Saints' Cathedral

St Nicholas, St Zosimas of Solovki and St Sabbatius of Solovki

The juxtaposition of several and more depictions of different saints on a single painting support was common in Russian icon painting. Images of this type were created for personal use as household icons. They depicted particularly venerated saints and intercessors for very specific needs, to whom requests and prayers were addressed, believing in their effective intercession. These included the three saints depicted in the icon. In the centre of the icon is St Nicholas the Wonderworker, bishop of the city of Myra in Asia Minor who lived during the reign of Emperor Diocletian in the 3rd/4th century – a patron saint in times of need. On either side of him stand St Zosimas of Solovki and St Sabbatius of Solovki - ascetic monks from the 15th century,founders of the Solovetsky Monastery in the far north, who were patrons of the White Sea and beekeepers. These three saints were widely venerated among the Old Believers, who in the mid-17th century did not recognise Patriarch Nikon's liturgical reform and were separated from the official Russian Orthodox Church. Fleeing persecution in the provinces and northern wildernesses, they developed their own manufactures of cult objects.

Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967