Domostroy (1550) | English Translation

Домостро́й

Konshin manuscript, edits by Fr. Sylvester, Russia

Translated by Grok (xAI) for Piece of Humanity
Translator: Grok 4.6, built by xAI
Model: Grok 4.6
Work dated: September 19, 2026

This is a reading translation of the Church Slavonic in the scan on this site. It is not a critical edition, not a priest’s blessing, and not a substitute for the Russian pages.

Source:

Russian/Slavonic book reader: LINK
Russian/Slavonic downloadable PDF: LINK

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DOMOSTROI

According to the copy of N. M. Konshin – Imperial Public Library Q. XVII. No. 149

The book called Domostroi contains in itself most useful things: instruction and admonition for every Christian—husband and wife, children, menservants and maidservants. In it there is an indication of the chapters.

Admonition of a father to his son.
How Christians are to believe in the Holy Trinity, and the most pure Mother of God, and the Cross of Christ, and the holy heavenly bodiless powers, and all the saints and the honorable and holy relics, and to worship them.
How to partake of the mysteries of God, and to believe in the resurrection of the dead and to await the Terrible Judgment, and to touch every holy thing.
How to love God with all one’s soul, and likewise one’s brother, and to have the fear of God and remembrance of death.
How to honor the episcopal rank, and likewise the priestly and the monastic.
How to visit monasteries and hospitals and prisons, and every person in affliction.
How to honor the tsar or prince and to obey in everything, and to submit to every authority and to serve them in truth in all things; and toward the greater and the middling and the afflicted and the weak and toward every person how one ought to be, and to take heed of oneself in all this.
How to adorn one’s house with holy images and to keep the house clean.
How to come to the church of God and to monasteries with an offering.
How to invite priests and monks into one’s house to pray.
How to feed those who come into the house with thanksgiving.
How a husband with his wife and household is to pray in his house.
How a husband and wife are to pray in church and keep purity and do no evil.
How children are to honor their spiritual fathers and obey them in everything.
How to bring up one’s children in every instruction and in the fear of God.
How to bring up a daughter with a dowry and give her in marriage.
How to teach children and save them by fear.
How children are to love father and mother, and to take care of them and obey them and give them rest in everything.
How every person is to do handiwork and do every work with a blessing.
Praise of wives.
How a husband and wife and children and servants ought to be.
What kind of people to keep, and how to take thought for them in every teaching and in the divine commandments and in household management.
How Christians are to be healed of illness and of every affliction.
Of unrighteous living.
Of righteous living.
How a person is to live, reckoning his livelihood.
If anyone lives without reckoning himself.
If anyone keeps servants without managing them.
To instruct a husband his wife: how to please God and to please her husband, and how to manage her house well, and every household order, and to know handiwork and to teach the servants and herself to work.
The fruits of good wives’ handiwork and the keeping of everything, and what to cut and how to save remnants and scraps.
How to cut every kind of clothing, and to save remnants and scraps.
How to keep every household order.
Every day the master is to inspect among the servants everything, and the household order and the handiwork.
Every day the wife is to ask her husband about everything and take counsel with him about everything: how to go among people, and whom to invite to herself, and how to converse honorably with guests.
How to instruct servants, and how to send people with whatever is required.
Instruction to the wife concerning drunkenness and drunken drink, and likewise to the servant.
How the wife is to wear every kind of clothing and to arrange it.
How to arrange the order of the izba well and cleanly.
If the husband himself does not teach, he will receive judgment from God; if he himself does it and teaches his wife and household, he will receive mercy from God.
The master himself, or whomever he orders, is to buy the year’s supply and every kind of goods.
How to buy for one’s own use every kind of goods from overseas and from distant lands.
On the same: when to buy from whom, if one has no villages, and every household provision in summer and winter; and how to lay in stores for the year, and to keep all kinds of livestock at home, and always to have food and drink.
And if the husband has laid in for the year every kind of store, both Lenten and otherwise, how to arrange it.
Of surplus stores laid up in advance.
How to keep a kitchen-garden and an orchard.
How a person is to keep stored drink for himself and for guests, and how to arrange it in the presence of people.
Instruction likewise to the brewer: how to brew beer, and how to make mead, and how to distill wine.
The steward is to inspect every order among the cooks and the bakers and everywhere.
How to take counsel with one’s wife how to instruct the steward concerning the table provision and the kitchen and the bakery.
Instruction to the steward how a feast is to be made.
Instruction from the master to the steward how to cook Lenten food and meat food and how to feed the household in meat-eating time and in the fast.
Of keeping stores in the granaries and in the bins.
Likewise to look after the hayloft.
In the cellar and at the ice-house and at the little cellar to take care of everything.
In the store-rooms and in the undercrofts and in the barns the steward is to arrange every order according to the master’s instruction.
In the haylofts hay, and in the stables horses, and in the yard firewood and fodder stores to arrange, and all kinds of livestock.
In the kitchen and in the bakeries and in the work-huts to arrange what is made there.
In the cellars and at the ice-house and in the granary and in the hayloft and in the barn and in the stable the master himself is often to look, and to reckon with his servants in everything; then to reward them and to punish what is bad.
Concerning trading people and the shop, to deal with them in the same way.
How to build a yard, or a shop, or a barn, or a village.
How to pay the yard tax, or ground-rent from a shop, or dues from a village, or every debt to creditors.
Instruction to the steward how to keep in the cellar every salted store in barrels and in packs and in measures and in buckets: meat, fish, cabbage, cucumbers, plums, lemons, caviar, saffron milk-caps, milk-caps.
(In this copy the preceding household headings run on; the next separately marked chapter is the last.)
Epistle and admonition from a father to his son.

