Imitation of the Carmina Moralia of St. Gregory of Nazianzus in the 16th-century Greek poetry of Lithuania
ENSaint Gregory of Nazianzus (ca. 329–390), important representative of both Eastern and Western Christianity, and one of the most prominent orators of his age (4th century AD), has left among his heritage an interesting collection of Greek poetry on moral subjects which (along with his rhythmical orations) has been a source of inspiration for a number of subsequent and much later generations of Christian intellectuals, clergymen, scholars and students. This paper very briefly surveys the possible reasons and ways which attracted St. Gregory to be studied in Lithuania, and mainly focuses on the direct evidence of the imitation of the part of his poetry generally called Carmina Moralia (PG 37, 521–968). The main source of my argument is the collection of funeral poetry Parentalia in obitum Georgii Chodkiewicz [...] Vilnae [...] 1595, published by the members of pious academic society of Vilnius University (Vilnius Jesuit Academy) in honor of recently deceased Georgius Chodkievicius (Юрый Хадкевіч, Jerzy Chodkiewicz, Jurgis Chodkevičius, 1570?–1595).
