St Nicholas and the Old Russian Tradition of Pilgrimage. V.M. Guminsky (Moscow)

Veneration of St Nicholas, enjoying as it does a special status in Russia and particularly wide dissemination, goes down to the earliest stage of Russian Christianity, when the basis of Russian Orthodoxy was being laid. Testimony to this is the murals of St Sofia Cathedral, painted around the year 1040, where St Nicholas the Miracle-maker features at least three times. The first time the saint is depicted in the mosaic of the central apsis where he is included in the saints' row leading its left-hand side that also includes St George the Theologian and the two saints from the original corpus of saints greatly venerated in Old Russia – these are St Clement, a Roman Pope, who was worshiped as Russian high-priest because his relics were buried in the Church of the Dime; and St Epiphany, archbishop of Cyprus, who was worshiped because his name day coincided with the first Russian holiday: consecration of the Church of the Dime (12 May).

Most of the space in St Sofia is decorated with frescoes where images of saints dominate: originally there were some 800 figures. The saints are arranged into several mini-programs as it were and collectively present a composite image of the Christian Faith in different contexts.

The second image of St Nicholas is located in the south-west space under the choir gallery and dominates one of such mini-programs. Its leading theme is the different degrees of saintliness: here we see saints and martyrs, the reverend and healers, apostles and holy wives, deacons and presbyters. Some of the figures carry patronal-symbolic meaning in their capacity as patron saints of the princely family. The figure of St Nicholas is located in one of the two arches connecting this space with the one under the dome cross and elucidates as it were the interpretation of the program as a whole. The presence of patronal parallels in the selection of saints in this section of the church is one more testimony of newly-baptized Russiás fusion with the Christian world community while the image of St Nicholas, similarly to the alter mosaics, turns out to be among the main ones in this mini-program.

The third image of St Nicholas is part of the miniprogram occupying one of the sections within the south inner gallery which is entirely devoted to holy bishops. The image of St Nicholas obviously stands out in the group of saints represented here. His halo has a double outline decorated with strings of pearls, and over the halo one can clearly see traces of a canopy that had once been there.