George with the serpent. Miracle with the serpent that happened to the Holy Great Martyr George

The image of Saint George the serpent fighter is widely known. In canonical form, this is a horseman striking a dragon with a spear. But such a canon did not emerge immediately.

The miracle of St. George about the serpent with life.

Some of the icon painters believed that St. George the Victorious subdued the monster with the word of God, and not with weapons, while others seemed at a loss in choosing what to use to strike the brave St. George, originally from Cappadocia, with the winged monster. An illustrative example here is the icon from the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God in the village of Pogost-Sable, Batetsky district, Novgorod region, in the former Vodskaya Pyatina of Mister Veliky Novgorod. The icon is kept in the museum in the Novgorod Kremlin.

An icon from the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God in the village of Pogost-Sable, Batetsky district, Novgorod region, in the former Vodskaya Pyatina of Mister Veliky Novgorod. Kept in the museum in the Novgorod Kremlin.

The work, created at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries, somewhere during the reign of Tsar Boris Godunov, depicts the Miracle of St. George about the serpent with a hagiography. And there the future great martyr slays the serpent not with a spear, as we are all accustomed to seeing, but with a sword! Why is that?

Saint George slays the serpent with a sword, not a spear.

Let's start with the fact that the brave warrior George accomplished his main feat under the emperor Diocletian, when he did not renounce his faith, despite numerous tortures. Actually, the icon depicts not only the fight against snakes, but the last days of the life of the famous saint.

The image became widely known in the world.

When the persecution of Christians began, George distributed property to the poor and openly declared himself a Christian before the emperor. They arrested him and began to torture him for seven days; he was subjected to terrible torture, but his wounds were always healed miraculously: they stabbed him with spears, crushed him with a heavy stone, tortured him with a wheel studded with knives and swords, threw him into a pit with quicklime, broke the bones on his arms and legs, They were forced to walk in red-hot iron boots, beaten with whips and even poisoned.

Although this is not what the Christ-loving warrior accomplished his main feat.

George endured all this torment and did not renounce Christ. After unsuccessful persuasion to renounce and offer a pagan sacrifice, on the eighth day he was sentenced to death by beheading.

And because he accepted martyrdom, but did not renounce the Christian faith.

Where did the serpent come from then? And here is the most interesting thing. If the Greeks believed that George defeated the serpent before his death, going to Diocletian, but the Slavs believed that Saint George accomplished the feat posthumously! But is it really that important? The main thing is that this story had a happy ending.

This happened more than 1,700 years ago under Emperor Diocletian.

In the vicinity of the city of Beirut, near the Lebanese Mountains, there lived in a lake a snake that attacked people. The city was ruled by a king “a dirty idolater, a lawless and wicked man, merciless and unmerciful to those who believe in Christ.” The people, frightened by the monster, came to him asking what to do. And the king proposed to draw up a list of townspeople and, one by one, give their children to be torn to pieces by the snake, promising, when his turn comes, to give his daughter to death. Having fulfilled his promise, the king “dressed his daughter in purple and fine linen, adorned him with gold and precious stones and pearls” and ordered her to be taken to the serpent.

Georgy Georgievich was tortured for seven days.

George, seeing the crying princess, asked her about the reason for her grief and, having learned about the monster, promised to save her. “Having made the sign of the cross and calling on the Lord, with the words: “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” he rushed on his horse towards the serpent, shaking his spear and, striking the serpent with force in the larynx, struck him and pressed him to earth; The saint’s horse trampled the serpent underfoot.” Although we note that in some versions of the story, the snake was struck solely by the power of the saint’s prayer.

And on the eighth they beheaded.

However, more precisely, he is humble, since he was not struck to death. Then George ordered the princess to tie the snake with a belt and lead it to the city. The people were surprised by the princess's return and, seeing the snake, began to run away in horror. George addressed them with the words: “Don’t be afraid! If you believe in Christ, in whom I believe, you will now see your salvation.” And after that he beheaded a snake with a sword, whose corpse the residents carried out of the city and burned. This miracle contributed to the conversion of local residents to Christianity.

But in the people's memory, St. George the Victorious remained forever, thanks to the salvation of the princess and the entire city in modern Lebanon from the serpent.

The iconographic original gives the following lengthy description of the plot that should be depicted on the icon: “The miracle of St. George, how he delivered the maiden from the serpent, is written as follows: the holy martyr George sits on a white horse, having a spear in his hand and with it he stabbed the serpent in the larynx; and the serpent came out of the lake, great and terrible; The lake is large, next to the lake there is a mountain, and in another country there is a mountain, and on the edge of the lake stands a maiden, a royal daughter, wearing a magnificent royal robe, holding a serpent with a belt and leading the serpent with a belt into the city, and another maiden closes the city gates; the city is surrounded by a fence and a tower, from the tower the king looks, in the image of a Rus, the fortress is small and the queen is with him, and behind them are the boys, warriors and people with axes and spears.”

Having struck the serpent with a spear, George then killed him with a sword in the city.

However, in most cases, the icons depict an abbreviated composition: a warrior on horseback strikes a serpent with a spear, and Christ or his hand blesses him from heaven. Sometimes an angel with a crown in his hands is depicted above the head of George. The city is usually depicted in icons as a tower. A distinctive feature of Russian icons depicting this plot is that George strikes the dragon with a spear not in the eye, as in Western painting, but in the mouth.

