The Synod od Saits

The Council of Saints. The Old Believers, who did not recognise the liturgical reform of the Patriarch Nikon, were persecuted by the official Church and the State and had to seek shelter in the farthest, hard to reach regions of Russia. They understood life as a journey, both literally and religiously - as the journey in search for truth untainted by the influence of the Antichrist. The adherents of the old tradition ascribed a special role to icons, employing small cast metal pictures of particularly revered saints in personal use. On the displayed icon, these are figures from the times of early Christianity: 1. the martyr Barbara of Heliopolis, who was baptised despite being brought up pagan by her father, who gave her away and, in the end, personally beheaded her with a sword. In Rus, the cult of this saint spread thanks to the wife of Prince Michal Iziaslavovich, the daughter of Tsar Aleksy Komnen (1081-1118), who brought the relics of her patron to Kiev. 2. The harlot Eudokia, having converted to Christianity, gave away her wealth and became a nun; she was martyred by beheading with a sword. Eudokia is the patron saint of women with fertility problems. 3. The cult of the great martyr Paraskevi of Iconium from the time of Emperor Diocletian is tied to the reverence of Good Friday; the name Paraskevi means Friday or 'Pyatnitsa', which caused her to be identified with the day of the Lord's Passion. 4 and 5. The saints Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian lived in the 4th c. and were friends, ascetics, bishops, and Christian writers. They are counted among the Church Fathers; as the defenders of the rightful faith, they fought the heresy of Arius, which is why they were a model for the Old Believers, who persisted in their old, pre-Nikon traditions. 6 and 7. The Christian mother Julitta and her three-year-old son Cyricus suffered martyrdom during the reign of Emperor Diocletian; the child was thrown from a bridge, and the mother was tortured and beheaded. Persecuted for their faith, the Old Believers often identified with these saints. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967