Exhibitions
6+Legends of Saint George
Kolomenskoe
Open since 7 July 2022
St. George Church: bldg 5, 39 Prospekt Andropova, Kolomenskaya metro station
The St. George Church in Ascension Square houses a permanent exhibition telling about the great martyr’s life and analyzing how his image is interpreted in Russian culture.
On display you can see icons, books, graphics and photographs, coins and copper cast sculpture from the museum collection.
As a rule, Saint George is depicted as a youth, with a head of crisp hair lining a beardless face with a steely, fearless glance. Both hagiographies (the saint’s life descriptions) and icons show him in two contrasting images: on the one hand, as a martyr reconciled to God, wearing a war dress and holding a sword in the left hand and a cross in the right, but on the other hand - as a severe soldier triumphing over the Dragon, the one who is nicknamed Victorious. It is the second image that became part of the Russian emblem as early as the reign of Grand Duke Ivan III. On display you will see a XIX century icon illustrating the legendary plot - ‘Saint George and the Dragon’.
In any case, Saint George is first of all shown as an invincible warrior, either in a spiritual battle (a Warrior of Christ) or as an earthly soldier. Empress Catherine II established an order of Saint George to be awarded ‘for good service and bravery’. And in the 1990s, a St. George church was built on the Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow to commemorate the World War II heroes. The exhibition goes into greater details about this.
After the Conversion of Russia into Christianity, the saint’s life description was translated from Greek and in the XIII century, included in the Synaxaria - a collection of hagiographies arranged in the calendar order and beside the life description itself often containing apocryphal (non-canonical) legends about the saint. Synaxaria became favorite books for popular reading. Among the first hagiographies known in Russia we can name that of Saint George and Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki (which would explain their great popularity both within the ruling circle and the common people). At the exhibition you will not only see the Synaxarion chapter dedicated to Saint George but also learn some recollections of the local residents’ about St. George day celebration at Kolomenskoe.
There are about 20 St. George churches surviving in Moscow, three of them located at Kolomenskoe - the XIX century church in the Ascension Square, the neighboring XVI century bell tower and the wooden church from Arkhangelsk Oblast built in 1685. The display tells about all of them.
Besides, you are welcome to visit an online exhibition at museum-online.moscow.
