The Legends of the Ilyosha Village Chapel in Votian Folk Tradition

*

The legend of the Ilyosha (Ilyeshi)
1
village chapel is one of the most peculiar folk
narratives in Votian folklore. The legend belongs obviously to the common Christian
tradition shared by Orthodox peoples of the area. On the other hand, several motifs of
the legend, the story pattern in general and contextual information have led to
scholarly interpretations according to which there has been lively pre-Christian cult
connected with the site preceding the construction of the chapel. Both textological and
contextual analysis are combined in the article in order to perceive the meaning and
genesis of the story. The first introductory chapter of the article concentrates on the
ethnic history of the Votians, presents a brief outline of the study of Votian folk belief
as well as the status of the small village chapels in Votian popular religion.

1.
1.1. Remarks on the ethnic history of Votians
Votians are considered to be the oldest indigenous inhabitants of Ingermanland,
now the Leningrad Province of the Russian Federation, a people whose predecessors
likely became distinguished from other Balto-Finnic tribes in the 1st century B.C. In
referring to themselves, the Votians have used the names vaddalaizD, vai rahvaz,
maavti. Votians have also been identified with the ethnonyms chud (() and vod
(o() occurring in Old Russian chronicles and documents. The Votian language is
one of the least-spoken of the Balto-Finnic languages. In the summer of 1997, Votian
as a mother tongue was spoken by approximately 30-40 people in three villages at the
mouth of the Lauga (Luga) River: Liivtshl (Peski), Luuditsa (Luzhitsy) and
Jgper (Krakolye) (see map). The most extensive documented (so-called

*
The original title of the article: Ergo-Hart Vstrik, The Legends of the Ilyosha Village
Chapel in Votian Folk Tradition. Studies in Folklore and Popular Religion, Vol. 2. Papers
Delivered at the Symposium Christian Folk Religion. Edited by lo Valk. Department of
Estonian and Comparative Folklore, University of Tartu: Tartu 1999, 173207. ISBN 9985-4-
0080-1; ISSN 1406-1090.
1
The toponyms used in the article follow the Votian or wider Balto-Finnic usage. The Russian
forms of these names, which are usually also fixed on maps, are added in brackets. The apostrophy in
transcriptions designates palatalised pronounciation of the preceding letter.
ethnographic) area to have been inhabited by the Votians comprised, in the second
quarter of the 19th century, 37 settlements inhabited by a total of 5148 Votians in
what was then the Guberniya of St. Petersburg (von Kppen 1867: 20). Based on
historical, linguistic and archaeological sources, it may be confirmed that the area
inhabited by Votians has in earlier periods extended further to the west, east and
south. At the beginning of the 13th century, the area occupied by the Votians likely
extended from East and Northeast Estonia in the west to the Inkere (Izhora) River in
the east and from the Gulf of Finland in the north to the limits of the town of Oudova
(Gdov) in the south (cf. Heinsoo 1998: 16, Viikberg 1993).
From the end of the 1st millennium A.D., Votians have belonged to the
administrative and cultural sphere of influence of the East Slavs, which was
accompanied by the imposition of taxes on the area and the spread of the Greek
Orthodox faith. The Votian population was certainly diminished as early as the 11th
to 13th centuries by the raids and campaigns which devastated the land of the Votians,
and also by the famine of 1215, mentioned in the Russian chronicles (cf. NPL 1950:
54 [81]). The Votian elders initially held a position in the hierarchy of power of the
Novgorod feudal republic and a say in decision-making, but the indigenous social
elite had likely even then adopted Russian as a more prestigious means of
communication (cf. Ligi 1993: 174-175). At the end of the 15th century, the land of
the Votians came under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Moscovy, at which time
particular attention began to be paid to the conversion of the indigenous inhabitants to
Christianity. At the same time, extensive missionary work was taking place in Votian
villages, old Votian names disappeared and were replaced by Russian forenames
(Viikberg 1993). When at the beginning of the 17th century Ingermanland was
incorporated into the Swedish state, a campaign for the Lutheranisation of the Votians
and Izhorians who had by that time accepted the Orthodox faith was begun (cf.
Mikkola 1932). The areas depopulated in the course of war were settled by Lutheran
peasants from Southeast Finland, yet despite the efforts of the authorities, Votians
remained Orthodox Christians and did not extensively mix with Lutheran Finns.
Assimilation with Russians became even more intense after the Great Northern War
(1700-1721), when the region was once again incorporated into the Russian state and
St. Petersburg was founded on territory mainly inhabited by Balto-Finns.
The Votian language and identity endured longer in the above-mentioned
ethnographic territory, since these villages were located at a distance from the large
trade and transport routes and were economically and politically less tightly
connected with the centres of the time. Statistics on the decrease in the Votian
population during the 19th and 20th centuries, however, graphically illustrates the
Russification which took place even in that area (cf. Ernits 1996).
The main issue is the catastrophic decline in the number of Votian-speakers and
those considering themselves to be Votians, since time and conditions have not
encouraged the Votians to define themselves as a separate ethnic group. The Votians
have never had a written language or school instruction in their own language.
Located in a territory of ethnic contact, Votians have not been able to consolidate
themselves into a nation, for which reason it is more correct to speak of the Votian
tribe and Votian dialect (Heinsoo 1998: 23). According to first ethnographic
descriptions, the Votians still possessed a strong ethnic self-consciousness at the end
of the 18th century (cf. Trefurt 1783: 11-12; pik 1970: 53-54, 85), which was,
however, almost completely absent by the beginning of the 20th century (Moora &
Moora 1964: 200-201). As Dimitri Tsvetkov, one of the few scholars of Votian
descent, wrote in 1925, it was precisely as a result of fusion with the Greek Orthodox
faith that the Votians had renounced their own language and national consciousness:
Votians began willingly to consider themselves Russians on the basis of their
common religion, and on the other hand began to make a sharp distinction between
themselves and Finns and Estonians, of a different faith (i.e. Lutheran), yet
linguistically closer to the Votians (Tsvetkov 1925: 41-42).