And if on most icons he is depicted at the moment of defeating the dragon, then on some - at the moment of reprisal against him.

But, as we see, there was another image. Even more concise. Where it is depicted not the moment of the horseman’s victory, the pacification of the serpent, but his death from the sword of an equestrian, Christ-loving warrior.

The icon “The Miracle of St. George the Dragon” is the image of the great martyr St. George the Victorious. The shrine is the protector of the hearth and helps in any troubles.

“The Miracle of George on the Dragon” is a well-known icon in Orthodoxy. The patroness of the military, intercessor against misfortunes and one of the most revered shrines in Christianity adorns many churches in Russia. The image of St. George has miraculous power: like other prayer icons, it works real miracles.

History of the icon “The Miracle of George on the Dragon”

The icon was painted in honor of the Great Martyr George. The saint was born in the city of Lydda, which was located in Palestine. At that time, the local ruler preached paganism and killed Christians. Father George preached the word of God, for which he was executed. His mother, being pregnant, managed to escape.

Saint George fell in love with Jesus from an early age and accepted the Christian faith. He had incredible willpower, courage and perseverance. The young man was accepted into the service of the emperor, where he defeated enemies and won every battle. But when the ruler found out what faith George professed, he ordered the Christian to be tortured, which lasted seven days. Then the saint was beheaded.

As the legend goes, many years after the burial of George’s body, a terrible snake settled in the only city source of drinking water. Once a month, local residents sacrificed young people to him in order to continue to use drinking water. When there was only one young girl left, who was the daughter of the emperor, she was brought to the lake, but then George appeared with a spear and killed the snake. Christians considered this event a miracle and began to venerate and glorify the great martyr even more strongly. The way the holy warrior defeated the monster in the lake symbolizes the victory of Christianity over paganism. The persecution of Orthodox believers stopped.

Where is the miraculous image located?

The miraculous face of St. George the Victorious can be found in almost every church in our homeland. The most revered icons of “George’s Miracle on the Dragon” are kept:

• in the Cathedral of St. George in Starye Luchniki;
• in the St. George Church (Odintsovo deanery);
• in the Cathedral of the Great Martyr George the Victorious in the village of Monino.

Description of the icon of St. George the Victorious

On the shrine “The Miracle of George on the Dragon” the holy martyr is depicted seated on a white stallion, dressed in military armor with a cloak flowing behind him. The saint pierces a huge serpent with a sharp spear, personifying the victory over the devil himself.

How does St. George the Victorious help?

Saint George is the protector and patron of everyone who participates in hostilities or has a military rank. People pray in front of his holy icon for protection from enemies and for peace in the country and in the family. The saint also helps to heal from various diseases. They pray to him for victory over the enemy, circumstances and anger. This miraculous image can come to the aid of every Christian who believes in the power of prayer words.

Days of celebration

The day when Orthodox Christians pay homage to the holy martyr George, praising and reading prayers with even greater zeal before his miraculous image, falls on May 6 (April 23).

Prayer to George in front of his icon

You can pray in front of the icon of the Orthodox martyr both in church and at home. It is best to light a candle before saying a prayer. Strong prayer in front of the holy image:

“Oh, great warrior! Protector and Intercessor of all Christians, Saint George! Hear the words of our prayer from heaven, fill our souls with faith, our bodies—by force and give us
perseverance! Drive away diseases, keep our houses safe and sound. Protect from enemies and various misfortunes. May we glorify Your most holy name, O Great Martyr George! Let the will of the Lord be done. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. From now on and forever and ever. Amen".

Address your prayers to the saints and do not hesitate to ask them for painful things. It is within the power of every saint of the Lord to help you overcome internal weakness and external evil. The problem will not be solved in one day, but your faith will grow and become stronger. Therefore, never forget about words of gratitude to the saints. Strong is the one who believes and appreciates help from Above. We wish you happiness, success,and don't forget to press the buttons and

16.11.2017 05:42

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The Life of Saint George describes many miracles performed by the great martyr. In the earlier edition of the life, Saint George appears only as a great martyr, and only later editions are supplemented by descriptions of miracles, and first there were three episodes characterizing the saint as a miracle worker, then six more were added to them, including the famous “Miracle of George on the Serpent” .

The first miracle, which can be conditionally called the “Miracle of the Widow’s Column,” or “The Widow’s Mite,” tells how in Syria, where there were no large stones for the pillars that were supposed to support the building, these stones were bought in distant countries and brought by sea. This is what one widow did, who bought a good pillar and begged the mayor to take it on board a ship to take it to the Church of St. George the Great Martyr, which was under construction. He did not heed the prayers of the poor woman and sailed away, and she fell to the ground and, sobbing bitterly, called upon Saint George in her prayers. She fell asleep in tears and saw in a dream George appear to her on a horse, who asked what she was so grieving about. The widow told the saint about her grief. “Where do you want to put the pillar?” - asked the saint. “On the right side of the church,” the woman answered. Then the saint wrote on the pillar with his finger where this gift of the widow should be placed according to her desire. Together with the woman, they lifted the pillar, which suddenly became light, and lowered it into the sea. Waking up, the widow did not find the pillar in the same place, and when she returned home, it turned out that her pillar with the inscription made by the saint’s hand was already lying on the shore. The mayor repented of his sin, and the widow’s pillar was placed in the place where it was ordered.

