Travel icon depicting Saints Boris and Gleb, 19th century

Bronze casting with polychrome enamels

Height × Width: 9 × 7.5 cm Weight: 143 g.

Among the first saints canonized in Kievan Rus’, they are venerated as martyrs of the faith and protectors of the Russian land. They were brothers, sons of Grand Prince Vladimir I of Kiev (who converted Rus’ to Christianity) and Anna Porphyrogenita. After their father’s death in 1015, they were murdered by their elder half-brother, Sviatopolk the Accursed, who sought to eliminate his rivals for the throne of Kiev. Although they were military commanders, often depicted on horseback, they chose not to take up arms, accepting death in imitation of Christ’s sacrifice. They therefore belong to a category of saints typical of the Russian tradition, the *strastoterptsy* (“passion-bearers”). They are not martyrs in the classical sense (killed out of hatred for the faith), but Christian witnesses who accept unjust death with humility and a spirit of non-violence.Moreover, this icon belongs to the group of Russian Old Believer icons, mass-produced from the 17th century onward and characterized by strict adherence to the canons of the Byzantine tradition. Such artifacts, often made of bronze and sometimes enriched with colored enamels, were generally small in size and intended for private devotion. Their portability made them easy to carry and, if necessary, to conceal, thus meeting the religious needs of a community that, after the schism known as the Raskol, experienced periods of persecution by the official Russian Orthodox Church.