The Feat of the Holy "First Printer"

It is a remarkable fact that the greatest fruits of the first publishers of the Bible for public consumption in the native tongues of the land should have coexisted in the 16th century in very different parts of the world and under very different circumstances. In Russia, centuries(!) before the first Greek Bible was printed anywhere, a Bible was produced and sold to the public in their own language, not under threat but under the blessing of the Church. This Bible, the so-called “Ostrog” is one of the most precious relics of Orthodox Christianity, being the first printed Orthodox Bible, and one that frankly has not been improved upon.

Also remarkable is the fact that the groundbreaking Bibles, each in their own context, spread the seed of the Gospel among the people in a way that had never been done before, were all subsequently cast aside. The great Bibles translated by Coverdale, the greatest being the 1539 appropriately-named “Great Bible,” the two-volume Catholic English Bible known as the “Douay-Rheims”, and the “Ostrog” all find themselves utterly forgotten in the heap of contemporary published Bibles. If any want to purchase any one of these Bibles, you will not find one, unless you are willing to purchase a facsimile edition from independent small publishers. This is a tragedy because each of these Bibles deserves to be read. Of the three, the Ostrog has enjoyed the longest reign of admiration, seeing continuous liturgical and private use from the time of its publication until the present through the Old Believers. The “Great Bible” saw a long stretch of veneration among the Anglicans in their Book of Common Prayer, which used Coverdale’s Psalms until the 1970s. The Douay-Rheims, the most unusual of the English Bibles, never saw popular use, and is now utterly forgotten, supplanted by Challoner’s so-called revision (replacement would have been more accurate), which bears almost no resemblance in form or language to the original, but is in truth a knock off of the King James.

---

By Gleb Chistyakov - Historian, Member of the Union of Journalists of Russia

On December 5, 2018, 435 years passed since the repose of Ivan Fyodorov. Today, his name stands as one of the most respected among Slavic enlighteners. It is no coincidence that opportunistic researchers, politicians, and public figures attempt to reconsider, challenge, or even claim to some extent the contributions of this figure in the book printing industry.

His feat parallels that of other Slavic enlighteners. His name can be placed alongside the creators of the Slavic alphabet, the Equal-to-the-Apostles Saints Kyrill and Methodius, the preacher and church teacher Kyrill of Turov, the outstanding scholar of the Middle Ages Saint Maxim the Greek, and the enlightener and gatherer of the church's literary treasures, Metropolitan Makariy of Moscow.

Before the advent of printing, books in Russia were truly unique and exceedingly expensive. Liturgical manuscripts, writings of the Holy Fathers, hagiographical, theological, and other spiritual literature were literally valued by their weight in gold. The printing house established under Ivan Fyodorov drastically changed the situation. Before Patriarch Nikon’s reforms, this print shop had produced books with a total circulation of about 250,000 copies. Books appeared not only in churches but also in the homes of ordinary Christians. This provided fertile ground for deep spiritual assimilation of moral and ecclesiastical truths among the people.

The future first printer was born in 1510, presumably into a family of hereditary manuscript book craftsmen. From an early age, he studied calligraphy, grammar, bookbinding, and other skills essential for mastering the art of book copying. In the late 1540s, Ivan was ordained as a reader, and later as a deacon at the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Gostun, located in the Moscow Kremlin.

In his youth, Ivan trained with the best book craftsmen of his time. However, the greatest influence on him came from his association with the great elder and learned man of that time, St. Maximus the Greek. For Ivan Fyodorov, St. Maximus was not just a teacher, but a spiritual inspirer and a true mentor in the Christian faith.

The famous Stoglav Council of 1551, in addition to other important decisions, resolved to pay special attention to book publishing. At the insistence and blessing of Metropolitan Macarius, Ivan Fyodorov undertook the construction of a print shop, which later became the foundation of the famous Moscow Print Yard.

In Ukraine, some try to argue that Ivan Fyodorov was not the first printer, but merely a successor to the work of earlier publishers. Others, on the contrary, assert that he was indeed the first printer, but not in Moscow—rather, in Ukraine, and that his surname was not Fyodorov, but Fyodorovich, or even Fyodorchuk. Nevertheless, in Lviv itself, where this Slavic enlightener was buried, he is treated with great respect by all religious confessions to this day.

However, only the Old Believers fully appreciated his enlightening feat. In 2009, Ivan Fyodorov was glorified as a saint by the Council of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church.

The Print Yard was opened in early 1563, and the first book printed there, the "Apostle," saw the light in 1564. This publication marked the beginning of the tradition of early printed books, which became the foundation of all ecclesiastical printing. In 1565, a second book, the "Book of Hours," was also printed there.

