Troparion, voice 4:
Decorate with clothes from the blood, stand before the King of forces, Christopher is ever memorable: from now on with the incorporeal and martyrs eat with trisagion and terrible sweetness: save your flock with your prayers.
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The life of the saint informs us that before his baptism, Saint Christopher had the name Reprev (Ρεπρεβος - rejected, condemned).
During the reign of Emperor Decius Trajan, a man named Reprev was captured by the Romans during a battle in Marmarica. Later he served in the Roman Cohors cohort - a unit of Marmaris - natives of the Marmarica region or representatives of the Berber tribe.
Holy Martyr Christopher. Greek icon of St. Christopher of the 18th century.
About this glorious martyr, whose memory is highly honored both in the East and - even more so - in the West, especially in Spain, something strange and extraordinary is told: he was a man of enormous stature and terrifying behavior. Among other Orthodox saints, the martyr Christopher stands out for an unusual feature attributed to him by tradition. It was believed that, being a human body, he had a dog's head - a dog's head and came from the land of cannibals. Some argue that Saint Christopher by origin was a native of the land of the Canaanites, while others produce him from the Canineans (canis - dog) or cinephals (κύνος - dog and κεφαλή - head) - representatives of the tribe of "psoglavtsy" - dog-headed people, a description of which is sufficient often found from ancient times, or anthropophages (άνθρωπος - man and φαγείν - is). The doggy appearance of the saint in the Slavic Prologue is rejected, and St. Nicodemus in the Synaxarist gives him only an ugly appearance.
According to another, rather late, legend, which became widespread in Cyprus, the saint from birth had a beautiful appearance, which attracted women. Wanting to avoid the temptations and women that constantly bothered him, he prayed that the Lord would give him an ugly appearance, after which he became like a dog.
Promotional video:
Holy Martyr Christopher.
When he was taken prisoner in the war by one komit (as the royal bodyguards were called), he did not have the gift of human speech. He prayed to God, and the Lord sent an angel to him, who told him: "Take courage, Reprev!" - that was his first name, - and then he touched his lips and informed him through this the ability to speak. When after this he arrived in a city, he began to denounce those who persecuted Christians. For this, a certain Bacchus beat him, but in response to this he told Bacchus that he accepts the beatings from him with humility only for the sake of Christ's commandment, and if he succumbed to anger, then neither Bacchus himself, nor even the power of the emperor, which he would turn to nothing. Soon two hundred soldiers were sent for him to bring him to the emperor (according to the Greek prologues, this was probably the emperor Decius,reigned in the Roman Empire from 249 to 251), and when they walked, on the way, a completely dry rod, which was in the hands of the saint, blossomed wonderfully, and then when during the journey the soldiers did not have enough bread, he multiplied it in abundance. This great miracle astonished the soldiers, and they believed in Christ and together with the saint were baptized by the Bishop of Antioch, the holy martyr Babylon, and the saint was given the name Christopher (ριστόφορος) instead of Reprev. When the saint was brought before the emperor, the latter, at the sight of him, felt horror and unexpectedly fell backwards, and then, having come to himself again, he planned to force him to renounce Christ, but not by obvious measures of violence, but by cunning first to change his mood, and then by affection persuade him to do his will. For this purpose, he ordered to call two women - harlots,beautiful faces and ready to give themselves up for a prodigal union, who with seductive conversations aroused in young people an irresistible, insane desire for fornication. The name of one of these women was Kallinikia, and the other was Akilina. The emperor ordered them to come to the saint and inspire him with various seductive thoughts, as was their custom, so that, prompted by their criminal love for them, he would agree to renounce faith in Christ and offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, but Saint Christopher began to teach them faith in Christ and by his word turned them away from idolatry. Returning to the emperor, they declared themselves Christians, for which they were subjected to cruel tortures and, thus suffering for their faith in Christ, received martyr's crowns. Very angry with these women,The emperor ordered Saint Christopher to be brought to him and began to scoff at him about the extraordinary appearance of his face, but the saint in response to this called him the repository of the devil's actions, for this was the meaning of the name of the emperor Decius. After this, the emperor sentenced to death those two hundred soldiers who were sent to bring Saint Christopher to him and who received holy baptism with him, since they came to the saint and bowed to him in front of the emperor. He ordered all of them to cut off their heads and burn their bodies, but he ordered Saint Christopher to be imprisoned in a copper vessel, to nail him into it, and then to heat the vessel, but when this was done, the saint remained unharmed. Not experiencing any suffering either from fire or from being nailed, he stood in a red-hot vessel, as if in some pleasant coolness. To many of those present, this seemed like a deception, and to the believers, the saint told quite truthfully and with joy that during the torture he saw some very tall and beautiful appearance, dressed in white clothes, a husband who, with a light emanating from him, surpassed the sun and had on his head his brilliant crown, that he was surrounded by many soldiers, with whom some black and stinking mobs fought, trying to seize and captivate him, but this terrible leader glanced at them with anger and with his glance caused confusion and struck all this enemy army, and gave him the strength to endure the torment without harm. Hearing such a story and seeing the saint completely unharmed, many of the people believed him and turned to Christ, and then they took the saint out of the red-hot vessel, for which they were hacked to pieces by the tsar's executioners. After this they tied a stone around Saint Christopher's neck and threw it into a well, but an angel took it out of there, then they put a red-hot copper robe on him and finally cut off his head with a sword. The holy martyr died in Lycia under the emperor Decius c. 250 g
The memory of Saint Christopher and other holy martyrs who suffered with him is celebrated in Cyparissia - a locality in Constantinople - on the day of his death, close to the day of the death of Saint Great Martyr George. According to the acts of the martyr, the day of his death, all the most ancient calendars, eastern and western, refer to April 23rd.
