The Veneration of Byzantine Empresses in Late Medieval Moscow Russia According to Iconography and Works of Church Decoration

The article is devoted to the veneration of Byzantine empresses in Moscow Rus’ of the 16th to the 17th centuries. The key sources are the archival records of the relics of these empresses being brought to Russia and the pictorial artefacts conveying their iconography. The interest in the relics and icons of female rulers such as the saintly empresses Theodora, Theophano and others should be viewed in the context of the general interest of the Moscow civil and church rulers in Byzantine shrines, especially the relics of saintly emperors. While the fragments of the relics of saintly empresses like Theodora or Theophano, after being brought to Moscow, were placed in the royal or patriarchal treasury, their iconography developed in illustrating Byzantine chronographs, as well as in calendar icons.