military saint

File:Damaskenos Michael - Four military saints - Google Art Project.jpg (16th century, Benaki Museum), showing Saint George and Theodore of Amasea on the left, and Demetrius of Thessaloniki and Theodore Stratelates on the right, all on horseback, with angels holding wreaths over their heads, beneath Christ Pantocrator.]]

File:Mary with George and Dimitry (Greeсe, 1754) 2.jpg of the Bogomater flanked by Saints George and Demetrius as horsemen (dated 1754)]]

{{about|the Christian concept| warrior saints in Sikhism|Sant Sipahi}}

The military saints, warrior saints and soldier saints are patron saints, martyrs and other saints associated with the military. They were originally composed of the early Christians who were soldiers in the Roman army during the persecution of Christians, especially the Diocletianic Persecution of AD 303–313.

Most of the early Christian military saints were soldiers of the Roman Empire who had become Christian and, after refusing to participate in Imperial cult rituals of loyalty to the Roman Emperor, were subjected to corporal punishment including torture and martyrdom.

Veneration of these saints, most notably of Saint George, was reinforced in the Latin Church during the time of the Crusades. The title of "champion of Christ" (athleta Christi) was originally used for these saints, but in the late medieval period also conferred on contemporary rulers by the Pope.

Since the Middle Ages, more saints have been added for various military-related patronages.

Hagiography

In Late Antiquity, Christian writers of hagiography, prominently including Sulpicius Severus in his account of the heroic, military life of Martin of Tours, created a literary model that reflected the new spiritual, political, and social ideals of a post-Roman society.

In a study of Anglo-Saxon soldier saints (Damon 2003), J. E. Damon has demonstrated the persistence of Sulpicius's literary model in the transformation of the pious, peaceful saints and willing martyrs of late antique hagiography to the Christian heroes of the early Middle Ages, who appealed to the newly converted societies led by professional warriors and who exemplified accommodation with and eventually active participation in holy wars that were considered just.Damon, John Edward. Soldier Saints and Holy Warriors: Warfare and Sanctity in the Literature of Early England. (Burlington (VT): Ashgate Publishing Company), 2003, {{ISBN|0-7546-0473-X}}

Iconography

The Military Saints are characteristically depicted as soldiers in traditional Byzantine iconography from about the 10th century (Macedonian dynasty) and especially in Slavic Christianity."The 'warrior saints' or 'military saints' can be distinguished from the huge host of martyrs by the pictorial convention of cladding them in military attire." (Grotowski 2010:2)

While early icons show the saints in "classicizing" or anachronistic attire, icons from the 11th and especially the 12th centuries, painted in the new style of {{lang|grc|τύπων μιμήματα}} ("imitating nature"), are an important source of knowledge on medieval Byzantine military equipment.(Grotowski 2010:400)

The angelic prototype of the Christian soldier-saint is the Archangel Michael, whose earliest known cultus began in the 5th century with a shrine at Monte Gargano.

The iconography of soldier-saints Theodore and George

as cavalrymen develops in the early medieval period.

The earliest image of St Theodore as a horseman (named in Latin) is from Vinica, North Macedonia and, if genuine, dates to the 6th or 7th century. Here, Theodore is not slaying a dragon, but holding a draco standard.

Three equestrian saints, Demetrius, Theodore and George, are depicted in the "Zoodochos Pigi" chapel in central Macedonia in Greece, in the prefecture of Kilkis, near the modern village of Kolchida, dated to the 9th or 10th century.Melina Paissidou, [http://ikee.lib.auth.gr/record/278662/files/Heroes_Cults_Saints_M_Paisidu.pdf "Warrior Saints as Protectors of the Byzantine Army in the Palaiologan Period: the Case of the Rock-cut Hermitage in Kolchida (Kilkis Prefecture)"], in: Ivanka Gergova Emmanuel Moutafov (eds.), ГЕРОИ • КУЛТОВЕ • СВЕТЦИ / Heroes Cults Saints Sofija (2015), 181-198.

The "dragon-slaying" motif develops in the 10th century, especially iconography seen in the Cappadocian cave churches of Göreme, where frescoes of the 10th century show military saints on horseback confronting serpents with one, two or three heads.Paul Stephenson, The Serpent Column: A Cultural Biography, Oxford University Press (2016), [https://books.google.com/books?id=O72SDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA179 179–182].

In later medieval Byzantine iconography, the pair of horsemen is no longer identified as Theodore and George, but as George and Demetrius.

List

{{see|List of early Christian saints||20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia}}

=Catholic=

(NB: some saints on the list remain unclassified as of 2021)

class="wikitable sortable"

! Image !! Name !! Martyrdom !! Location !! Church !! Patronage

military saint

Hagiography

Iconography

List

=Catholic=

=Eastern Orthodox Church=

See also

References

External links