Travel icon depicting Saint Nicholas of Mozajsk, 19th century

Bronze casting with polychrome enamels

Height × Width: 16 × 9.5 cm Weight: 365.6 g.

According to tradition, during a siege of the city around 1302, the inhabitants gathered in prayer, invoking Saint Nicholas of Myra. The saint is said to have then appeared above the city, holding a sword in his right hand and a model of the city or cathedral in his left, frightening the attackers and saving Mozhaisk. This miraculous vision gave rise to a new iconographic type that spread especially in the Moscow region from the 14th century onward.This icon also belongs to the group of icons of the Russian Old Believers, mass-produced from the 17th century onward and characterized by strict adherence to the canons of Byzantine tradition. These objects, often made of bronze and sometimes enriched with colored enamels, were generally small in size and intended for private devotion. Their portability allowed them to be easily carried and, if necessary, concealed, thus meeting the religious needs of a community that, after the schism known as the Raskol, endured periods of persecution by the official Russian Orthodox Church.