Saint George is a Christian martyr, the most revered saint in the Christian world. The reverend Symeon the Metaphrast stated in the Byzantium hagiography of Saint George that he was born in the 3rd century in Cappadocia, which is nowadays the territory of Turkey. George’s father was a soldier, senator of the Armenian Sevastopol. His mother Polychronia was a rich landowner from the city of Lod (now the territory of Israel). After his father’s death, George and his mother moved to Lod, where he entered military service and became a member of the Praetorian Guard for Roman emperor Diocletian. Polychronia died when George was 20 years old, and he inherited his mother’s entire property. When the Great Persecution of Christians began, George refused to recant his faith. It is known that he distributed his wealth to the poor. Soon the emperor ordered to arrest George. He was tortured for a long time and then beheaded.

The hagiography indicated that George’s wounds healed during torture, and he even performed miracles after his death, the most famous one being “Saint George and the Dragon”. Legend has it that a dragon lived in a lake near Beirut. The villagers asked the pagan king for protection, but he ordered to offer children to be eaten by the dragon and promised that even if his own daughter’s turn came, he would not spare her. When the time came for the king’s daughter to go to the dragon, George appeared in the image of a simple equestrian. The power of prayer helped him to overcome the dragon and cut off its head with a sword. Other sources mention that George killed the dragon with a spear, and this image began to be depicted on icons.

The icon of Saint George from the collection of the Radogoshch Museum was painted in the 19th century by one of the students of the Pogar icon painters’ workshop. The students were called with a Ukrainian word — uchny. Each master had from two to five uchny working for them. They were considered servants, who helped with the housework and the creation of icons by preparing brushes, rubbing up paints and washing clothes. Uchny were not permitted to paint the icon itself, they could only make outlines for the future icon, while faces, hands, as well as other fine artistic elements were painted by their master. To become a master, a person had to be a student for several years and then submit their works to the commission. After that, they contributed a certain amount to the workshop treasury and organized a “wine and dine” ceremony for experienced craftsmen with bread wine and snacks. Icon painters were part of the workshop at the Holy Trinity Church complex, which consisted of two churches — the summer Trinity Church and the winter Church of the Conception of St. Anna.