By the mid-1560s, the previously devout reign of Ivan IV began to take a different course, and social unrest began. During the Moscow fire, the print shop was destroyed. However, Fyodorov decided to continue the work of Christian enlightenment beyond Moscow, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The tsar not only permitted Fyodorov to move the printing equipment there but also maintained communication with the first printer, sending him manuscripts and receiving printed books in return.

Ivan Fyodorov's choice of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as the location for his second printing house was no coincidence. The Orthodox population of the duchy was under significant pressure from both Catholic and Protestant propaganda and needed the spread of Orthodox books. A new printing house was opened in the town of Zabłudów, located near Grodno. There, in 1569, the fundamental publication "The Didactic Gospel" was printed. It contained numerous patristic homilies for Sundays and feast days throughout the year. For the first time in history, a work by a Russian author—St. Kyrill of Turov, who lived in the 12th century—was printed in a book.

"The Didactic Gospel" "The Didactic Gospel" Meanwhile, the primary benefactor of the printers who had arrived from Moscow, Hetman Gregory Alexandrovich Khodkevich, had reached a very advanced age and could no longer support the printing operation. He offered the printer to live off the lands that had been gifted to him. However, the tireless Fyodorov decided to continue the path of spiritual enlightenment and, coming to the hetman, thanked him for his care and informed him of his decision:

"It is not fitting for me to pass my life in plowing or sowing seeds, for I possess, instead of a plow, a craft, tools for work, and instead of grain seeds, I must sow spiritual seeds throughout the universe and distribute this spiritual food to all in order. Above all, I feared the judgment of my Lord Christ, who continually cries out to me: 'You wicked and lazy servant! Why did you not deposit My silver with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest?'"

Ivan Fyodorov found his next haven in the city of Lviv. Settling there in 1572, he began the difficult task of establishing an independent printing house. On February 15, 1574, the first book printed in Ukraine, the "Apostle," saw the light, gaining widespread circulation there.

Now, a new task faced the enlightener — to prepare a textbook that would help children master the basics of literacy and the Christian faith. In 1574, the Lviv printing house published the first East Slavic textbook, the "Alphabet." The "Alphabet," compiled by Ivan, was printed in large quantities and spread across the cities and villages of Ukraine and Rus.

The "Ostrog Bible" became a priceless gift for the entire Christian world and was the first printed Bible in the entire Orthodox Eastern world. It is worth noting that even the first printed Bible in Greek was only printed in Moscow in 1821. It is no wonder that M. Andrella-Orosvygovsky, a 17th-century Transcarpathian writer, declared:

He would not trade even one page of the "Ostrog Bible" for all of Prague, England, and the German faith.

The publication of the Bible was the last great work of the tireless laborer. In 1583, he fell seriously ill and, after some time, quietly passed to the Lord during prayer.

The works of the first printer played a significant role in the fight against non-Orthodox teachings and heresies. For example, the publication of the Moscow first-printed "Apostle" was aimed, among other things, against the Protestant heresies of Bashkin and Kosoy, who based their false teachings on apocryphal "letters" of the apostles. The release of the "Didactic Gospel" and the "Ostrog Bible" nullified all efforts of Catholic propaganda in the territories of then-Muscovite Rus.

In 1575, Ivan Fyodorov was invited to the city of Ostrog to serve Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky. The prince proposed that Ivan work on the Bible. The foundation for the creation of the first Orthodox printed Bible was the manuscript Bible of Gennady, Archbishop of Novgorod, who lived in the 15th century. This Bible was sent by the Russian tsar himself at the request of Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky. In addition to Archbishop Gennady's Bible, biblical texts brought from Italy, libraries of the island of Crete, and Greek, Serbian, and Bulgarian monasteries were used. While working on this monumental edition, Ivan Fyodorov continued his printing activity: in 1580, the New Testament and Psalter were published.

The publication of the "Ostrog Bible" became the pinnacle of Deacon Ivan's life’s work. The book contained 628 pages and numerous decorative headings, combining Old Muscovite and Old Ukrainian traditions. The first copies were acquired by the most prominent people in Europe. To this day, copies belonging to Pope Gregory XIII and Swedish King Gustav II Adolf are preserved. Tsar Ivan IV, shortly before his death, received the new Bible from Ivan Fyodorov and not only appreciated the work of the printer but also gifted a copy of the book to the English ambassador John Garsey.

The appearance of the "Ostrog Bible" must be regarded as both a miracle and the providence of God. This edition was prepared in an impossibly short time, given human capabilities. The "Ostrog Bible" is almost entirely free of printing errors, which cannot be said of its 1914 reprint or even the liturgical books of the patriarchal period. Thanks to Ivan Fyodorov's enlightening feat, the Old Orthodox Church has had access to the complete text of the Holy Scriptures from the late 16th century to the present day.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the "Ostrog Bible" and its 1914 reprint were republished several times through facsimile methods. A particularly interesting edition of the "Ostrog Bible" was published in Ukraine in 2006. The typesetting of the Bible and the preparation of the scholarly apparatus for this edition took the authors of the project about 30 years. The project's leader, Father Raphael Turkoniak, writes:

"The 'Ostrog Bible' has an extraordinary influence. It is the first scholarly edition ever produced among the Slavs... These were not just random texts put together. It was a scientifically conducted work of translation into Church Slavonic. It is the foundation of all Slavic translations. The time has come to restore historical justice, to show who, what, when, where, and how these things were taken. Also, to show that we were not ignorant. As early as the 16th century, we had people who were able to prepare and publish such a Bible, which became a standard for centuries."

