Statute of ecclesiastical service: Bilоstok Statute

The article provides general characteristics of Cyrillic manuscript church statutes, in particular the Study statutes, into the type of which we classify the investigated Bilоstok Statute. Marginal notes, stamps and labels, revealing the history of the codex existence, are investigated. In the 17-18th centuries it belonged to the Bilоstok monastery, in the 19th century it was deposited in the library of the Volyn Ecclesiastical Seminary, and from the 30s of the 20th century - in VNLU. The specifics and peculiarities of the artifact structure and content are demonstrated. Comparison of the Bilоstok Statute with a much older printed Statute of 1610 has allowed to reveal the following distinctions: the codex starts with the very statute of daily service; then Mark chapters totaling 81 units follow (in the printed version - 144); in the main part there are placed the Menology, the services of the Lent, of the Pentecost and of the Fast of Peter and Paul. It was determined that in printed variants of a book of this type the rubrics depicting norms of monastic life did not feature, in particular those concerning the monastic cell statute, general prayer, fasts, bows, general meal and various monastic needs, and also preaching and rules of Saint Fathers.