Query...

[Marc Robinson]

Greetings.

For a current project I would like to know if there is a concept in Russian
culture equivalent to "The Dark Night of the Soul" which arose out of the
Catholic tradition and made famous by the poem and treatise by St. John of
the Cross (Spanish).  My question is whether this term or something similar
used in Russian.  Would a cultured contemporary Russian perhaps be aware of
this idea (where a person undergoes a deep spiritual and personal crisis) or
of this term?  Perhaps there is an equivalent in Orthodoxy?
Thanks for any help with this.

Marc Robinson, Chair
Dept. of Russian Language and Area Studies
St. Olaf College
1520 St. Olaf Avenue
Northfield, MN 55057

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