The relics and the head of the saint, which had been kept for some time in Constantinople, were then transported to the island of Rab in Croatia. When the Normans invaded the island and laid siege to the city of Rab, the townspeople placed Christopher's relics on the walls. Miraculously, the wind changed and the ships were carried away from the island. One of the largest medieval fortresses in Rab is named after St. Christopher.
Memorial Day of the Holy Martyr Christopher in the Orthodox calendar on May 9 (22).
Iconography of St. Christopher in Orthodoxy
In Orthodoxy, Christopher is often depicted as a dog-headed. At the same time, the synaxaris indicate that this appearance, like the origin of the saint from the country of cinephals, should be understood as a symbolic indication of his rudeness and ferocity during his stay as a pagan. However, as they say in the life of Christopher, “when the saint was brought before the emperor, the latter, at the sight of him, felt horror and unexpectedly fell on his back, and then, having regained consciousness, he planned to force him to renounce Christ …”. Thus, the very appearance of the saint was unusual and by this time he was no longer a pagan. Therefore, here we are talking not about the symbolic image of the saint, but about the real one.
Holy Martyr Christopher.
The oldest such image of a saint is found on a ceramic icon of the 6th-7th centuries of Macedonian origin. On it, Christopher, together with St. George, slays the serpent.
The oldest image of the saint is in the monastery of St. Catherine on Sinai and dates back to the time of the emperor Justinian (527–565).
Holy Martyr Christopher.
In Russian icon painting, images of St. Christopher in the head of a dog have been known since the second half of the 16th century. The icons of Christopher "with the head of a dog", along with some other "controversial" iconographic subjects, were officially banned by the order of the Holy Synod of 1722 as "contrary to nature, history and truth itself." However, the Senate did not support the decisions of the Synod, recommending not to take unambiguous measures regarding those images that have enjoyed wide popular veneration for many years.
It is known that Saint Demetrius of Rostov spoke out against the bestial images of Saint Christopher. In the middle of the 18th century, in the Rostov diocese, the clergy, including Metropolitan Anthony (Matseevich), also advocated the correction of the icons of the saint and for the creation of new ones "according to the proper human head … so that instead of Christopher the pesius may not be read, but written against the great martyr Demetrius." … On the request of the Metropolitan to ban the icons of Kinocephalus, a special case was instituted in the Synod, but it did not receive further development.
After the ban, Christopher is depicted anthropomorphically, in the form of a warrior. There are known rewritten images with a recorded dog's head. In some cases, the icons of St. Christopher were indeed corrected. So, in the painting of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Yaroslavl, the dog's head of the saint depicted on the pillar was replaced by a human one. Traces of the existence of the former image of the saint are still visible: the outline of a dog's face is visible on the halo.
The Old Believers continued (and still continue) to venerate Christopher the Kinocephalus, and the prohibition of the "ruling church" only confirmed and strengthened this veneration. The Sviyazhsk icon-painting tradition depicts Christopher not with a dog's head, but with a horse's head. It should be noted that in later Russian monuments the saint is depicted not with a dog's head, but with a head more like a horse's.
Holy Martyr Christopher. Old Believer icon.
Thus, most of the old images of the dog-headed Christopher were destroyed or written down. In addition to the fresco in the Assumption Monastery in the city of Sviyazhsk, there is a fresco in the Makaryevsky Monastery, as well as in Yaroslavl in the Spassky Monastery. The icons of Christopher have been preserved in Cherepovets (art museum), in Rostov, and also in Perm. The icon of St. Christopher with a dog's head can be seen in the Moscow Old Believer Church of the Intercession, the Moscow Kremlin (Archangel Cathedral), in the Tretyakov Gallery.
Since the 18th century, Christopher is already depicted only in the form of a man. However, in museum collections there are icons of a saint with a dog's head not only from the 18th century, but also from the 19th century.
