Abstract. The complex of motives associated with the image of nurse in Russian literature of the end of 19 – beginning of 20 centuries is determined in the article. Hagiographic and Christian motives are analyzed in detail. For the first time the representations of this image in Russian tradition and in Western one are juxtaposed (on the examples of French and English literature). The evolution of the depiction of nurse is shown: image-function is filling with human traits gradually, desacralization and diminution occurs. Special attention is paid to the difference of image treatment in the mass literature and in the “great” one.