1.2. Brief outline of the studies on the Votian folk belief
One may discover allusions to the religious customs of the Votians in the
archaeological material (cf. Ryabinin 1987, Ligi 1993), and to a lesser extent in
documents connected with the Christianisation of the Balto-Finnic peoples. In the
14th century, Jaama (Jamburg, now Kingissepp) Abbey and Church were founded for
missionary work, although in as late as the 16th century, Archbishops of Novgorod
mentioned that the Votians, Izhorians, Karelians and Russians of the Votian Fifth
(oca ua) hold forests, stones, rivers, bogs, springs, mountains and hills, as
well as the sun, moon, stars and sea, to be sacred, and all of them worship creation as
the Creator and make sacrifices of bulls, sheep, other livestock and birds to impure
spirits, and dispatched the monk Ilya on missionary work (von Kppen 1867: 10,
Honko 1991: 29). Whereas this may be considered to be a typical description of not
entirely Christianised peoples, more specific information is contained in a 1534 letter
of Archbishop Makarius, in which the condemnable habit of burying their dead in
graves in the forest (o paa u ooua), sending new-born children to a
soothsayer (Apu) to be named, as well as womens habit of not cutting their hair,
wearing distinctive shroud-like clothing and saying spells are mentioned (Mansikka
1922: 226-228).
Manifestations of syncretism may be found in the first recordings of Votian
folklore in the 18th century, when Friedrich Ludolph Trefurt, Baltic-German pastor
from Narva, described the Votians water-mother (Seemutter) cult, their celebration of
St. Florus and St. Elijahs Days, marriage customs, witchcraft, etc. Trefurts articles
(1783, 1785) on the Chudes encouraged other antiquities enthusiasts to collect
similar material. At the end of the same decade, Russian historian Feodor Tumanski
outlined the religious customs of the Votians in his manuscript describing the
Province of St. Petersburg, and the observations of Ludolph And. Zetrus, a student of
professor Heinrich Gabriel Porthan, regarding the Votians sacred tree and spring
cults, burial practices and marriage customs were published at the beginning of the
19th century (cf. pik 1970, Ojansuu 1906). These, however, are exceptions, since in
the 19th century, the interest of linguists and collectors of folklore was concentrated
largely on the poetic genres of folklore (folk songs, fairy tales, proverbs), which is the
reason for the the lack of material on popular religion recorded in that period.
The Votians religious traditions have been better recorded in the turn of the 20th
century, when the systematic collection of Votian linguistic material and folklore was
begun. In 1890s-1910s, collaborators of Finnish Literary Society Vihtori Alava and
J. Lukkarinen collected folkloristic material in Ingermanland, including Votian
villages (cf. Alava 1901, Lukkarinen 1912). Linguist Lauri Kettunen made four
research expeditions concerning the Votian language between the years 1911 and
1915 (cf. Kettunen 1945: 203-263), the Northwest Expeditions of the Academy of
Sciences of the Soviet Union were working in the area in the years 1927-28 (cf. Lensu
1930) and in the 1930s extensive material on folk traditions was gathered from
Votians living in Estonian Ingermanland (cf. Kettunen, Posti 1932, Ariste 1935,
1941). The texts recorded in 1942-43, during the Second World War, when the
Estonian National Museum organised two comprehensive expeditions to
Ingermanland, are very important from the point of view of popular religion (cf. Rnk
1942, Mgiste 1959). These research trips to the area inhabited by the Votians truly
took place at the last moment, since in 1943 the majority of that part of the population
which was of Balto-Finnic descent was deported to Finland, and in the next year back
to the Soviet Union, although then no longer to their home villages, but to the open
expanses of the great homeland. Approximately 10 percent of Votians returned to
their birthplace in the post-war years, although a functioning Votian village society
was never restored.
A significant amount of the folklore of this dwindling fragment of a people was
nevertheless collected even in the post-war years, among which is a considerable
amount of material on popular religion. The initiator of this collection work was the
Estonian linguist and folklorist Paul Ariste (1905-1990), whose collection of
manuscripts permit folklorists to enter the yet-unknown world of Votian traditions.
2

The further folkloristic investigation of the collected material is both justified and
promising, especially the treatment of those facets concerning folk beliefs and
Orthodox traditions, which for ideological reasons was not possible during Aristes
lifetime.

1.3. Churches and village chapels in Votian folk tradition
The first churches and chapels in the territory inhabited by the Votians were most
likely constructed in larger inhabited centres (towns, strongholds, abbeys, manorial
estates), which in time became the most important religious centres of the region. The
precise date of the construction of small wooden village chapels is unknown, although
it probably took place in the 15th-16th centuries at the latest, during the expansion of
the influence of the Grand Duchy of Moscovy in the Land of Novgorod (cf.
Pantshenko 1998: 169-171). Written confirmation of the existence of village chapels
in Votian and Izhorian villages may be found in documents concerning the forced
Lutheranisation of Ingermanland in the 17th century (cf. e.g. Mikkola 1932: 3). Some
sacred buildings were abandoned and destroyed in the Great Northern War, which is
illustrated by F. Tumanski at the end of the 18th century, when he wrote of the ruins
of churches and many deserted places in the Province of St. Petersburg (pik 1970:
61). In the period following the Great Northern War, chapels were restored or built in

2
A large part of the folkloristic material collected by P.Ariste has been published in Votian
with Estonian translation (cf. below).
almost all of the larger Votian villages, and churches in administrative and religious
centres.
3

Churches/chapels and their near surroundings form an area on which several of the
village communitys ceremonies of a religious or social nature have been
concentrated in Votian tradition the celebration of holidays and saints days of the
church calendar, processions from church to chapels, village holidays, as well as fairs
and village meetings. Thus, for instance, communities common eating and drinking
on St. Elijahs Day took place in the direct proximity of sacred buildings. This is
already described as a Votian custom by Fr. L. Trefurt (1785: 105-106) at the end of
the 18th century: according to a detailed description the Votians honoured the prophet
Elijah as defender of flocks, and especially of sheep, killed on that day a white,
unblemished ram and ate it together in a chapel or building specially prepared for the
occasion. Similar St. Elijahs Day celebrations (brattinaD or vakkov, Russian
pau) are also well known in folk traditions of the 19th century. The celebration
of the day traditionally lasted for three days, and on the first day a priest also
participated. By that day money or malt was collected from the village people, beer
was collectively brewed and an animal killed (cf. Ariste 1969: 105-109, also Haavio
1963: 127-133).
4

After the enforcement of Soviet rule, many of the sacred buildings of the land of the
Votians, still in active use at the beginning of the 20th century, have in many places either
decayed or been destroyed. Churches began to be used mostly for other purposes, at best
as museums, clubs or libraries, at worst as warehouses or industrial buildings, which were
abandoned when they had become amortised (cf. Voronina 1994: 72-73). Wooden
chapels were made into residential buildings, allowed to fall into disrepair or demolished.
In villages where sacred buildings no longer exist, elder original inhabitants today still