The second miracle - “with a pierced image”, talks about the power of the miraculous icon of the saint. In the same Syrian city of Ramel, already conquered by the Saracens, several Saracens entered the church of St. George during a service, and one of them, taking a bow, shot an arrow at the icon of the great martyr.

But the arrow flew upward and, falling from there, pierced the arrow himself in the hand. The hand became swollen and very painful, and the Saracen, suffering from terrible suffering, confessed everything to his maids, among whom were several Christians. They advised the owner to call the priest, and he explained to the barbarian who Saint George was and why he received the grace from God to perform miracles. On the advice of the priest, the Saracen ordered the icon of the Great Martyr George to be brought to his house, placed it over his bed, prayed in front of it and anointed his hand with oil from the lamp. The Saracen was healed, believed in God, was secretly baptized, and then began to loudly preach the teachings of Christ as the true God in the city square. The Saracen convert accepted the crown of martyrdom, for he was immediately cut into pieces by his former co-religionists.

The third miracle - "about the captive Paphlagonian youth" tells about the deliverance of a young man captured by the Hagarians in the church of the Great Martyr George during the celebration on the day of remembrance of the saint. He spent a year in captivity with the Hagaryan prince, and twelve months later, exactly on the day when the young man was captured by the Gentiles, through the prayers of his poor mother, the captive was miraculously returned to his parents. He had just served the Hagaryan prince at table and appeared before his amazed parents directly with a wine vessel in his hands. Talking about what happened, the young man said: “I poured wine to give to the prince, and suddenly I was lifted up by a bright horseman, who put me on his horse. I held the vessel in one hand, and with the other I held on to his belt, and behold I found myself here..."

Two more miracles of St. George tell about a similar miraculous return from captivity. However, the most popular of all miracles, firmly entrenched in the iconography of the great martyr, is the “Miracle of George on the Serpent,” where the saint saves an entire city and the king’s daughter from a terrible monster.

In the homeland of Saint George, near the city of Beirut, where many idolaters lived, there was a large lake near the Lebanese Mountains. And a huge snake settled in this lake. Coming out of his refuge, he devoured people, and no one could cope with him, for the very air around him, infected with his breath, became deadly.

Then the ruler of the country decided to give the children of one of the inhabitants to the snake every day, and when his turn comes, he will give his only daughter to the monster.

So, by lot, the people of that country sent the snake to their children, until the turn of the king’s daughter came. Dressed in the best clothes and mourned by her parents, the girl found herself on the shore of the lake, sobbing bitterly and awaiting her death hour.

Suddenly, a beautiful young man appeared before her on a white horse with a spear in his hands - St. George the Victorious himself. Seeing the crying girl, he turned to her to find out why she was standing on the shore of the lake and what kind of grief she had. But the girl begged the beautiful young man to quickly leave this terrible place, otherwise he would die with her. Saint George insisted and finally heard the bitter story about the terrible monster and the king’s word. The girl again begged George to leave, because it was impossible to escape from the monster, and then a snake appeared from the lake. Having made the sign of the cross, with the words “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” George rushed at the monster and struck it with a spear, striking it in the very throat. The spear pressed the snake to the ground, the horse trampled it with its feet, and then Saint George ordered the girl to tie the snake with her belt and lead it, like an obedient dog, to the city.

The people shied away from the monster in horror, but George said: “Do not be afraid and believe in our Lord Jesus Christ.” And when George killed the snake in the middle of the city, thousands of residents believed in Christ and accepted holy baptism, and there were twenty-five thousand of them, not counting women and children.

At that place, a church was subsequently built in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos and St. George the Victorious, who protects the Christian Church from destroyers and from sin, just as he saved the king’s beautiful daughter from the devouring serpent.

The Christian legend of St. George has many variants that differ significantly from each other. In one of the variants, which received literary treatment in the Greek east (historians consider it the earliest and most authentic), the Roman emperor Diocletian (in 303) begins the persecution of Christians. Soon, a young military tribune, George, originally from Cappadocia (a region in Asia Minor, then part of the Roman Empire, now the territory of Turkey), appears to him; in a meeting of the highest ranks of the empire in the city of Nicomedia, he declares himself a Christian. The emperor tries to persuade him to renounce his faith, but to no avail. Then George is placed in prison and subjected to numerous cruel tortures - thrown into a ditch with quicklime, scourged with ox sinews, put on red-hot iron boots studded with spikes, poisoned, wheeled, etc., but he remains alive. In the intervals between tortures, George performs miracles (heals the sick, resurrects the dead, etc.), under the influence of which the empress, some of the emperor’s associates, and even one of his executioners believed in Christ. On the eighth day of torture, George agrees to make a sacrifice to the pagan gods, but when he is solemnly brought to the temple, “with the word of God he casts them into the dust, after which, by order of the emperor, his head is cut off.” George was about 30 years old on the day of his execution.

In this life, as in all its other early versions, there is no “Miracle of the Serpent,” since at first there were two independent legends - his “Life” and “George’s Miracle of the Dragon.” They were united only in later retellings. The legend “George’s Miracle about the Dragon” has many variants. Here's one of them. Near the city of Lasya in Palestine, a dragon settled in a lake, which devastated the surrounding area and devoured the inhabitants of the city. To avoid death, they were forced to sacrifice their children to him. When it was the turn of the royal daughter, a beautiful young man appeared on a white horse - George. Having learned from the princess that she was a Christian, George, with the word of God, made the serpent fall at his feet. The princess tied her belt around the dragon's neck and led him into the city. The residents of the city, amazed by the miracle, believed in Christ and were baptized, and George moved on.

