Luckily, the archives of Porphyry are now in a good condition and conserved in the St. Petersburg Department of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences (fond 118). The Imperial Academy of Sciences acquired them after his death on April 19, 1885, as it was stated in the Porphyry’s testament.
Porphyry left the Academy a capital, the interest of which would fund the publication of his scientific works. In 1886 two members of the Russian Imperial Academy, Bychkov and Büler, reported about their preliminary work on systematization of the archives. At the same meeting of the Academy it was decided that Polychrony Syrku, a specialist in Byzantine and Old Slavonic studies would undertake the work of further systematization and description of Porphyry’s archive. The outcome of this work was impressive. Already in 1891 a printed catalogue of Porphyry’s papers appeared. Between 1894 and 1901 the Academy of Sciences published eight volumes of the Porphyry’s Journals. Finally, another important publication of
the “Porphyry’s Commission” are the two volumes of documents and official correspondence, prepared by the byzantinologist P. Bezobrazov. Based on both the published and unpublished archival material several research studies on Porphyry’s activities were made.
The fonds 118: an overlap between official documentation and personal papers:
The first set of documents, concerning Porphyry’s appointment to Jerusalem, refers to the official papers of the Holy Synod and to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Most of them are preserved in at least two copies—one or more in Porphyry’s archive, and the other in the archive of the Holy Synod. A third copy may be found in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Among them are the following: Porphyry’s letters to the over-prosecutor [ober-procuror] of the Holy Synod Count Nikolay Protasov (16), and to directors of the departments of the Synod (Serbinovich (85), Voitsehovich (2), Karasevsky (8). The next file (45) also contains official letters of Porphyry addressed to the Russian Ambassador at Constantinople Vladimir Titov (74) and to the Asian department of the Ministry of Foreign affairs. Many of them represent detailed
reports on the state of affairs in the Near East. Dossiers 46 and 47 contain 143 letters (from the 1848-53 period), addressed by Porphyry to the Russian Consul general at Beirut Constantine Basili, as well as one report about the Holy Sepulcre written for Emperor Nicolas I. The official answers of these persons form a separate file (49). Another group of interesting letters are addressed to Porphyry by the Russian consuls in Jaffa (G. Mostras) and in Beirut (C. Basili, file 50). Porphyry also corresponded with Boris Mansurov, the founder of the Palestine Committee. Most of the letters are focusing on Mount Athos, but one of them concerns the new head of the Russian mission in Jerusalem after the Crimean war, bishop Cyril Naumov. Porphyry found the appointment of a Russian bishop to Jerusalem completely wrong: first of all because the presence of two bishops in one town was against the church canons, and second, because the Cyril’s behavior was in his opinion “inappropriate”. Among the letters written by Porphyry to Russian high ecclesiastics, his correspondence with Metropolitan Filaret of Moscow should be specially pointed.
The papers of the Russian mission eo ipso are conserved in two big files (238 and 352 ff.), containing official correspondence of Porphyry with different persons in Russia and abroad, dating from the period 1842-54. Apart of letters by Basili and Titov, one can find here financial papers of the mission and also an architectural plan of the future house of the Russian mission, which was built in 1853. Of special importance is also a summary of the activities of Porphyry in Jerusalem, written by himself. During Porphyry’s absence from Jerusalem he was informed about the state of affairs by his assistant and member of the mission, hieromonk Theophan (8 letters dated 1851-52). Of course information on Jerusalem is dispersed in all his private correspondence from the period of his stay there. 19 letters are addressed to Greek high ecclesiastics, among them 11 to Patriarch of Jerusalem Cyril (1848-1854, 40 ff.). During his stay in Jerusalem, Porphyry wrote detailed notes on the history, geography, ethnography and statistics of Palestine. In a separate file he collected copies and translations of descriptions of the Holy Land by other persons, as well as journals of pilgrims of different countries and centuries. Among the copies of documents written by other persons, most important is the printed report of Boris Mansurov (the founder of the Palestine Commission, dated 1858), written after his visit to Jerusalem, followed by a letter of the Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaevich to Porphyry, and Porphyry’s opinion on Mansurov’s proposals.
Another note, which was also published later, belongs to Consul Basili (on the statistics of Syria and Palestine).20 The collection of Porphyry is rich in illustrative materials—gravures, sketches, drawings, and photos. Some of them are related to the Holy Land and Jerusalem.