3
Data on village chapels originate from Pummala (Pumalitsa), Lempola (Ranolovo), Pihlaala
(Pillovo), Mati (Mattia), Velikk (Velikino), Jarvigoistshl (Babino), Ildov (Undovo), Kattila
(Kotly), Jgper (Krakolje), Liivtshl (Peski) and Luuditsa (Luzhitsy) villages. Prnsp (Lipovo)
and Ilyosha (Ilyeshi) chapels, and churches in Jgper, Kattila, Jaama (Kingissepp), Ilyosha and
Kabrio (Koporye) have also been well known among the Votians (cf. Lensu 1930: 252-253, Ariste
1969: 50, 127-134, 1977: 28, Talve 1981: illustrations 2, 4, 6, 10, 11, 14, 16; also see map).
4
One must, however, mention that the celebration of St. Elijahs Day is not unique to the
Votians but is one of the most important celebrations of the year in the whole of Northwest Russia (cf.
Oinas 1969).
know the locations of the former chapels and churches. The holiness of these places has
endured in the memory of tradition-bearers, through the village holidays and saints days
celebrated there, the commands and prohibitions connected with the site, and stories
explaining the reasons for the founding of the chapel. Thus sanctity may survive even
when the objects of worship no longer exist.
5

In observing the locations of sacred buildings in Votian villages, one may in
general differentiate chapels and churches which were located (1) in the centre of the
village, often beside a road leading through the settlement (the church could thus
divide the village into two separate parts or ends); (2) on the edge of the village,
bordered thus by field, forest and often cemetery. A separate group was formed by (3)
chapels located far from inhabited areas in a forest, bordered by forest and field or
in dips and hollows, in the vicinity of wet places (cf. Pantshenko 1998: 70). At this
point one may indicate a more general tendency, which applies specifically to the
latter-mentioned category. In many cases these latter are more extensive sacred
complexes, in which trees, stones (erratic boulders) and bodies of water (springs,
streams, ponds) located nearby have, in addition to churches and chapels, been
included in the cultic worship. These domains have become closely connected in
Orthodox village Christianity, and for tradition-bearers, there is no opposition, based
on the recordings of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century,
between the two bases the cultural versus the wild.
The oral tradition connected with these places often speaks of the miracles or
revelations of the saints, the results of which are visible in the landscape of the area
even today. Holy places are distinguished from the rest of the landscape precisely
because the sacred has made itself visible near those natural objects. Confirmation
and expression of this is provided by icons and sacred figures discovered in the
vicinity, for the service and preservation of which chapels and churches were built on
holy sites. These sites were later named after the corresponding saint and his icon, and
activites connected with the worship (prayer, processions, healing, sacrifice, etc.) take
place mainly on the saints day, when people from that and surrounding villages
gather at the holy site and in the church.

5
Even on the 1998 field work trip we saw an elderly woman of Votian descent make the sign
of the cross and a low bow as we passed the site of the former chapel which was destroyed before the
Second World War in Lempola (Ranolovo) village (cf. Vstrik 1997-1998).
It is clear that, characteristic to village Orthodoxy, such traditions connected with
churches/chapels and incorporated into church practice are presented from a Christian
perspective. The same applies to the interpretations given to the cultic acts performed
there, although sacrifices to stones, trees and bodies of water must evidently be
considered to belong to the stratum of pre-Christian traditions.

2.
In the following the traditions and lore connected with one particular village
chapel in Votian popular religion are observed in detail. Both ethnographic
peculiarities as well as the structure and figures of the folk narratives are analysed.
The aim of the study is to understand the essence and genesis of the legend
concerning the founding of the chapel, to recognise the connections between the
different layers of tradition and consider the probabilities of scholarly interpretations.

2.1. Textological and historical background
It is paradoxical that the most widely-known religious legends of the Votians,
according to folkloristic recordings, concern the chapel and holy site of St. Paraskeva
Pyatnitsa, located near Ilyosha village (Votian Illoa, Russian emu, Finnish
Iljussa, cf. map) in Moloskovitsa parish, 20-30 kilometres from the ethnographic
territory of the Votians. Traditions regarding the Ilyosha holy site are very well
represented, considering the collections of Votian folklore. The legend of the
founding of the chapel is well known in all Votian village groups in which linguistic
material and folklore have been recorded in the 20th century. Thirteen variants of the
legend from different narrators have been entered in the collections of P. Ariste (most
of which are published in Ariste 1935: 22-24, 1941: 22-23, 60-61, 1969: 100-104,
1977: 11-14). The first recordings date from the 1930s and come from Votians
inhabiting Estonian Ingermanland; the majority of texts have been transcribed in the
course of the Votian expeditions that took place during and after the Second World
War. Even today, the legend is known in both the present and former Votian villages,
where it may be heard from indigenous inhabitants in both the Votian and Russian
languages (Vstrik 1997-1998). This tradition does not, however, only belong to the
narrative tradition of the Votians but has also been known to the Izhorians of the
Soikkola Peninsula (cf. Haavio 1963: 133-136) and to the Russians inhabiting the
surrounding area (for variants cf. Pantshenko 1998: 153-156). The reason for the great
popularity of the legend of the origin of the Ilyosha chapel is clearly the fame of the
holy site itself, which according to reports still drew pilgrims at the end of the 19th
century and the beginning of the 20th century from the whole of St. Petersburg
Guberniya (Maksimov XVIII: 282-283).
Ilyosha village, which in documents from the Swedish period is known by the
name of Iliesby, fell, according to the 16th century cadaster, within the parish (pogost)
of Grigorjewskoj Leshskoj (puopocou mcou) of the Votian Fifth. In the mid-
19th century, the village was located in territory inhabited by both Ingrian Finns and
Russians, although the inhabitants of Ilyosha village were predominantly Russians, as
an Orthodox church was located there (von Kppen 1867: 26-27, 82). Russian
scholars identify the village and church with Old Russian settlement (Pantshenko
1998: 59, 157), whereas Estonian researchers are of the opinion that this area may as
late as the Middle Ages have been inhabited by Votians who later became assimilated
with the Russians (cf. Ligi 1989, Viikberg 1993). It is supposed that this may have
been territory deserted by indigenous (Orthodox) inhabitants as a result of the wars
and Lutheranisation policy of the 16th and 17th centuries and settled by Finns by
command of the Swedish authorities, but in which Orthodox believers later gathered,
especially in the church-villages.
The present author lacks information on the exact date of the founding of Ilyosha
Church. The present Classical appearance of the building dates from the end of the
18th century or early 19th century (see Photo1). Accounts of the churchs patron-saint
are contradictory it was either St. Nicolas (euuu uoa, Maksimov XV: 92) or
the great martyr St. Paraskeva (Kppen 1867: 26). By the end of the 19th century, the
main altar of the church was dedicated to St. Nicolas, whereas the side altar was
dedicated to the Prophet Elijah and the great martyr St. Paraskeva. It is precisely with
the latter saint and her icon, kept in the church, that the cult and folk traditions
concerning the chapel site of Ilyosha are connected.

