St. Paul of Constantinople and Emperor Paul I

The local cult of St. Paul of Constantinople (the Confessor) at St. Petersburg was conditioned by the accession of emperor Paul I on the day of his memory (November 6, 1796). This archbishop, who lived in the 4th century, was obviously perceived by Paul I as his another holy patron, who was his namesake (as well as St. Paul the Apostle). On March 15, 1797 the church in the Naval Cadet Corps at St. Petersburg was consecrated and it was dedicated to this saint. On the icon of St. Paul of Constantinople, which has been kept in this church, the order of St. Anna was depicted instead of a bishop’s panagia - according to the local tale, it was done by a behest of the emperor Paul I himself. The veneration of this saint was continued after the murder of Paul I: the dedication of the second church in St. Michael’s Castle during the 1850s to Sts. apostles Peter and Paul was preceded by the intention to dedicate it to St. Paul of Constantinople. Actualization of his cult during the 19th century could be connected with the indications of descriptions of the murder of Paul I that the monarch was strangled with an officer’s scarf. The description of the murder of St. Paul of Constantinople contains a similar detail: the saint was strangled by the Arians with his omophorion. Perhaps the very contradictory mentions of a scarf as the murder weapon for Paul I reflect a response to this hagiographic story. Such preimage of the murder of emperor can be compared with another sample, which was relevant for Russian conspirators, - the murder of Gaius Julius Caesar - and can be considered in the context of aptitude of individuals in the 18th century to identify themselves with some historical person or literary character; according to Juri Lotman, such identification formed an idea of the appropriate way of life and death.