Attempts to find a specific historical figure who could be the prototype of St. George were unsuccessful, but several interesting hypotheses were put forward about the connection of these legends with pre-Christian mythology.

For thousands of years, in the religions and mythologies of European and Middle Eastern civilizations, the dragon and snake were the embodiment of darkness and evil, and the gods, heroes and saints fighting them personified the bright beginning, good. In ancient Greek myths, Zeus defeats the hundred-headed fire-breathing monster Typhon. The sun god Apollo fights the monstrous serpent Python, and the legendary Hercules kills the Lernaean Hydra. The similarity of the Christian myth “The Miracle of the Serpent” with the ancient myth of Perseus and Andromeda, in which Perseus kills the sea monster and frees the king’s daughter Andromeda, who was given to the monster to be devoured, in order to save the kingdom from devastation, is especially noticeable. There are many more legends of this type, for example, the myth of Bellerophon on the winged horse Pegasus, who entered into battle with the offspring of Typhon - the Chimera. There are many beautiful images on ancient Greek vases, gems, and coins that illustrate these myths. With the advent of Christianity, the image of the serpent-dragon was strongly associated with paganism and the devil. There is a well-known episode of the Fall, when the devil took the form of a tempting serpent.

The Roman writer and historian (260-339), author of the Life of Constantine, Eusebius, reports that Emperor Costantine the Great, who did a lot to ensure that Christianity became the state religion, ordered himself to be depicted in a painting that decorated the imperial palace as a conqueror over a dragon. The dragon here also symbolized paganism.

The cult of St. George, which probably arose locally in the territory of Cappadocia in the 5th-6th centuries, by the 9th-11th centuries had spread to almost all states of Europe and the Middle East. He was especially revered in England, where King Richard the Lionheart made him his patron, and Edward III established the Order of the Garter under the patronage of St. George, on which the saint is depicted as a snake fighter. The battle cry of the British, similar to our “hurray,” becomes the name of the saint.

In Rus', as already mentioned, the cult of St. George began to spread immediately after the adoption of Christianity, and not through Western Europe, but directly from Byzantium. His images in the form of a horseman-snake fighter are found already at the beginning of the 12th century. It is interesting to see its placement on a coil, on an amulet, on one side of which there is a tangle of snakes, and on the other - George, on the 12th century fresco “The Miracle of George on the Serpent” in the church named after him in Staraya Ladoga, on the icons of the 14th-15th centuries of the Novgorod school. In the upper right corner of the icon is the hand of God blessing the saint. The cult of St. George in Russia precedes Christianity, replacing the worship of the pagan Slavs to the Sun and the cult of the fertility god Yarilo. This perhaps explains the image of the sun on the saint's shield.

Under Ivan III in 1464, a sculptural image of St. George was placed above the entrance gate of the main Kremlin tower - Frolovskaya (later Spasskaya). This event is reported in the Ermolin Chronicle, compiled by order of the merchant and contractor Vasily Ermolin, through whose “representation” this image was installed. It would be very tempting to consider this sculpture as the coat of arms of Moscow, but here, most likely, this icon had protective functions, since two years later the same Ermolin placed an image of St. Dmitry above the gate of the tower on the inside. It is known that after the tower was rebuilt, the image of St. George was placed in the temple named after him, built near the tower, as a temple icon. In place of George, the image of the Savior Almighty was placed, from which the tower received its second name.

The plot of “The Miracle of the Serpent” in the form of a saint (warrior or hero-prince) continued to live in folk art for centuries, developing and acquiring new incarnations. In the oldest Russian epics of the 11th century, it corresponds to the feat of one of the most important Russian heroes, Dobrynya Nikitich, who served under Prince Vladimir. In the battle with the Serpent Gorynych on the Puchaya River, Dobrynya frees the prince's niece Zapeva Putyatichna (or his daughter Marfida). Some researchers draw an analogy between this episode of the epic and the activities of a historical figure - Dobrynya, the governor of Prince Vladimir the Saint (and brother of Prince Malusha's mother), in spreading Christianity in Rus'. In particular, the forced baptism of Novgorodians in the Pochayna River (in the epic - Puchai). A popular print illustrating the folk tale about Eruslan Lazarevich has been preserved. Below the picture is a brief summary of the tale: “Eruslan Lazarevich was traveling along the road, and Eruslan was attacked by King Zmeinski or the sea monster, who was devouring the people in the city of Debra... he defeated the dragon, and he went on his way.” In folk epic poems about Yegor the Brave, George is endowed with the features of an epic hero.

Many authors tried to explain the extraordinary popularity of St. George both among the people and among the princely warriors by transferring the features of Russian pagan gods to this saint. On the one hand, the very name of George, meaning “cultivator of the land,” made him the patron of agriculture and cattle breeding, the successor of Veles, Semargl, Dazhbog. This was also facilitated by the saint’s memorial days. Spring - April 23 - coincided with the beginning of field work, with which many ancient pagan rituals were associated in Rus', and autumn - November 24 - the famous “St. George's Day”, when peasants had the right to move from one feudal landowner to another. On the other hand, as a warrior and victorious, he was the patron of the prince and his squad, since the cult of Perun, the main god of the pagan pantheon of Prince Vladimir, was transferred to George. In addition, the very image of George as a beautiful young man - a warrior, liberator and defender, attracted the sympathy of the entire people.