2.2. Religious practices at the Ilyosha chapel
Until the anti-church repressions of the Soviet period St. Elijahs Friday (the so-
called Iili ptnits, the Friday preceding St. Elijahs Day)
6
was celebrated in

6
This particular festival is in Russian Orthodox tradition dedicated to great martyr St.
Paraskeva.
Ilyosha Church with a service, after which a procession took place to a small wooden
chapel away from the village and located on the boundary of field and forest. During
the procession the icon of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa was carried from church to chapel
on a litter and held above the heads of processionaries. Walking under the
processional has been of particular significance, and it was hoped that this would
assist against diverse illnesses and afflictions.
Behold, on St. Elijahs Friday a procession took place there. Such a
crowd went there from St. Petersburg. A large icon of St. Elijahs Friday was
made. It was carried on a litter from the church to the chapel. A service was
held there and then it was carried back to the church. People walked under the
icon again and again. People were queued up. They had queued up for a
distance of a verst. There was a madwoman and six men were not able to hold
her in order to push her under the icon. She raved and raged when the brawny
men pushed her. She cried and swore at the icon, but she recovered. [---]
(Told by Alexander Andrejev from Itshpiv (Itsepino) village in 1942.
Votian text and Estonian translation published in Ariste 1969: 103-104.)
In the second part of the 19th century, a local priest described the icon as follows:
The icon is made of wood and is 0.7 m in height. There was formerly a manuscript-
like figure in the saints right hand, and in the left a cross; now in place of the cross
there is a small depression. The carvings of the icon are old and not particularly
artistic. [---] Before the preparation of the icons veil, it was covered with a saffron-
like garb made from different pieces of cloth offered up by pilgrims. The icon is
considered to work miracles and be a divine manifestation; it is said that it appeared
in the field, 1.5 versts from the church, at the place where the age-old wooden chapel
now stands, and which is also traditionally the end of the procession. Diligent
offerings to the icon have mainly been made by ordinary people and consist of sashes,
ribbons, handkerchiefs, pieces of cloth, etc. Sometimes silver representations of the
hand, foot, heart, etc. are hung from the icon in gratitude for miraculous healing.
(Pantshenko 1998: 155).
After the Second World War, processions to the holy site of Ilyosha were
forbidden, the chapel was demolished, the icon transferred to a Leningrad museum as
a valuable work of art and extensive atheist propaganda carried out among the local
population (cf. Judin 1966: 146-148). Nevertheless, even after the war large numbers
of people gathered at the church and holy site every year on St. Elijahs Friday. In
Soviet anti-religious literature it is mentioned that in the first post-war years several
thousand people still gathered in Ilyosha on St. Elijahs Friday and in the 1960s even
a few hundred (Ibid.). The cult of the Iili ptnitsa was not interrupted by the
destruction of the chapel or due to extensive propaganda efforts, and the church in
Ilyosha functions to the present day (see Photo 2).
The celebration of the St. Elijahs Friday in Ilyosha was restricted neither in this
century nor in the 19th century to the elements of the cultural as described above. In
addition to the miracle-working icon and the chapel, procession and service, a birch
deemed holy, a stone with grooves (imprints) in it and a spring, all located at the
destination of the procession, also held important places in the cult. Thus Ilyosha
constituted (as has been mentioned above) a much broader holy complex, in which
attention, according to recordings, was focused above all on the stone, which was a
flat oval erratic boulder of a diameter of 1-1.5-metres possessing a small yet relatively
deep depression in the shape of a human foot. Rainwater collected in the depression
or water poured into it from the nearby spring was used for healing purposes. The
water was used to cleanse diseased parts of the body, and at the same time prayers
were said to St. Paraskeva.
Now more and more people who have some disease go to the chapel
to be healed - all Gods cripples who had lost a hand or leg, or whose arms
and limbs were paralyzed. All these Gods cripples washed the diseased parts
of their bodies there on the stone. It was considered to be a great help by those
who went to the chapel. Many people healed their eyes and recovered from all
kinds of diseases. This place was 25 versts from us. People made vows to go
to the celebration of St. Elijahs Friday. Many people regained their health
there. (Told by Grigori Kuzmin from Pummala (Pumalitsa) village in 1932.
Votian text with German and Estonian translation published in Ariste 1935:
23-24; 1969: 100-102.)
Water from the spring located at the holy site, small pebbles and sand were also
taken home for the purpose of healing. After healing on the stone, offerings (vra) were
left money, food, kerchiefs and pieces of clothing. The author, visiting the holy site
in the summer of 1998, observed ribbons tied to trees near the stone. The holy stone
was covered with a handkerchief and scarf, upon which a clay crucifix had in turn been
placed (see photographs).
7
The holy site was also marked by crosses carved in trees
near the stone and a small icon attached to a dried birch.
As mentioned above, the cult has remained alive in Ilyosha until the present day,
as have the legends which explain the holiness of the place and the necessity of the
construction of the chapel. In peculiar fashion, all of the elements of the St. Elijahs
Friday cult the procession, the chapel, St. Paraskeva and her icon, the holy tree, the
stone with the print and the spring are connected with each other in the set of
legends about that particular place.

2.3. Votian variants and normal form of the legend
Despite the fact that the Votian variants of the legend are quite homogeneous, five
examples of the story are given below in order to illustrate the natural variation
typical of folk tradition.
Example 1. There was a large stone near the chapel. There was a
mans footprint on the stone. It was said that God had stepped on that stone
when walking on earth. Then water was poured into the footstep. Those who
had sore eyes washed their eyes with that water. There was also a towering
birch tree. And hanging in the birch tree there was an icon. In olden times a
shepherd had walked to the spot and realized that the icon was in the tree. He
took a long whip and whipped the birch tree. And the whip bent around the
tree. The shepherd was unable to remove the whip. Now the whip has grown
into the tree. In olden times there was a large forest there. The shepherd came
home without the whip and told people in the village that he had seen such a
miracle. The priest went there and read a prayer but he was unable to remove
the whip. After that the chapel was built and now those who have diseases go
to the chapel to be healed. [---] (Told by Grigori Kuzmin from Pummala
(Pumalitsa) village in 1932. Votian text with German and Estonian translation
published in Ariste 1935: 22-23; 1969: 100-102.)