We must not forget that the Apostle, printed by Fyodorov, remains to this day a liturgical book for the entire Old Believer community. The text, reviewed and corrected by the first printer, is still read in all Old Believer churches. Modern scholars have established that the early printed Apostle prepared by Ivan Fyodorov is undoubtedly fuller and more accurate than many ancient manuscripts. For example, in old handwritten versions of the Apostle, the response to Saul’s question, "Who art Thou, Lord?" (Acts, lection 21) is given as a brief answer: "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But rise, and enter into the city." The blessed first printer retranslated this passage, and now we read it in this form: "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goads. Trembling and astonished, he said, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city."

The Old Believer researcher I. N. Zavoloko pointed out that Ivan Fyodorov not only laid the foundations for ecclesiastical printing but also created a distinctive book style, now known as the "early printed" style, which was used in pre-schism and Old Believer publications. According to Zavoloko, "the earliest Muscovite engraving should be considered the image of the Evangelist Luke in the Gospel printed by Ivan Fyodorov in 1564."

According to most researchers, early printed books allowed the Old Believers to preserve all of Holy Tradition intact, making it the foundation of church and everyday life, while also spreading literacy among the common people. As Professor N. F. Kapterev testified, it was precisely due to printing that the sanctity of the two-finger sign of the cross became undeniable for every inhabitant of ancient Rus'. The Old Believer historian V. Senatov writes:

"The first thing Old Belief reclaimed was the old book, which was persecuted and condemned to complete destruction, and it embraced all the dogmatic, church-historical, canonical, archaeological, and other knowledge contained in that book. Old Belief was initially expressed exclusively in the conviction that the truth was contained in the old book... Almost all Russian early printed literature spread extraordinarily quickly among the Russian people, predominantly among its lower classes — the merchants and peasants. This phenomenon is of extraordinary importance and can be considered almost unique in history."

But there were those who dared to disparage Fyodorov's great work and that of his followers. After the church schism in the second half of the 17th century, persecutions against early printed books began. Patriarch Nikon expressed a negative opinion about the Ostrog Bible and its Moscow reprint. Following this view, the Council of the new-rite church in 1674 decreed: "To translate the entire Bible anew, both the Old and New Testaments, from Greek books." However, publishing a new Bible proved to be an insurmountable task for the scholars and correctors of that time. It was not until 168 years after the release of Fyodorov's Bible, in 1751, that the new-rite Bible, the so-called Elizabethan Bible, was published.

The books of Deacon Ivan Fyodorov earned incomparable fame and respect among all faithful Christians. To this day, Old Believer homes still preserve copies of the Ostrog Bible, as well as Fyodorov’s first-printed Apostle and Book of Hours. In pre-revolutionary Old Believer periodicals, there are numerous publications dedicated to the works of the first printer. In 1909, the journal Church wrote: "On September 27 this year, a church and public celebration will be held in Moscow — the unveiling of a monument to 'the first printer of books, before unknown,' or the first Russian printer, Deacon Ivan Fyodorov."

"This celebration must be recognized by the Old Believers as their own, because the books printed by Ivan Fyodorov are used only by them. In the Russian governmental Church, these books were removed from use as erroneous during the time of Patriarch Nikon." Many thousands of people gathered for the unveiling of the monument to the Russian enlightener, something unprecedented in Moscow at that time. Among the wreaths laid at the monument was one inscribed: "To the first martyr of Russian printing."

The Holy Council of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church in 2009 made the following decision: “3.1. Establish the veneration in the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church of the righteous deacon Ivan (Fyodorov), the printer of Slavic books. 3.2. Establish his feast day on the day of his repose — December 5 (Old Style).”

After the conciliar glorification of the saint, the renowned scholar of early printed books, Professor E.L. Nemirovsky, expressed his belief that the glorification of Ivan Fyodorov by the Old-Rite Church was "a joyful and long-awaited event, for the labors of the first printer in the field of church enlightenment, accomplished more than 400 years ago, remain unsurpassed to this day," and that among contemporary canonizations, "it is difficult to name a laborer of comparable scale and stature." It also became known that at the end of 2009, the day of the publication of Ivan Fyodorov's Apostle (March 1) was declared in Russia as Orthodox Book Day.

source