polemical formulations, definite character of opinions with regard to the Catholic faith, absolute glorification of the Orthodox Church as opposed to slightingly treated Catholicism all reveal a standpoint resulting from the Russian theological tradition, in which as early as in the Old Ruthenian period a Catholic was scornfully termed a member of the Latin Church or a heretic. Another reason for such a way of thinking as presented in the poem is associated with the Slavophil political orientation of the authoress with a tendency, typical of the period, to politicise the Orthodox Church, isolating it from Europe and defining its own identity through the negation of the West.