7
On the site where the chapel used to stand, a figure in the shape of an Orthodox cross, made
of bricks, has been laid out. It is also significant that the Ilyosha holy site is a field of boulders an
area of 50 metres by 70 metres once surrounded by a strong stone fence. The spring mentioned in
descriptions has apparently either dried up or collapsed.
Example 2. It was three versts from Ilyosha village. There was a
large rock. There was a big birch. A woman was in the birch tree. A woman
called Paro. A pretty person in the tree. A shepherd saw her and started to
throw stones. All the stones he threw became attached to the tree. Then he saw
that the stones were again and again becoming attached to the tree. Then he
took a whip. He fastened a stone to the end of the whip. Then he slung towards
the tree. Again and again he aimed at that woman. The whip remained there, it
was impossible to detach it. The whip remained there and in the evening he
went home and said to his grandmother that there was a miracle there. I
threw, threw a stone. The stones remained stuck in the tree over and over
again. Then I took, fastened the stone on the top of the whip and then slung
with the whip in order to hit her. The whip stayed there with her, it was
impossible to remove it. The grandmother says: We must go and tell the
priest. He is learned, clever. Let's go and see what is there. So (she) spoke
to the priest. The priest said: It is a kind of miracle. Then the priest went and
looked. The priest ordered a small chapel to be built on that rock. Then there
were such erratic boulders there. Where she/he put her/his foot, there were
imprints on the stone. Then the priest ordered to do as needed. There is a well
there. On St. Elijahs Friday a lot of people go to look. (Told by Darja Lehti
from Jgper (Krakolye) village in 1938. Votian text and Estonian translation
published in Ariste 1941: 22-23.)
Example 3. St. Elijahs Friday. The speakers mother had said: The
shepherd went with his cattle to pasture and saw a girl in a tree. Her hand was
around the trunk and her leg on the tree, the branches of the tree even higher.
The shepherd called to her to come down but she didnt answer. The shepherd
tried to strike [the tree] with the whip, to frighten her to come down. But the
whip remained lodged in the tree. The shepherd came to the village to talk
about the event. Some men tried to take the girl down from the tree and into
their arms, but she jumped onto a stone and her footprints remained there. She
started to flee down the field; water flowed at the spot where she jumped. A
stream of water that started near the stone followed as far as she fled. It was
said that she was an angel. A chapel where prayers were held was later built
there. The chapel was about two kilometers from the village church.
Gatherings were held on St. Elijahs Fridays and then people came and came.
(Told by Maria Saharova from Liivtshl (Peski) village in 1944. German
translation published in Haavio 1963: 134-136.)
Example 4. In our home it was told like this. There is a village called
Ilyosha. That once God was walking on earth. Then a shepherd came to meet
God. The shepherd wanted to hit God with a whip. But God went to the top of
the birch tree. And the whip remained hanging in the tree. God walked on
stones, and left footprints. There were footprints resembling those of a three-
year-old child on that stone. (Told by Olga Ivanova from Mati (Mattiya)
village in 1965. Votian text and Estonian translation published in Ariste 1977:
12).
Example 5. So, in Ilyosha there is that great celebration. People go
there. It has been told that Pyatnitsa Paraskeva had wandered around there in
days of yore. And behold, she had gone up to the top of that tree, for some
reason to the top of that birch tree. And the shepherd struck her with a whip
where she was high up in the tree and the shepherds whip stayed up there in
the tree. And the shepherd was unable to remove the whip. She, Pyatnitsa
Paraskeva, came down from the top of the tree. There was a stone. She
stepped on the stone and a footprint remained in the stone. Behold, now and
sometimes in olden times, if water had collected in that imprint, or if there
hadnt the priests poured some water there, then all the diseased moistened
their eyes or whatever there. If it rains then there is water in the imprint. It is
very, very good water. Behold, that was the story I have heard. In times past
this story was told. (Told by Kostja Leontyev from Liivtshl village in 1976.
Votian text and Estonian translation published in Ariste 1977: 13.)
The examples above are texts in which the events that took place near these
natural objects have been connected with the building of the chapel. Supernatural
events were therefore the stimuli for the construction of the chapel as well as for its
developing to the important religious centre. As we can see, in folk tradition the story
has been directly connected with the ethnographic reality, religious practices and
peculiarities of the landscape.
Taking into account all Votian variants, one may compile a normal form of the
story following the operational logic of the Ilyosha legend:

H = holy / supernatural being (also object)
S = shepherd (witness of miraculous / supernatural event)
P = priest (religious expert)

(a) H is walking overland
(b) H climbs a tree / is in a tree
(c) S sees H in the tree
(d) S strikes / whips / throws a stone at the tree in which H is perched
(e) the whip / stone gets stuck in the tree
(f) S realises the peculiarity of this event and informs the villagers / P
(g) H leaves / disappears / flees:
(g1) steps from the tree to a nearby stone, on which the print of his foot remains
(g2) climbs down from the tree, at which spot a spring appears
(h) S / those who have come to the spot / P receive confirmation of the miraculous
event:
(h1) cannot remove the whip from the tree
(h2) find an icon attached to the tree
(h3) find Js footprint on a stone near the scene of the events
(i) P acknowledges the events to be a miracle and commands that a chapel be built
(j) the site becomes a well-known destination of pilgrims

Below I shall examine the structural elements of the narrative characters and
activity as well as the general story pattern of the Ilyosha legend.

2.4. Relations between the basic motifs
The invariant character in the Votian variants of the legend is the shepherd (S)
who notices something unusual (Motif c) specifically a female being of holy /
supernatural origin (H) in a tree at a certain place, while with his herd in the forest.
As one may expect, most frequently mentioned is St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, on whose
commemoration day the procession to the Iljesh holy site takes place, although the
nature of the holy person has not always been singularly clear to narrators: in different
variants have been mentioned unspecified female characters, saints, angels, the Virgin
Mary, God or an icon.
8
The figure of the shepherd as the witness of the holy or
supernatural is not accidental from the point of view of the logic of the story. A male
character, alone and away from home a child, or adult of somewhat marginal social
status - seems to be stressed. Another element common to all variants is the fact that
the shepherd at first does not understand whom or what he has encountered, and for
some reason behaves aggressively towards the holy being (d) this represents the
intrigue or distinctive motif, which has at the same time been the thematic minimum
for many narrators.
The supernatural nature of the figure in the tree becomes clearly and finally
evident following the aggression the shepherds whip remains stuck to the tree and
the same happens with stones thrown by the shepherd (e). The prints on the tree and
whip which grew into the tree, which the narrators of the legend have been able to see
with their own eyes, are also confirmation of the miraculous event (h1) for the village
people and priest (P) called to the site. At times a similar connection between the truth
of a legend and ethnographic reality also characterises motifs of the holy being
coming down from the tree and stepping on the stone (g1) as a result the print of its
foot, feet or hand are left in the stone (h3), which once again provide evidence of the
truthfulness and tangibility of the events which have taken place.
It must, however, be mentioned that the motifs of stepping on the stone and
leaving a print are in many variants somewhat less closely and somehow more
accidentally connected with the conflict between the shepherd and the figure in the
tree. The episode is often mentioned as if in passing, either before or after the
characteristic conflictive situation, which keeping in mind the logic of the story,
indicates the independence of these motifs. The distinctiveness of the two miracles
the whip getting stuck in the tree and the prints left in the stone appears also in the
variant which diverges from the general story model (Example 1), in which the
shepherd sees and strikes an icon in the tree. In this case the confirmation of the
miraculous nature of the event is a holy image later found in the tree (h2), whereas

