The one who understands

St Xenia the Blessed and therapeutic culture in Russian Orthodox Christianity

Authors

• Jeanne Kormina Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités ’École pratique des hautes études (Paris); Yerevan Center for International Education https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8447-5625

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61560/ortodoksia.143860

Keywords:

sainthood, therapeutic culture, lived religion, memorials, St Xenia of Petersburg, small miracles, Orthodox Christianity

Abstract

The article discusses the veneration of St Xenia of St Petersburg in contemporary Russian vernacular Orthodoxy. Based on an analysis of such unorthodox forms of veneration of this saint as a sculpture and a lyrical song, the article shows that obtaining emotional comfort and the emotionalisation of communication with a saint are constitutive parts of ‘lived’ Russian Orthodoxy today. St Xenia is seen by believers as a ‘peer counsellor’ with experience of social suffering and therefore capable of empathy and consolation. The article shows that the ‘small miracle’ expected from addressing a saint or visiting a holy place is often a state of emotional comfort. The article suggests that all this happens as a result of the influence of the global therapeutic turn in Russian Orthodoxy. 

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