From Moscow’s Kremlin to the Old Believers and back: the Captain of the Heavenly Host
Mounted on a white-winged horse, a crowned, golden-winged Michael soars above the clouds beneath a rainbow. He blows a trumpet that hovers in the air, holds a censer and a book in his left hand, and spears Satan with his right. Struck, the dark angel plunges into turbulent blue waters that have just destroyed a city, futilely grasping his staff. Before an altar and a cross, a radiant Christ Emmanuel blesses the scene.
A liturgical manuscript containing the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles, dedicated to Dragomirna Monastery by Anastasie Crimca, Archbishop of Moldavia and Metropolitan of Suceava, in March 1610, includes the earliest known dated example of this genre.
This iconographic type, entirely unknown to the Byzantines, most probably emerged in Muscovy during the reign of Ivan the Terrible (r. 1533-1584). Its main textual sources were the Book of Revelation and a Canon to the Menacing Angel, attributed to a certain Parfenii the Holy Fool—a pseudonym of the czar himself, according to some—and hypothetically dated 1572. It gained popularity in Russian iconography from the second half of the seventeenth century, largely due to dissenters, some of whom identified as Old Believers, who opposed Patriarch Nikon’s religious reforms. These late developments add a riveting layer to the story: a court-related iconographic type that evolved into a favorite of state-defiant groups.
However, the earliest known dated example of this genre comes from outside Muscovy. It is included in a liturgical manuscript containing the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles, dedicated to Dragomirna Monastery by Anastasie Crimca, Archbishop of Moldavia and Metropolitan of Suceava, in March 1610. The reasons behind the donor’s iconographical choice remain unclear, but they may be linked to the composition’s eschatological undertones: the redemption of forefathers’ souls and preparation for the Last Judgement.
Title:
Archangel Michael as “Captain of the Heavenly Host”
Source:
ÖNB/Wien Cod. Slav. 6, f. 172r. Courtesy of the Austrian National Library (Vienna).