8
Here one may point out the anonymity of holy figures in Orthodox village Christianity (cf.
Stark 1996: 152-153) to the tendency, according to which holy entities may replace each other on the
basis of certain common features. Different holy figures would form a continuum in the consciousness
of bearers of tradition, in which the boundary between God, the Virgin Mary, a saint and a holy image
may not be uniquely defined.
God walking on earth and stepping on the stone is presented in the introductory
episode. Also in those elaborated variants (Examples 3, 4, 5) in which the
supernatural events mentioned are smoothly connected with each other, such
repetition of the miraculous seems excessive from the point of view of the logic of
the story. Duplication appears most graphically in the variant (Example 3) in which
the shepherds whip getting stuck in the tree (e), the making of the print in the stone
(g1) and the emergence of the spring (h2) are all combined.
It is significant that in many variants mention is made of the assessment of events
made by the priest as a religious expert, which becomes decisive for the construction
of the chapel at the scene of the miraculous events (i). This element seems to reflect
historical truth apparently the initiative to build the chapel in that place came indeed
from the priest and certainly the village clergymen have in turn amplified the fame of
the story. At the same time, the motif of the priests confirmation demonstrates the
connection between the legend and the cult of the Ilyosha holy site with official
church practice after all, the priest plays an important role in the St. Elijahs Day
procession and the consecration of the site.

2.5. Ilyosha legend as a saint apparition story
Keeping in mind the functional and ideological tendency of the traditions
regarding the Ilyosha holy site, one may see the legend as a stereotypical saint
apparition story, which is common in both Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic
folk traditions.
9
In such stories the holy being generally appears in a certain place to a
person of low social standing;
10
contact with the divine is brief, during which the saint
is simply seen or relays a specific message to the witness and/or leaves a certain sign
(crucifix, holy image, icon, print, etc.) at the place of the apparition as confirmation
of the event. In the traditions of both the Eastern and Western Christian churches,
apparitions of saints have been the reason for the construction of a Christian temple at
the site of the apparition and for the place becoming a destination for pilgrimages.

9
Concerning corresponding stories in Northwest Russia, cf. Pantshenko 1998: 118-119. On
apparitions of saints in 16th century Spain, cf. i.e. Christian 1989: 77-91. Saint apparition stories from
the Middle Ages were the material from which visions of prophets, characteristic of Protestant folk
traditions, developed in the post-Reformation centuries (cf. Beyer 1996: 2).
10
The marginals of society, shepherds and children have also been the media of apparitions in
the Europe of the late Middle Ages (Christian 1989: 81).
The legends of the Ilyosha chapel are in this form nevertheless distinctive in
comparison with both analogous apparition stories from Northwest Russia and also
corresponding themes in the traditions of the Votians and other Balto-Finnic peoples
of the Greek Orthodox faith. All thematic elements characteristic to apparition stories
are present in the Votian variants of the Ilyosha legend, although a more detailed
analysis reveals several other features which diverge from stereotypical revelation.
One gets the impression that the legend concerning the Ilyosha chapel is many-faceted
and combined in a special way. That is the hypothesis the validity of which I shall
discuss below. Attention was above directed to the loose connection between the
motifs of striking with the whip (d, e, h1) and stepping on the stone (g1, h3), their
redundancy and duplication. Below I shall present some other illogical issues.
The shepherds aggressive behaviour towards the apparition (motif d), being also
the most important component of Votian variants of the legend recorded in the 20th
century, is distinguishable from the typical story scheme of apparition legends and
somewhat imperfectly connected with its overall logic. Thus the shepherd is not only
the person who experiences the supernatural/holy, but is in a paradoxical manner also
its opponent. The reason the shepherd begins to assail the unusual being he noticed in
the tree is in most variants unmentioned. It seems that the shepherd is malevolent and
aggressive for no particular reason. In variants in which the worldly nature of the one
in the tree is stressed (i.e. Example 3), the motivating force seems to be the sexual
tension between the male and female figures, which, keeping in mind the overall
corpus of Votian texts, appears to be a relatively incidental interpretation.
From the Christian point of view, the shepherds aggression may be interpreted as
sacrilege. Indeed, Aleksandr Pantshenko, a researcher of Russian village Christianity,
interprets the Ilyosha story as the actualisation of the following story model, which is
widespread in Orthodox tradition: A. The appearance of a person or object
considered to be holy B. Sacrilege C. The warning or punishment of the
desecrator D. The implementation of equilibrium (Pantshenko 1998: 250-251). On
the basis of Votian variants, however, we may be certain that no sanctions directly
aimed at the shepherd will result from the conflict. One may interpret the whips (the
shepherds attribute) supernaturally becoming lodged in the tree as a warning,
although we do not encounter the didactics characteristic of cautionary religious
legends (cf. Jrvinen 1981; 1993) in the Ilyosha story. On the contrary, the storys
thematic emphasis seems to be elsewhere, and the question of the shepherds
subsequent fate has not been treated by the narrators.
Nor can one find an all-encompassing explanation in Votian variants of why the
holy being is in the tree and why she goes up there (Motif b). In most variants she just
is there, perched in precisely that birch tree. Thus it appears that the singularity of the
specific tree is emphasised in the legend. Therefore the motif of ascending the tree
neither characterises the specific behaviour of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa herself, nor the
peculiarity of the birch as a species of tree and its connection with a specific saint (cf.
SM 1995: 145). The exceptional Votian variant (example 4) according to which the
holy being ascended the tree only after the conflict with the shepherd is also
noteworthy from the point of view of the logic of the story.

