The “Tale” is directly preceded by a message from Dmitry from Rome to Archbishop Gennady, in which he reports that the Greek original of the tale of the white hood was not preserved and he could hardly find only the Latin translation of this work. Dmitry also attaches his own translation of this monument into Russian to the message.
The Tale begins with the story of a white hood. Roman Emperor Constantine, successor to the persecutor of Christians Maxentius, orders to weaken the persecution of Christians. But the sorcerer Zambria slanders Constantine of the priest Sylvester, who baptized a certain “royal husband”.
In the seventh year of his reign, Constantine fell ill with leprosy, which no one can cure. One of the healers advises the king to bathe in the blood of three thousand newborn baby boys. When the children are gathered, the king goes to the Capitol to bathe there. Hearing the groans of mothers, Konstantin refuses his decision, preferring to die himself.
At night, the apostles Peter and Paul appear in a vision to Konstantin and tell him to call Sylvester to him, who can show the "font of salvation." Having washed in this font, Konstantin should recover. But it will not be just healing, but the inheritance of eternal life. For this, Konstantin should give Sylvester and allow him to renew the Orthodox Church around the world. And so it really is.
After healing, Konstantin gives honor and respect to Sylvester and calls him dad. Constantine offers Sylvester a royal crown, but the apostles who appeared again give the Tsar a white hood in order to crown Sylvester. Having received from Konstantin a golden dish on which the royal crown lay, Sylvester puts a white hood on him and orders to put him in a “deliberate place”, putting it on only on lord's holidays. Sylvester bequeathed to do the same for his successors. In the thirteenth year of his reign, Konstantin decides that in the place where there is spiritual power, it is indecent to be secular power. Therefore, he leaves Sylvester in Rome, and he founded Constantinople and moved there.
From that time on, the sacred veneration of the white hood was established. But after some time, some king Karul and Pope Formosa, taught by the devil, depart from the Christian teaching and reject the teachings of the church fathers. Pope wants to burn a white hood in the middle of Rome, but he himself was afraid to do it. He decides to send the hood to distant lands and there to betray him to scare other Christians. A certain messenger Indrik goes with the hood.
While traveling on a ship, Indrik somehow almost sits on the hood, but at this moment darkness sets in. God's power throws him on the side of the ship, and he falls relaxed and dies. Among the messengers is a certain Jeremiah, who secretly professed the Christian faith. He has a vision to save the hood. During a storm, again miraculously, Jeremiah picks up a hood and prays. The storm subsides, and Jeremiah safely returns to Rome and tells about everything to the pope. Despite the fact that the pope is in great fear, he does not leave his thoughts to destroy or give a scolding white hood. In a vision, an angel with a fire sword appears to him at night and orders him to send a hood to Constantinople. Not daring to disobey, Pope Formosa sends an embassy to Byzantium.
In Constantinople, the virtuous patriarch Philotheus receives a white hood, who also in a vision learns what he should do with the shrine. The apostles Peter and Paul command to send the symbol of spiritual authority to Novgorod, Archbishop Vasily to venerate the church of St. Sophia. In Constantinople, the hood is greeted with honors, and another miracle happens here: touching the hood cures the eyes of the then emperor Ivan Kantakuzin from eye disease.
Papa Formosa, meanwhile, regrets that he gave the hood, and writes a letter to the patriarch. The patriarch refuses to return the shrine and exhorts the pope, trying to return him to the true path. Realizing that the white hood is in great honor in Byzantium, the pope falls ill from anger and his unbelief. It changes in the face, ulcers spread throughout the body, a “great stench” emanates from it, the spine ceases to hold the body. Dad loses his tongue - barks with a dog and a wolf, and then his mind - eats his stool. So he dies, cursed by the honest inhabitants of Rome.
Patriarch Filofei, despite his virtues, also almost made a mistake. He wants to keep his hood. Two unfamiliar men appear in a vision to him and explain why it was predetermined to send the shrine to Novgorod: grace left Rome. After some time, the Hagarians will own Constantinople “for the multiplication of the sins of men,” and only in Russia did the grace of the Holy Spirit shine. Patriarch Filofei hears the words of the husbands and asks who they are. It turns out that Pope Sylvester and Tsar Constantine appeared to him in a vision. Of course, the embassy with a white hood immediately leaves for Russia.
At this time in Novgorod, Archbishop Vasily also received a vision of receiving a white hood. The “Tale” ends with a description of universal joy when Archbishop Vasily receives an ark with a hood: “And people came from many cities and countries to look at a wonderful miracle - Archbishop Vasily in a white hood, and in all countries and kingdoms were surprised when they told about this ".