It is worth noting that, regardless of the differences in translations of the “Life of George the Martyr,” in different parts of the world, starting from the 8th century, a legend is described about a certain young man with this name, who suffered many tortures.

What is noteworthy is that by the 10th century, the Arabs had erected several temples in honor of this saint in the East. Unlike the original version, which describes the martyrdom of George over 7-8 days, the Muslim version of the legend about the life of the Victorious One describes 3 deaths of the faithful servant of Allah and his resurrection after drowning, burning and hammering nails into the head of the martyr.

An interesting fact is that, unlike the wonderful legend of the victory over the Serpent, the character of George is always described as a messenger of God to a cruel ruler. Perhaps this is just a made-up story that is passed down from generation to generation to strengthen faith.

On the other hand, similar to the evidence about the existence of Jesus Christ, it can be assumed that there was a certain prophet who brought the word of God to the masses and was not afraid of torture and persecution from unbelievers. It is difficult to prove the fact of the resurrection or death of a given person, but such resistance to torture is hyperbolism, emphasizing George’s devotion to his chosen Teaching.

As is known, St. George received the crown of martyrdom in 303 AD. And already on one of the forty ceramic icons found in Macedonia and dating back to the 4th–6th centuries, we see him as a snake fighter. That is, since early Christian times, the snake has been iconographically the personification of infernal forces. Which is understandable, because even for biblical writers, snakes are a symbol of deceit, ferocity, and evil; They call the prince of darkness himself the same, only with the definition “ancient.”

The earliest images of the horseman from the plot that interests us are found in the homeland of George - in Cappadocia, from the 10th to 11th centuries. The image of a dragon, judging by the surviving heritage, first appears in Orthodox art on the pages of the Greek psalter of Lobkov (9th century). The nameless author of the miniatures interpreted the defeat of the reptile by the Baptism of Christ: “Thou hast destroyed the heads of the serpents in the water: thou hast crushed the head of the serpents"(Ps. 73: 13–14). From the Greek myth of the Argonauts, it is known that Medea, after killing her own children, flew away in a chariot drawn by two winged dragons. In turn, Demeter gave Triptolemus a chariot with the same harness. The sea monster that guarded Andromeda is sometimes also represented by a winged reptile. However, on vases, coins, reliefs, and wall paintings, we most often found Ladon, Python, the Theban dragon belonging to Mars, and others only in the form of ordinary large vipers. Their pubic “descendant” differs from the viper only in the presence of certain associative, rudimentary wings. But on one Egyptian fresco the Solar Serpent is written with developed wings and even with four legs, which, however, are not plastically connected in any way with the wings. Its Old Testament relative, the Flying Serpent, is mentioned by the prophet Isaiah in a series of eschatological “characters” (Is. 34: 15). It took Christian artists more than one century to “grow” the dragon’s wings, much less connect them with its paws. It will acquire its textbook appearance only by the beginning of the 2nd millennium.

And here you are surprised, first of all, by one circumstance that no one noticed: how did the dust end up on the wings of a representative of hell? After all, it was applied only to those details that indicated their Divine conditionality (clave, vestments of the Infant and Pantocrator, cover of the Gospel, etc.)?

Why do a creature that does not have a backbone need wings (in any case, on icons it looks invertebrate, like a worm)? It is clear that it cannot fly in this form. The meaning here lies, of course, in symbolism. And yet the question inevitably arises: why didn’t the icon painters depict a serpent-dragon with a backbone (something like a winged dinosaur, for example, as it was often engraved in the West, especially in the 17th century)? There were, I think, reasons for them to write this way and not otherwise.

Since the icon “George’s Miracle on the Dragon” shows us, first of all, the battle between good and evil, it is logical to analytically compare these two opposing images with each other.

And we will see: the holiness of the great martyr shines through his face, which is how the image of God is revealed in man. It is this kind of face that is the bearer of heavenly beauty, i.e. perfect– the ancient Greeks meant the term eidos.

But its antagonistic opposite will always be the guise; concept about her. Pavel Florensky initially connects with the word “mask” - something “that marks something similar to a face, similar to a face and taken for such, but empty inside both in the sense of physical substance and in the sense of metaphysical substance.”

You should pay attention to this “emptiness inside”. In Russian, most words associated with the word “empty” have a negative meaning: “pustomelya”, “pustovora” (porridge made from barley flour, i.e. “empty”), “kestrel” (except for birds, this is what they call an empty person, and also stupidity and empty chatter; Belarusian “empty-headed” - “empty head”), “emptiness” (vacuity, lack of what is necessary), “empty-minded”, “empty-flowered”, etc. Etymologically, “empty” is related to the ancient Prussian paust - “wild” and related to the Greek pauo - “I cease”, hence “desert” - a graceless, infertile land, the habitat of evil spirits, and therefore - the field of spiritual battle of holy ascetics with them.

It is noteworthy that until the 17th century, on all Novgorod icons known to us, “The Miracle of St. George about the Serpent" there is no vegetation; the action truly takes place in the desert.

