Kirik Novgorodets ("Kirik the Novgorodian," Rus. Кирик Новгородец) (1110 – ca. 1156/1158) was a twelfth-century Novgorodian monk of the

Antoniev Monastery The Antoniev Monastery ("St Anthony's Monastery", russian: Антониев монастырь) rivalled the Yuriev Monastery as the most important monastery of medieval Novgorod the Great. It stands along the right bank of the Volkhov River north ...

and later a ''hieromonk'' in the entourage of Archbishop

Niphont of Novgorod Nifont was Archbishop of Novgorod from 1130 to 1156, the first prelate of Novgorod the Great to hold that title, though it appears the title was held personally and did not extend to the office until 1165. During his tenure, the prince of Novgorod ...

(r. 1130–1156) famous for writing the first mathematical treatise in Eastern Slavdom, the ''Uchenie o chislakh'' ("Teaching on Numbers," Rus. Учение о числах); he also wrote entries in the

Novgorodian First Chronicle The Novgorod First Chronicle (russian: Новгородская первая летопись) or The Chronicle of Novgorod, 1016–1471 is the most ancient extant Old Russian chronicle of the Novgorodian Rus'. It reflects a tradition different ...

in the 1140s and asked some of the 152 questions of Niphont in a theological work known as the ''Voproshanie Kirika'' ("The Questions of Kirik," Rus. Вопрошание Кирика or Вопрошание Кириково.) He also translated the works of Patriarch

Nikephoros I of Constantinople Nikephoros I or Nicephorus I (c. 758 – 5 April 828) was a Byzantine writer and patriarch of Constantinople from 12 April 806 to 13 March 815. Life He was born in Constantinople as the son of Theodore and Eudokia, of a strictly Orthodox fa ...

as well as the Pentateuch. Kirik (a form of the name Kirill) wrote in the ''Uchenie o Chislakh'' (its full title is “Uchenie im zha vedati cheloveku chisla vsekh let"), that "my birthday was 26 years before now, that is 312 months, 1,300 weeks, and 9,500 without three days." Since the Uchenie is dated to 1136, his birth year would have been 1110. He is thought to be the chronicler who referred to his own ordination in the ''Novgorodian First Chronicle'' under the year 1144, and to have survived Nifont (who died in Kiev in 1156), as he is thought to have written the chronicle entry in which he said that Nifont had been accused of fleeing to Novgorod after looting the archiepiscopal treasury, but defended the archbishop, asking "about this each one of us should reflect: which bishop adorned St. Sophia, painted the porches, made an icon case, and adorned the whole outside, and in Pskov erected a stone church to the Holy Savior and another in Ladoga to St. Clement?"Robert Michell and Nevill Forbes, ''Chronicle of Novgorod 1016–1471'' (London: Camden Society, 1914), 21–22.

References

{{Authority control Russian Orthodox monks 12th-century mathematicians 12th-century Eastern Orthodox Christians 1110 births 1150s deaths 12th-century Christian monks People from medieval Novgorod