Here ends the indication of the chapters. Amen.

1. Admonition of a father to his son

I, a sinful father, bless and instruct and admonish and bring to understanding my son Ivan and his wife and their children and household, that they live in every Christian law and in every pure conscience and truth, doing the will of God with faith and keeping His commandments, confirming themselves in every fear of God and in lawful living, and instructing the wife, and likewise admonishing their household—not by compulsion, nor by blows, nor by heavy bondage, but keeping them as children in every rest, fed and clothed and in a warm dwelling and in every good order. And I give you this writing for a memorial and for your understanding and that of your children. If you do not heed this writing of mine and do not listen to the admonition and do not begin to live according to it and do not do as it is written, you yourselves will give answer on the day of the Terrible Judgment, and I am not a partaker of your faults and sins; apart from my own soul, I have in all this good order blessed and wept and prayed and instructed and set this writing before you. And if you receive this poor teaching of mine and this sinful admonition, then in prayer to the Lord and in making prostrations and in calling God to your help and in kissing the relics of the saints with faith and bowing to them…

2. How Christians are to believe in the Holy Trinity, and the most pure Mother of God, and the Cross of Christ, and the holy heavenly powers, and all the saints and the honorable relics, and to worship them

It is fitting, then, for every Christian to know how to live according to God in the Orthodox Christian faith.

First of all, with all one’s soul, and with all one’s thought, and with warm faith, believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the undivided Trinity; and believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and call her who bore Him Mother of God.

Bow with faith to the Cross of Christ, for on it the Lord accomplished salvation for all people.

And render honor to the icons of Christ and of His most pure Mother, and of the holy heavenly bodiless powers, and of all the saints, as they themselves are; with love make prayer and prostrations and call them to your help; and kiss the relics of the saints with faith and bow down to them.