Even more surprising is another circumstance noted by Fr. Pavel Florensky: “<...>both German legends and Russian fairy tales recognize evil spirits as empty inside, trough-shaped or hollow-shaped, without a backbone - this basis for the strength of the body, false bodies and, therefore, false beings.” The exact opposite example is the appearance of God to Moses: “you will see Me from behind” (Ex. 33: 23). Although what is meant here is not the contemplation of essence.

But here’s an interesting opinion we heard from the talented theologian of icons M.V. Vasina: ""Holiday", as "idleness", also derives its meaning from "empty". Its meaning, however, is different. This emptiness is from making room for God. The capacity of the empty space is for the joy of God, for the Holy Spirit.

The old eidos has one perspective - the icon, the Platonic eidos itself has outlived its usefulness, has become churched into the eikon, in another case it turns into an ideal-idol, overshadowing the truth (screen). Therefore, purely speculative language with speculation and ideals is, in the strict sense, inappropriate in relation to the icon. By the way, the mask among the Greeks, also known as eidos, was preferable for them, more ontological, than a face subject to change. She did not hide the emptiness within herself, but preserved her from the accidents of the transient. An awkward attempt at self-identity. With an imperious gesture of essence, the unshakable source of all things in the cosmos, she is forced to define e eliminates the fragility of facial individuals. It materializes a person according to the well-known Platonic expression, according to which the world does not exist for man, but man for the world. Therefore, for the Greeks, masking was an opportunity to talk about the eternal through human destinies, the perfect language of which was revealed by ancient tragedy.”

However, Marina Vadimovna Vasina talks about the ancient attitude towards the mask. And if “holiday” is etymologically connected with the word “empty” in the sense of “making room for God,” then this is only one from aspects in understanding this issue. After all, the Church deliberately did not accept any masks from the very beginning. It is not by chance that a saying was born in Russian folklore: “In Rus', all troubles come from holidays.” The Lord spoke in a parable about a house that was swept and put in order, i.e. prepared for the holiday, but the worst spirits enter and live there. A holy place is never empty. Christ pronounces terrible words: “Behold, your house is left to you empty"(Luke 13:35). It was not “the capacity of the empty earth for the joy of God, for the Holy Spirit” that the Savior had in mind! Still Can draw a parallel between the concept of “emptiness” and gracelessness, evil, non-existence.

The thought repeatedly expressed by the Holy Fathers in the mouth of Abba Dorotheus sounded like this: “evil in itself is nothing, for it is not any kind of being and has no nature.” Therefore, the snake is not a real biological reptile, but a false creature; “it becomes real (evil) in the perversion of the rational will, which deviates from God towards non-existence.” According to the teachings of the Fathers, demons also retain free will, granted by the Creator to people and angels. We see the snake’s wings, head, and legs, but everything about it is distorted to the point of ugliness: the wings are not angelic, but like those of bats, the head is not anthropomorphic, but animal, and the legs have turned into paws. Meanwhile, according to Dionysius the Areopagite, the legs of Angels symbolically indicate “mobility, speed and suitability for eternal rapid movement towards the divine. This is why theology depicted the feet of holy minds as winged. Wings indicate the speed of ascension, heavenliness, upward direction and, thanks to the upward striving, distance from everything that is degraded; and the lightness of the wings means a complete absence of grounding and the possibility of a completely pure and unencumbered ascent.”

The underwings, called subferns, in our opinion, were depicted for this purpose in order to give the wings the lightness that the Areopagite speaks of. But in most examples, snakewings do not have subferns. However, the legs-paws are always connected to the wings and are always the same color as the head, i.e. There is a color semantic connection between the legs, wings and head, which can be read thanks to Dionysius’ system. If “theology depicted the feet of holy minds as winged,” based on their eternal and impetuous movement towards the divine, then we are talking here about the free choice of this movement by the Angels, in other words, we are talking about free will; a similar conclusion follows from the symbolism of wings. Free will, we repeat, is preserved even among demons, but it is directed towards movement towards non-existence. The joining together of wings and paws is based on the potential: “Where I want, I crawl and fly.” To the gift of freedom we must add at least one more: the ability to think. These are the gifts of God left to the fallen angels, and are depicted by pictorial means: usually in a color that imitates gold, less often in white, red or some other, but always light-like, sometimes even with the mentioned ink burning on winged legs-paws and an animal head.

In cases where subferns were painted under the wings of the serpent, ancient artists only tried to strengthen this idea.

The symbolism of the ridge, according to Dionysius the Areopagite, indicates “the totality of all life-giving forces.” What life-giving power can a false being deprived of Divine grace have? Of course, none.

Hence, he has neither the “totality of life-giving forces” nor the backbone itself as unnecessary.

The awareness of the representative of hell, who does not have a spine, dictated that iconographers paint not a la a Disney dinosaur with wings, but a winged serpent without a spine, and interpret it as a false body.

Serpent and eidos are antithetical concepts.

In the Rite of Burial, liturgical theology testifies: “I am the image of Your ineffable glory, even though I bear the wounds of sins.”

The serpent is, at most, a mask.

On all Russian icons of St. George hits him with a spear not in the eye, but in the mouth. Eyelids, according to Dionysius, symbolize “the preservation of divine understanding.” Since the demons recognized and, recognizing him as the Judge, feared the Son of God, we will venture to say that they also preserve the divine understanding that they knew before being cast out of heaven. That is why the spear hits not the eye, but the mouth. The main spiritual purpose of a person’s mouth is to proclaim the Word of the Lord, to be an instrument of the Logos, but the serpent’s mouth is a “translator” of blasphemies and lies. George strikes at the very core of evil - at the sting of death, which is almost always commented on by a hellishly fiery and bloody tongue protruding from the grinning mouth. We see the same thing on an ancient ceramic icon from Macedonia.

