The monograph explores Gogol's work in the context of various religious and mystical traditions dating back to late antiquity and the Middle Ages. The dynamics of Gogol's work can be traced from the poem "Ganz Küchelgarten" to "Selected places from correspondence with friends," correlated with the circle of teaching traditions of the Middle Ages and Baroque. The creations of John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, John Listvichnik, Grigory Skovoroda, Bem, Pordage and others are considered as a necessary context for understanding the preaching pathos of I.V. Gogol and the features of his poetics. The multifaceted and multilevel connections of moral philosophy, word aesthetics, poetics of Gogol's genre of artistic and spiritual prose with ancient culture are revealed.