Icon depicting three holy martyrs – Samonas, Guriy, and Aviv, in a solid frame

The icon has a metal riza with "flesh" areas painted. The riza depicts the saints' garments and halos, with a frame of geometric ornament around its perimeter. At the bottom of the frame is the inscription: "S.M. SAMONAS. S.M. GURIAS. S.M. ABIBUS." The holy martyrs Guriy (in the middle), Samonas (left) and Abibus (right) are shown together, full-length. Guriy is shown frontally, Samonas in a three-quarter turn to the right, Abibus in a three-quarter turn to the left. Guriy is depicted as an elderly man, his hands pressed to his chest; Samonas as a mature man, his left hand pressed to his chest; Abibus as a young man, his left hand pressed to his chest. Guriy and Samonas wear tunics and himations, Abibus wears deacon's vestments. The reverse and edges of the icon panel are covered in velvet.

The icon belonged to Heorhii [A.] Hrekov, priest of the Church of the Protection (Kharkiv eparchy, town of Starobilsk).

In 1973 it was acquired by the museum from Zinaida Heorhiivna Hrekova of Kharkiv, the icon owner's daughter.

Legend: the holy martyrs Guriy and Samonas lived in the late 3rd century and suffered during the persecution of Christians under Emperors Diocletian and Maximian in the city of Edessa. They were seized and made to offer sacrifice to pagan gods, but the saints refused, for which they were subjected to terrible torment and eventually beheaded. Christians recovered their mutilated bodies and buried them with honor.

The martyr Abibus suffered sixteen years later in Edessa, on the anniversary of the deaths of Saints Guriy and Samonas, during the reign of the last pagan emperor, Licinius, who renewed the persecution of Christians. Abibus was a deacon, and during the persecution he went through the city urging Christians to remain steadfast in the faith. For this he was tortured and then burned alive before his mother and relatives. His body was found unharmed. Some years later a church was built in Edessa in honor of all three martyrs, and their relics were placed together in a single reliquary. Many miracles took place at the relics. One of them was the rescue of the pious young woman Euphemia, who had been treacherously deceived by a Gothic soldier who forced her to become his wife and later made her a servant to his true wife.

The holy martyrs Guriy, Samonas and Abibus are venerated as patrons and protectors of married women in cases of family hardship.