Here the theme of resurrection is developed in a kind of hint. Let us remember the inspired “Catechetical Sermon of St. John Chrysostom on Holy Easter": "Death, where is your sting? Hell, where is your victory? According to the ancient Slavic version, St. Georgy, "like a liberator of captives"(troparion), addresses the liberated with teaching. “Accordingly, in the most ancient Russian images of George the Warrior, the features of a preacher of Christianity and a martyr predominate.” From spiritual death during life, pagans, having been baptized, are resurrected as Christians into eternal life.

Painting and literature in Rus' were two banks of one river, called Orthodoxy.

The curly hair of St. is far from accidental. George. The characteristic roundness of the strands involuntarily brings to mind the ancient Slavic word volna - “in O lna" (sheep's wool). In the Old Testament Church, a person, coming to God, along with other sacrifices, brought Him the wool of a slain animal, which was placed directly on the altar and burned. In the martyrdom of St. George's isographers certainly saw self-sacrifice in the name of God; and the curly hair drew attention to this.

Which, however, should not be taken as a norm requiring isographers to paint all martyrs with curly hair. This is one of many conceptual techniques.

The icon shows us "secret and supernatural spectacles." A mystical battle is unfolding between good and evil. But it’s a strange picture: most often, “George makes no effort, his dominance over the enemy looks like something eternal and predetermined from above.” In Novgorod icon painting until the 16th century. all the holy warrior-serpent fighters, mounted on horses, never behead the serpent with a sword, but stab it with a spear. And every time the hand of each warrior holds the spear without signs of any tension. The spear and this “victory without effort” are obviously in a certain relationship.

And there really is a relationship. You need to know the order of using weapons in a medieval battle. An explanation of this procedure is given by Academician D.S. Likhachev: “the spear was the weapon of the first skirmish and almost always broke in it.” George wins with lightning speed, and without breaking a spear, for he wins not so much with his own strength, but with God’s.

For this reason, on the Ostroukhovo icon, a shield with the face of the sun peeks out from behind the back of the Victorious. A shield is a symbol and attribute of protection: the word “protection” itself speaks of protecting a person. It would be a mistake to see in the image of the sun “rudiments of a pagan solar cult.” The sun is a fairly well-established symbol of Christ. Here the idea is conveyed about the all-saving role of the Son of Man. And the fact that, with rare exceptions, St. George rides on a white horse and to the right (from the viewer), shows us Whose power moves the snake fighter. According to Dionysius the Areopagite, the image of horses means “submission and obedience, with white ones indicating lordship and, as it were, a special kinship with the divine light, black ones indicating intimacy.” In the frequent Novgorod and Pskov “exceptions”, George sits precisely on a black horse, and if he gallops to the left, then on the left there is a segment of the mandorla with Christ. This rule does not apply to Moscow and Suzdal monuments (especially from the 16th century).

After the interpretation of Dionysius the Areopagite, it is interesting to read that “the white horse looks like a symbol of spiritual purity” (who? Horses?!) and that “the horse shining with whiteness is a semblance of the apocalyptic “pale horse.” If a horse shines, then it is dazzling, not pale. The white color here is a symbol, a synonym for the transcendental Divine light penetrating this side of existence. Therefore, the image of a white horse as a dissimilar symbol secretly recalls the power of God conquering evil (we emphasize: power, not Hypostasis). Linking the life of St. George with the Apocalypse is, to say the least, far-fetched and illogical. At one time, of course, there was the so-called apocryphal apocalypse of St. George, but connect it with the Revelation of St. John the Theologian there is no reason.

The image of a black horse in this plot goes back, presumably, to the well-known hagiographic version, which talks about the appearance of the Victorious One in battle from the heavenly world. The icon painters wanted to especially emphasize the intimacy of this phenomenon in Areopagitian style. And the most subtle of them, wanting to avoid the black color, symbolizing hell, replaced it with dark blue, or corrected “its semantics with blue-blue highlights.” This additionally drew the worshiper’s attention to the horse’s belonging to the heavenly world.

The use of a dissimilar symbol in this case was completely justified, because corresponded to the spirit of the 82nd rule of the Trullo Council: it was required to “correctly convey a specific historical image” of St. George “and in it to reveal another reality - spiritual reality”, “to convey through the means of art, with the help of well-known symbolism, a reflection of divine glory.” The dissimilar symbol was antinomically balanced by similar symbols (the hand of Christ or the half-length image of the Savior, snakes, slides...). The unlike symbol was relegated to the background of meaning, because it belongs to the unprayed image of a horse. Its task is to more clearly reveal the image of St. George, declare the hierarchical superiority of the Victorious over the enemy force.

The theme of the antagonistic struggle between light and darkness is obvious. It is especially noticeable on the icon from the village. Manikhino: the snake here crawls not out of the water, but out of a cave; A well-read antinomy is built diagonally from the cave to the mandorla: “non-existence (the darkness of the cave) – being (the battle of George with the serpent) – super-existence (the mandorla with the Hand of God).” The composition turns out to be from corner to corner under the shadow of a cross, of the “St. Andrew’s” type, formed by the intersection of the mental diagonal from the cave to the mandorla with the diagonal of the spear. In the center of the icon is hidden the monogram “X”, meaning the name of the One by whose power evil is defeated.

