International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Yulia Buzykina 
Moscow Kremlin Museums, Moscow, Russian Federation; 
[e-mail]
Unusual Iconography of the Holy Five of Sebasteia 
in the Wall Paintings of Archangel Michael Cathedral of Moscow Kremlin. 
Towards the Problem of Warrior Saints in the Byzantine Tradition
Our paper deals with the subject raised firstly by Ch. Walter in his study of the warrior saints 
in Byzantine art and tradition. The question was: who actually are the warrior saints? Walter shows 
that the obvious answer, which is “those, who were warriors according to their Lives”, is wrong. 
Some warrior saints, among them St Demetrius, did not have anything to do with military service 
according to their Lives; they “became” warriors in iconography during their veneration. 
The same happened in Russian post-Byzantine art to The Holy Five, mentioned by Walter as 
well. They have turned into warriors about the middle of the 16
th
century. The Holy Five were often 
depicted in the Byzantine art since 11
th
century, but in the Russian art of Byzantine time we can see 
very few of their depictions. However, they became more popular in the late 15
th
century. Since the 
middle of 16
th
century the Holy Five were particularly venerated in the tsar family, as on December, 
13, 1546, on the day of their memory Makarius the Metropolitan of Moscow blessed young prince 
Ivan Vasilyevich (future Ivan the Terrible) to marry Anastasia Romanovna. In honor of this event, 
the tsar stablemen have founded a church of John the Baptist (patron saint of Ivan the 4
th
) with side 
altar of The Holy Five of Sebasteia.
We will concentrate on depiction of The Holy Five on the pillars of Archangel Michael 
cathedral. The existing wall paintings created in 1652–1666, reproduce the program and presumably 
iconography of decoration created in 1564/1565. Three of the martyrs, Auxentios, Eugenios and 
Eustratios are depicted as warriors with arms and armor, although they were not soldiers. Mardarios 
wears civil dress. Orestes, who was the only warrior among them, according to the Life, wears civil 

---

567
dress too, but his figure is a late reconstruction. Such “militaristic” iconography is very ridiculous 
and rare, and we do not know any examples of it in the Russian art earlier than the second half of 
the 16
th
century. One can suppose that the existing wall painting repeats not only the program, but 
iconography of the saints as well. Moreover, in the original decoration, all the five martyrs could be 
firstly depicted as warriors. Wall paintings and icons of late 16
th
– 17
th
centuries with all the five in 
military dress, confirm this.
Our presumption looks more probable, taking into account lists of banners of Tsar Regiment, 
preserved in the 17
th
century documents. They have depictions of warrior saints, holy Byzantine 
Emperors and Russian princes on the horseback with arms and armors. The banners must repeat 
the earlier ones and among them figure ones with Auxentios, Mardarios and Orestes. 
To sum up, we suppose that in the middle of the 16
th
century, the Holy Five Martyrs of Sebasteia 
appeared on the pillars of Archangel Michael cathedral as military saints. It was done on purpose 
and for the first time in the Russian art. We think that here one can see the same mechanism 
working as in the case of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki, but in the Russian post-Byzantine art of 
16
th
century. The Holy Five are not the only accident, for example, the military iconography of St 
Tryphon appears in the Russian art at the same time.

---