Inscription in Church Slavonic: СВЯТЫЙ НИКОЛА ЧУДОТВОРЕЦ, Holy Nicholas the Wonderworker

This icon of Saint Nicholas is one of a rare type that is seen in Russia from the late 15th century onwards. It characteristically shows the head of the saint in close-up, almost entirely filling the rectangle within the raised borders (kovcheg).

St Nicholas is the most widely revered saint in Orthodoxy. The Russians have a saying 'If anything happens to God, we have always got St Nicholas'. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium his cult, which only became popular in the 9th century, gave him a prominence ‘second only to the Virgin’.[1]

The supposed historical Nicholas was a bishop in the 4th century. According to tradition, he was present at the Council of Nicaea where he attacked the heretic Arius so violently that fellow bishops had to restrain him. Some thought this behaviour was inappropriate but legend recounts that Christ and the Mother of God appeared to Nicholas that night in a dream, endorsing his conduct. This vision is often referred to by the miniatures of Christ and the Mother of God on either side of the saint, though not shown here.

[1] Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium Vol. 2, Kazhdan ed., (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991), p. 1469