The lowly position of the snake was shown by the fact that Princess Elizabeth led it on her own belt tied to the horn , for the horn, according to Dionysius the Areopagite, is a symbol of invincibility; and even in the Old Testament he expressed the power, honor and glory of kings.

Over time, the theme of snake fighting became so popular in general in European art that it began to displace all other motifs in the iconography of the Cappadocian great martyr-snake fighter.

Not trusting the arts, the scientific world reacted completely differently to the Victorious.

Secular literary and art critics are that generation of European and Russian intelligentsia that grew up and is being raised on a pro-pagan attitude towards the world, for which there is “no difference between spirituality and art, between the lives of saints and fairy tales, between prayer and singing, between philosophy and theology,” - all of them, proud of knowledge and education, summarized the life of St. George only to legend, to folklore, to myth, in a word, to the play of collective or individual fantasy - to what they themselves, in fact, were doing. This even began to be considered good manners and a sign of true “scientificness.”

A strange situation emerged: the great martyr, who had once defeated one of the princes of lies, was “scientifically” turned... into a false saint.

Yes, “for a long time, two groups of biographies of St. George coexisted: canonical and apocryphal. The oldest representative of the second group is the so-called Viennese palimpsest, dating back to the 5th century. Papyrus fragments from the 6th century "Acts of George" were found in 1937 in the Negev Desert in Palestine. Following them, many similar Greek apocryphal texts appeared, which in scientific literature are usually called (after the place of their storage) Athens, Venice, Paris, etc. Their essence is that the torment of St. George occurs under the fictional king Dadian in Persia ( but sometimes - in Lydda, as, for example, in the canon of Romanus), in the presence of from two to seventy-two kings, and the saint dies and is resurrected three times. Along with the apocryphal lives, there are also a number of apocryphal miracles of the martyr, such as, for example, the miracle with the belt, the meeting with the demon,” the already mentioned apocalypse of St. George. “Apocrypha also gained great popularity among other Christian peoples, in particular in the Latin West; they are also preserved in Syriac, Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopian and other eastern languages. With the development of this genre of folk literature, the life of the saint was decorated with ever new fantastic details and exaggeration of the power of torture and their number. In particular, the dissemination of non-canonical tales about the great martyr took on such proportions in the West that they fell under the prohibition of the so-called Decretum Gelasianum, which, however, belonged not to Pope Gelasius (492-496), but to a later time (such an “antiquity” was supposed to give condemnation Apocrypha has greater authority by the Church)".

But along with the apocrypha, the “reliable, completely Orthodox in spirit, free from fantastic details and consistent with historical reality texts of the biographies of St. George have been preserved. The life of the great martyr served as a theme for Byzantine writers and rhetoricians, such as Saint Andrew of Crete, Arcadius of Cyprus, Theodore Questor, Saint Gregory (George) of Cyprus, Patriarch of Constantinople. The Orthodox hagiography of Saint George was worthily crowned by the work of the Byzantine theologian of the 10th century - the creator of the complete Orthodox Menaion, Blessed Simeon Metaphrastus.”

For us, the path of transformation of St. George into a folk hero, but in reality a false saint, was, of course, not acceptable. Even the ancient Greeks called an awkward structure that resists the form that organizes it “meon,” meaning “ Not- existing." Then, indeed, it will be necessary to agree with the decanonization of the saint carried out by the Vatican in the twentieth century.

Which we, naturally, cannot afford, knowing at least the deepest veneration of the Victorious by the Russian people to this day. A “false being” is not capable of responding to prayers, helping those who ask, and, moreover, being universally revered by Christians.

For us, the most reliable basis for analysis was the teaching of the holy fathers, sober trust in the legends about St. George and the view of the Orthodox Church on its own art.

Florensky Pavel, priest. Selected works on art. – M.: Fine arts; Center for the Study, Protection and Restoration of the Holy Heritage. Pavel Florensky, 1996. P.91.

See icons: 1) from the former collection of M.P. Pogodin (now in the Russian Museum), first. floor. XIV century; 2) from the former collection of A.V. Morozov (now in the Tretyakov Gallery), second. floor. XIV century; 3) from the Lyuboni churchyard (now in the Russian Museum), con. XIV – XV centuries. (although there is no image of a serpent on this icon); 4) from the village. Manikhino (now in the Russian Museum), ca. ser. XV century (?); 5) from Arkhangelsk village. Litvinovo (now in the Tretyakov Gallery), first. floor. or gray XVI century; 6) from the former collection of N.P. Likhachev (now in the Russian Museum), beginning. XVI century; 7) from the former collection of I.S. Ostroukhov (now in the Tretyakov Gallery), first. floor. XVI century; 8) from the village. Shemenichi (northern province of Veliky Novgorod; now the icon is in the Russian Museum), con. XVI century And other monuments.

Koldasov Gennady. Spiritual cycles. (Christianity and paganism) // Russian identity. – St. Petersburg, 2002. No. 9. P. 111.

Itinera hierosolymitana/Ed. P. Geyer // Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum. T. 39. (1898) P. 176.

Rystenko A. V. The Legend of Saint George and the Dragon. Odessa, 1909. P. 9-64.