Russian church services glorifying Russian Saints or feasts are very often referred to as original, but when writing about the 'originality' of these services we should take account not only that all liturgical texts are canonical but also that the main principle in creating a new liturgical text is basing it on an existing model. This can be a direct borrowing or 'updating', or free editing of the known text. Normally hymns to saints of the same rank were used, but it was also possible to use hymns to a saint with a similar 'function'. In analysing the mechanism of creation for hymnography, we should not forget that this method was not only seen as the only possible one, but also put new saints in the context of Christian history.