The image of the heart in poetic and patristic synthesis

The religious, philosophical and poetic context of the functioning of the image of the heart in the discourse of Russian symbolist poets is analyzed. An attempt has been made to discover mythological and Christian (evangelical and patristic) roots in the genesis of “cardio- topy”. The authors of the study rely on a wide range of works by Russian theologians and philosophers. In addition, for a more complete interpretation of the image, the latest anatomical and philosophical concepts and distant contexts (Vedic and Quranic) are involved. The work uses a cognitive-discursive approach to the analysis and interpretation of the central image of “cardiotopy” - the heart. It is concluded that the poetic and patristic perception of the image of the heart reveals a paradoxical convergence of meanings: the traditional interpretation of the image as a symbol of the human soul, which experiences various emotions and experien- ces, and conveys deep thoughts and feelings of the subject, is interfaced in the poetic space of the text with speech-thinking and cognitive functions that communicate with the external and internal world, with the Creator (God), as well as a complex process of intuitive cognition, implemented by stimuli of various modalities (memory, speech thinking, perception).