2.6. Saint apparition story vs. aetiological legend?
Clarification concerning the disagreements mentioned above is offered by the
Russian variants of the legend of the Ilyosha chapel, which were recorded in a
somewhat earlier period. At the end of the 19th century, the apparition of the icon of
St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa at the Ilyosha holy site was treated by the researcher of
Russian folk culture S. V. Maksimov. He described the procession to the chapel, the
holy complex itself and paraphrased the traditions surrounding it:
Right here, beside the chapel, there stands an old forked birch which is
worshipped as a hallowed object of reverent respect. Nearby there lies a large granite
stone which extends only a little out of the ground, so that now it is only barely
visible. According to the legend, this is the stone thrown at St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa,
who had fled into the tree, by the evil and malevolent devil, for tempting the latter.
Yet beside the tree, right near the roots is another stone which catches the attention of
all pilgrims. This is the stone upon which Pyatnitsa placed her foot so as to quickly
bound up the tree, and left a deep footprint. The people consider the water which
gathers there to be the tears of believers, shed for human transgressions. (Maksimov
XVIII: 282-283).
Here one may notice several differences in comparison to Votian variants.
According to Maksimov, the tempter of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa and the initiator of the
conflict was a malevolent demon/devil, from whom the saint fled into the tree. The
same conflict is also associated with the leaving of the prints on the stone, which in
contrast to the so-called shepherds version (i.e. Votian variants) is connected not with
descending from the tree, but rather with ascending it. The motif of the devil throwing
the stone may be equated with the motif of the shepherd throwing the stone at the one
in the tree in Votian variants, although once again the order of motifs has been
reversed in the devils version, aggression is clearly the inducement for ascending
the tree. The motifs of the apparition and discovery of the icon (as well as the
founding of the chapel) are indeed known to Maksimov, although he has kept them
clearly separate from the theme of the saint-devil conflict.
Whereas the shepherds version is characterised by a certain memoratic quality,
and the legend speaks of a person and his supernatural experience (i.e. someone from
amongst us, with whom the narrators/listeners can identify; in Izhorian variants, even
the mans place of residence is mentioned), in the devils version the human
dimension characteristic of the memorate is lacking. An entirely different topic is
stressed the dualistic conflict between the holy being (saint) and the devil, which
represents a completely different story pattern. Whereas in the shepherds version, we
were able to expect that the events described took place in the recent past, the events
characteristic of the devils version take place as though in a mythical past. Thus the
latter is not an apparition story, but more of a dualistic aetiological legend, whose
antagonistic characters form the natural objects of the scene.
Indeed we do not know exactly how the so-called shepherds and the devils
versions of the Ilyosha legend are related to each other, but upon closer inspection
several of the discordances in the Votian variants described above disappear when it
is taken into account that the shepherds version is based on a dualistic story model of
another kind. Thus we may assert that the aetiological devils version predates the
memoratic shepherds version, is chronologically older, more archaic and as a result
conveys a different message. In this way the shepherds version is a distinct hybrid of
motifs from aetiological legends (the leaving of the footprints on the stone, the
emergence of the spring, the throwing of the stone) and the apparition story, which
carries subsequent ideological content (the apparition of the saint or the holy image).

2.7. Saints vs. giants?
If we examine the Ilyosha tradition in the context of a wider international
background, we find that the opponent of the devils version has its similarities to the
chthonic forces, giants who throw boulders; in the Estonian tradition often for
instance at churches or at their enemies (cf. HVM 1959: 152-175, HVM 1970: 44-88,
97-113). A corresponding tradition of stone-throwing giants has wide distribution in
Northern Europe (cf. e.g. Httges 1937: 26-37, 197-208, Simonsuuri 1961: 126-128,
AVR 1976: 10-11, Thompson 1955: A963), and in Votian folk tradition a few
variants concerning the throwing and carrying of stones by heroes (bohattari,
bohattri) have also been recorded (cf. Ariste 1977: 10-11).
One may also consider the interpretation of small grooves in stones as the foot,
hand, finger or sitting prints of a supernatural being (God or a saint, giant, devil or
mythologised historical figure) to be universal (cf. Thompson 1955: A972). The
association of the above-mentioned stones with healing and sacrifice is also
internationally recognised (HDA 1930-1931: col. 240-241, HVM 1959: 526). In
Votian folk tradition, similar motifs are also connected with (cultic) stones located
near other chapels and churches, the grooves of which have been referred to as the
prints of giants and saints (e.g. the boxatterii jlti on the stone near the village chapel
of Pihlaala, jumalaa jlti on the large flat stone by Kabrio church; Ariste 1977: 11-
12).
Thus we may discern that the above-mentioned aetiological motifs share common
traits with legends concerning giants, which is confirmed by both the Estonian and
broader international background. Motifs characteristic of religious legends and
stories concerning giants have also contaminated each other in the Setu tradition
concerning Kornelius, the founder of Petseri (Pechory) Monastery (HVM 1963: 43),
as well as the legends of Saint Olga known on the east coast of Lake Peipsi (Peipus)
(cf. Pantshenko 1998: 175-177). In analysing the Votian variants of the story of the
Ilyosha chapel site, Paul Ariste (1967: 551) has indeed concluded, regarding the motif
of descending from the tree, that even there a female giant, who left prints on the
rock, was of primary importance, and was later replaced in the story by a Christian
saint. By further developing Aristes opinion, one could thus think that the story
connected with the site originally had to do with the conflict between the two giants.
This is, however, only a hypothesis, since it is not uniformly clear whether the saints
tradition and the aetiological motifs connected with giants belong to different epochs
of tradition.

2.8. Some interpretations: pagan cult vs. Christian worship?
The traditions concerning the Ilyosha chapel, with all its diversity, has offered
researchers several interpretations. It is precisely cultic activities involving specific
natural objects (birch tree, stone with prints, spring) which have given researchers
reason to treat the complex as originally a pagan sanctuary, a powerful sacrificial
stone in its time (Ariste 1969: 99, 1977a: 148) or an occupied holy grove (Haavio
1963: 132-136), with which the Christian saints tradition was later consciously
joined.
The stratification of Christian tradition is accentuated by apparition stories, which,
as mentioned above, are accompanied by the organisation of processions and the
founding of chapels and churches. The corresponding tradition seems to reflect the
Christian churchs strategy of placing holy pictures and figures in pagan cultic sites
and of incorporating these places into church practice using a method of peaceful
inclusion (cf. Uspenskii 1993). The earlier cultic stratification is indicated by several
of the above-mentioned customs, such as for instance the sacrifices to stone and
spring, the use of stone (also pebbles, sand) and water in healing and the organisation
of a procession to a place away from human inhabitation. Another sign of this being a
former place of sacrifice is provided by the apparently man-made grooves in the rock,
which have been at the centre of attention of both the cult of the Ilyosha holy site and
the corresponding oral tradition.
Since one may find pre-Christian (pagan) elements in the cultic activities
associated with the site, researchers have attempted to trace the corresponding oral
tradition back to some pagan myth (a narrative combined with a ritual). For instance,
based on the reconstructions by linguists Vyatsheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov
(1974) in the field of mythology, the Russian archaeologist Vladimir Semenov (1986)
associates the legend of the Ilyosha chapel with the Indo-European basic myth of the
conflict between the god of lightning and his chthonic competitor. The above-
mentioned mythologeme has indeed shared elements with the Ilyosha legend, such as
the contrasting of the beings which are above and below, the chase and the connection
between the pursued and the tree, stone and water, the throwing of the stone as the
characteristic act of the god of lightning (cf. Ivanov & Toporov 1974: 5). In this way
one could see a parallel in the Ilyosha legend between myths of the (god of) lightning
in pursuit of the devil, which is well known in the Balto-Scandinavian cultural context
(cf. Valk 1996).
11