In Orthodoxy, there is also a version of Christopher's iconography, similar to the Western one: Saint Christopher is depicted at the moment of crossing the river, in the form of a giant, with the Child Christ on his shoulders.
The life and iconography of Saint Christopher in Catholicism
The life of Saint Christopher in the Western tradition says that he was a Roman of great stature, who originally bore the name Reprev. In the "Golden Legend", a collection of lives of the XIII century, compiled by the Dominican monk Jacob Voraginsky, it is said that Christopher (who still bore a different name) worked at the river crossing. The giant Reprev seeks out the holy hermit and asks him how he can serve Christ. The hermit took him to a dangerous ford across the river and said that his great height and strength make him an excellent candidate to help people cross dangerous water. He began to carry travelers on his back.
Holy Martyr Christopher.
One day a little boy asked him to be carried across the river. In the middle of the river, he felt an unbearable weight, as if holding the whole world. It turned out that the giant brings not only the world, but also the One who created it: Christ Himself appeared in the form of a child to Christopher. Christopher was scared lest they both drown. The boy told him that he is Christ and carries with him all the burdens of the world. Then Jesus baptized Reprev in the river, and he received his new name - Christopher, "carrying Christ."
Then the Child told Christopher that he could stick a branch into the ground. This branch miraculously grew into a fruitful tree. This miracle converted many to faith. Enraged by this, the local ruler (or even the Roman emperor Decius - in the Western tradition he speaks under the name Dagnus), imprisoned Christopher in prison, where, after long torment, he found a martyr's death.
Holy Martyr Christopher.
In Catholicism, Saint Christopher is portrayed as a giant carrying a blessing Child across the river (see the literal translation of his name - “carrying Christ”) - an episode that directly follows from his life in the Western tradition.
Dirk Bouts, Hieronymus Bosch, Memling, Konrad Witz, Ghirlandaio painted pictures on this subject, and Dürer and Cranach were engraved.
Coins with the face of St. Christopher were minted in Würzburg, Württemberg and in the Czech Republic. Statues of Christopher were often placed at the entrances to churches and residential buildings, and often on bridges. Often they were accompanied by the inscriptions: "Whoever looks at the image of St. Christopher today is not in danger of sudden fainting and falling." In the Cologne Cathedral there is a statue of St. Christopher, which, according to popular belief, protects the one who looks at her from sudden death.
In 1969, in the light of the reformatory decrees of the Second Vatican Council, the day of the memory of St. Christopher, along with the days of memory of some other common Christian saints, was removed by the Vatican from the universal Catholic calendar. However, the holiday remained in the local calendars of Catholic countries.
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Since in the Orthodox life of St. Christopher we do not find a mention of the fact that Christopher was a carrier across the river and the appearance of the Infant Christ to him at the same time, it can be assumed that in the Eastern and Western versions of the life of St. Christopher we are talking about two completely different saints.
Catholic images of St. Christopher belong to a very narrow period of time: it is about one century, from 1430 to 1530. The most famous depictions are by leading pagan Renaissance artists in Germany, Flemish and Italy.
Around the same time, the most famous Christopher in the world was born - the great navigator Christopher Columbus (in the Spanish version Cristobal Colon), who lived from 1451 to 1506. Like St. Christopher carries the baby Christ across the river, so Columbus brings a Catholic mission to the New World across the Atlantic Ocean, which was only a cover for the colonization, robbery and physical destruction of the indigenous population of America. On the contrary, the Eastern Orthodox images of St. Christopher are found for a very long period of time and are presented in different icon-painting styles: if the earliest images of the saint are attributed to the 6th-7th centuries, then the later ones are painted today with a dog's head. Many of these icons date back to the 19th century.
Therefore, the modern Orthodox icons of St. Christphorus carrying the Child Christ on his shoulders does not correspond to the ancient Eastern tradition of depicting this saint.
Holy Martyr Christopher. Modern icon.
Perhaps with the image of St. Christopher, as he is portrayed in the Eastern tradition, there are some mysteries and misunderstandings. In Russia, the name Christopher is extremely rare, and the writing of a fairly large number of his icons is clearly not associated with the name (Catholic iconography emphasizes the name "Christ-bearer"). The Christ-bearer is carrying Christ within your heart, not on your shoulders, outside. It is the very image of Saint Christopher that touches the human heart. After all, he was not only a Christian martyr, he was tormented even as a pagan. Even the king fell at his unusual sight. Christopher was an outcast among normal-looking people. Perhaps that is why this saint is especially close to precisely those people who are deprived of something, who have not fit into this life, have some kind of physical disabilities or deformity. The Lord Himself says: “Do not judge by appearance,but judge with righteous judgment”(John 7:24). In any case, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the life and deeds of the holy Martyr Christopher.
