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Monomakh, Volyn Prince Volodymyr Vasilkov was also famous for his
philosophical works.
One of the most notable Kyiv Rus thinkers was Ilarion of Kyiv, originally a
priest of the church in Berestov near KYiv, later on from 1051 – the Metropolitan

of Kyiv. Metropolitan Ilarion stands at the roots of the philosophical and actual
culturological thought of the Ukrainian people. Ilarion of Kyiv has such a great
work as "The Word of Law and Grace." According to the traditions of that time

“under the law" meant the Old Testament, and “under the grace” – the New
Testament. The historiosophical concept of this thinker comes from an
understanding of cultural history as universal, holistic and providential in essence.

The author expresses interesting philosophical ideas about the concepts of freedom
and necessity, the old (Old Testament) and the new (New Testament) sense of
human existence. Metropolitan Ilarion tries to affirm the idea of equality of all

peoples and the right of his people to a proper place in world history. In the work,
for the first time in Kyiv Rus the idea of the origin of princely power from God and
the necessity of its continuity is substantiated. The content of the work shows a
considerable awareness of the author of the achievements of the Byzantine,

Western European and Slavic theoretical thought, the love for his own land and
people.

An extremely progressive, as for his time, cultural and ideological position
was occupied by the author of another Old Rus "Word" (or "Prayer") – Danylo
Zatochenik. His work, which contains a number of political and purely vital advice
to the Prince of Novgorod, Yaroslav Volodymyrovych, is permeated with deep

philosophical and socio-political ideas. By advocating the priority of reason over
power, knowledge over bravery, wisdom over destiny, Danylo Zatochenik appeals
to the authority of the Holly Bible and the thoughts of ancient thinkers –

Pythagoras, Democritus, Aristotle, Plutarch, Herodotus and others. He exalts
spirituality and asserts the self-worth of a wise, thinking person.
Philosophical, aesthetic representations, important actions of culturological

knowledge, description of customs and everyday life are often encountered in the
hagiographic genre – the lives of saints. It should be mentioned that in Kyiv Rus
the first of martyrs and saints are young Prince Boris and Gleb, the founders of the

Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery, Antonyy Pechersky, and others. At the beginning of the
XIIIth century, the "Kyiv-Pechersk Paterik" – stories about the most famous
monks of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery – was composed.
From the XIVth century in the theoretical thought, issues related to ethno-

cultural self-awareness and concepts of ethnic origin began to occupy a special
place.

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