11
In Estonian tradition there are, for instance, variants in which the grooves in a specific stone
are explained as the footprints of the devil/ogre pursued by lightning (cf. HVM 1970: 210).
The division of roles in the Ilyosha legend, however, does not match the model of
the basic myth presented by V. Ivanov and V. Toporov (the stone-throwing
shepherd/devil should thus be equated with the god of lightning, and Saint Paraskeva
Pyatnitsa, in the tree, with his competitor), which V. Semenov justifies with the
principle formulated by the same researchers, according to which each character in
the basic text may transform himself into any element of the integrated classification
system without thereby changing his functional role (Semenov 1986: 119 refers to
Ivanov, Toporov 1975: 51). With the help of such relatively complicated
modifications, the presumed original characters from the Russian pagan pantheon
have been determined, and these are Perun, the god of lightning, Volos (Veles), his
competitor and representative of chthonic forces and Mokosh, the god of lightnings
mate (cf. e.g. Semenov 1986, Uspenskii 1982). The legend would then express the
conflict between all parties, and it is as if the distinctions between the masculine
characters in the basic myth had become blurred (they are equated with each other).
The female character, however, has been more clearly portrayed, as the link between
St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa and the pagan Mokosh appears also in other genres of Russian
folklore (MNM 1994: 357). It must also be mentioned that Russian researchers have
treated the Ilyosha legend as the reflection of a pagan myth specifically connected
with the cult of stones (cf. Pantshenko & Kuzmin 1988).
The above-mentioned reconstructions have been heavily criticised by later
researchers: among weak spots that have been emphasised, it has been said that the
identification has taken place only on the basis of the similarity between the thematic
conflict in two heterogeneous story structures, and that the researchers have not
possessed any positive historical evidence which would confirm the continuity of
the corresponding religious forms and their genetic connection with pagan myth
(Pantshenko 1998: 160-161). A. Pantshenko has indicated in his recent monograph on
village Christianity of Northwest Russia that motifs of wide distribution appearing in
many genres and which refer to a pursued girl who transforms herself into different
objects of the landscape, as well as stories which refer to crimes perpetrated at holy
sites, may possibly be considered to be intertexts of the legend of the Ilyosha chapel.
A. Pantshenko finds that the number of such analogous traditions is very large and in
his opinion there is no point searching for only one proto-text (Ibid.: 161-162).
The positivistic objections which have been put forward are certainly appropriate
and sobering. Without sufficient secondary sources, it is hazardous to make far-
reaching inferences using the texts presently available to researchers, which reflect the
folk traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries. St. Elijahs Friday, the non-canonic
holiday connected with St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, and the great popularity in Novgorod
and Pihkva (Pskov) provinces of the many cultic sites dedicated to her has also been
explained by specific trends in church politics. In researching the background of the
cult of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, A. Pantshenko (1998: 169-171) has noted that wooden
figures of the saint spread in Northwest Russia in the middle and end of the 16th
century, especially during the rule of Metropolitan Makarius. These were often
located near holy stones, springs and trees and thus Saint Paraskeva gained the status
of a minor mythological being, genius loci. Concerning the cult of the Ilyosha chapel,
we can thus also assume that the site as we know it from the recordings of the 19th
and 20th centuries took form in the late Middle Ages, at the end of the 16th or
beginning of the 17th century. Beliefs and tales concerning local saints clearly found
fertile ground in the peasant religious-mythological archetype, hence soon becoming a
dynamic part of popular Orthodoxy (Ibid.: 178).
It is only possible to speculate about what existed before. As may be expected,
over time changes took place in the interpretation of both ritual behaviour and the oral
tradition explaining it. All that is clear is that the site was earlier also considered to be
holy: the holiness of the site has remained constant, and this has endured despite
changes in ideology.
3. Concluding remarks
In examining Votian folk traditions, it is necessary to be able to orient oneself in
the folklore of the Balto-Finnic peoples and also be knowledgeable regarding the
features of Russian village Orthodoxy. At first sight, the researcher may discern the
multi-faceted and combined nature of a tradition under scrutiny, yet it is very
complicated to present that which has been surmised in a reasoned manner and
explain ones impressions, if necessary background knowledge is fragmental.
The legend of the Ilyosha chapel indeed initially aroused interest precisely as a
result of its interesting and unusual thematic development. The different parts and
motifs of the narrative were very familiar, although an equivalent constellation of
these elements was unique. Nor did the further search for direct parallels bear fruit,
and this guided to a more detailed analysis of the narrative itself. In the article
attempts were made to discern the peculiarities of all individual variants, deviations
from the typical logic of the folk legend which might in some way explain the
nature of the narrative as a whole and its genesis. It was attempted to examine the
legends of Ilyosha village chapel not as accidental combinations of different motifs,
but instead discover in them an organising logic. The greatest discovery was the
realisation that the illogical features of memoratic Votian variants could be
explained by their being based on an aetiological story model.
Different traditional codes are entwined in the ritual activities and oral traditions
connected with the Ilyosha chapel. We may observe the gradual incorporation of
former holy sites into church practise, using the strategy of so-called peaceful
inclusion. On the other hand, the Christian dominant of the folk tradition of the 18th
and 19th centuries has, as a result of the atheistic and rationalistic tendencies
concomitant with the communist system, already become clouded by the 20th
century, leading to an ostensible pagan renaissance.
The great fame of the Ilyosha holy site in the Votian folk tradition has been
assured above all by the pilgrimages to that spot. The location of the holy site in the
direct vicinity of the Votians territory also appears to be significant, and has been the
reason for the good knowledge of the tradition in all Votian village groups. It is
precisely the institution of the pilgrimages which has allowed the continual repetition
(re-actualisation) and transmission from generation to generation of the tradition
connected with the site, as well as its dissemination across national and language
borders.
Therefore we are here observing the phenomenon of greatly popular local holy
sites. The paradox could be explained by their once central religious position. The
description of the traditions of the 19th and 20th centuries in turn denotes the vitality
of the cult. Legends have a strong force precisely when they justify ritual and lend it
meaning. In this connection it is significant to observe how ethnographic reality and
legendary truth relate to each other. In most cases these two dimensions do not
overlap, but are instead in some special manner incongruous. This means that the
motifs of the story do not correspond entirely to that which is tangible, and cannot
therefore be taken as objective truth, yet are, all the same, consequential and refer
indirectly to specific realia.
The interpretations and conjectures of researchers concerning the origin and
genesis of the tradition have been as absorbing as the legends of the Ilyosha chapel
itself. By drawing on background information and going backwards in time, one may
observe the formation of the cult of the Ilyosha holy site until the late Middle Ages.
About that which preceded, including the ethnic origin of the tradition, we can only
speculate.

Translated by Alexander Harding

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