3. How to partake of the mysteries of God and to believe in the resurrection of the dead and to await the Terrible Judgment and to touch every holy thing

Believe in the mysteries of God, partake of His Body and Blood with fear, for the purification and sanctification of soul and body and for the remission of sins and for life everlasting; believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the life of the age to come; remember the Terrible Judgment, and there will be a recompense according to our deeds. If at any time you draw near in a clean conscience with prayer and with entreaty to kiss the life-giving Cross and the holy honorable wonder-working and much-healing relics, after praying cross yourself and kiss them, holding your breath, and do not part your lips. And if God grants anyone to partake of the divine mysteries of Christ, receive them from the priest with the spoon into the mouth carefully, do not smite with the lips, keep the hands crossed on the breast. And take the antidoron and the prosphora and every holy thing carefully, do not drop crumbs on the ground. And do not bite the baked prosphora as other bread is broken; put small pieces in the mouth and eat them, do not champ with the lips and mouth; eat with care. And do not eat the prosphora with any broth, only sip water or warm water mixed with wine or without wine, and mix nothing else with it. Before every food consume the prosphora in church or at home, and never eat the prosphora with kutia nor with kanun, and do not put the prosphora on the kutia. If you exchange the kiss of Christ with anyone, likewise hold your breath and kiss, do not smack with the lips; considering human weakness and the insensible spirit that loathes the foul smell of hops, of vomit and of every stench, for our Lord is a stench and a savor to such; therefore do this with care.

4. How to love God with all one’s soul, and likewise one’s brother, and to have the fear of God and remembrance of death

After this you shall love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your strength, and strive to make all your deeds and customs and manners pleasing according to His commandments; and again love your neighbor, every person created in the image of God, that is, every Christian. Always have the fear of God in your heart and remembrance of death; always do the will of God and walk according to His commandments. The Lord said: “In whatsoever I find you, in that will I judge you.” Therefore it is fitting for every Christian to be ready in good works, in purity and in repentance and in every confession, always expecting the hour of death.4. How to honor the episcopal rank, and likewise the priestly rank and the monasticAlways have recourse to the episcopal rank, render them due honor, and seek blessing and spiritual instruction from them, and fall at their feet and obey them in everything according to God. Toward the priestly rank and the monastic have great faith and love and obedience and every submission before them, and receive spiritual profit from them; for they are servants and intercessors of the Heavenly King and have boldness before God to ask good and useful things for our souls and remission of sins and life everlasting.

5. How to visit monasteries and hospitals and prisons and every person in affliction

Visit those confined in monasteries and hospitals and wildernesses and prisons, and give alms according to your strength of everything they need, as they require, and be to the afflicted and to every need as far as possible a helper to them. And do not despise any person in affliction or in poverty or in need or a beggar; bring him into your house, give him to drink, feed him, warm him, clothe him with all love and a clean conscience: thereby you will make God merciful and obtain a reward for yourself, and you will make memorial for your departed parents, bring offerings to the churches of God, and in the house make a meal for them for the poor by alms, and you yourself will be remembered by God.

6. How to honor the tsar or prince and to obey in everything, and to submit to every authority…

Fear the tsar and serve him in faith and always pray to God for him, and never lie before him, but answer him with submission and truth as to God Himself, and obey him in everything. If you serve the earthly tsar in truth and fear him, you will learn also to fear the Heavenly Tsar: this one is temporal, that one eternal, and He is an impartial Judge and will render to each according to his deeds. Likewise submit to princes and render them due honor as to those sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do well. Love your prince with all your heart, and do not even think evil against your authorities; for the Apostle says: “There is no power but of God,” and if anyone resists the authorities, he resists the ordinance of God. And he who slanders the tsar and the prince and every magnate with calumny and cunning will perish; all who speak a lie and whisperers and slanderers are cursed by the people. Render honor to those older than yourself and make a bow; honor those of middle rank as brothers; greet the weak and the afflicted with love; love the young as children. Be not a liar toward any of God’s creation; desire earthly glory in nothing; ask of God eternal blessings. Endure every affliction and hardship with thanksgiving; do not avenge those who offend you; pray for those who curse you; do not return evil for evil; do not remember those who sin against you; remember your own sins firmly; turn away from the counsel of evil men; be zealous for those who live righteously, write their deeds in your heart, and do likewise yourself.

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