The cell, the grave and the church. The spread and appropriation of grace in the topography of Dunyushka’s shrine

The article analyzes folk ideas about the manifestations of grace in spatial (landscape) shrines associated with the names and paths of locally venerated saints in the village of Suvorovo (before 1965 Strakhova Puza) of the Diveyevsky district – Blessed Dunyushka Sheikova / Shikova and her three companions – Daria, Daria and Maria, the new Martyrs of Puza. It describes the topography of the “Shrines of Dunyushka”, the ideas of local residents about the manifestation of grace at different loci and objects of those shrines, as well as the practice of using (appropriation) of grace at those shrines. For that purpose, in the first part of the article, several concepts are introduced and justified: a complex shrine, the path the saint (via sancti), widespread grace and the second invisible “body” of the saint. A complex shrine is a network, a “constellation” of shrines united by the grace of the righteous. Its elements (natural or man-made) can be located at a considerable distance from each other, these are the most important places of the saint’s lifetime and posthumous stay. The topography of the complex shrine and pilgrimage routes is formed by the grace spread by the ascetic moving in space or his relics. Such a dynamic state of the shrine is considered as the second “body” of the saint, who invisibly resides on earth. In that aspect, the second part of the article considers not so much the topography as the dynamics of the existence and development of the “Shrinesof Dunyushka”, based on the manifestation and appropriation of grace emanating from them. In different historical epochs, the significance of different loci of the complex “Shrines of Dunyushka” (cell, grave, church with relics) as a center of religious practices and manifestations of grace has changed.

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