Icon "St. Martyr Vera", in a solid frame and reliquary

The saint is shown full-length, in a three-quarter turn to the right, dressed in a chiton; around her head is a round halo with a pierced, toothed edge. Her right hand is pressed to her chest in prayer, her left hand supporting a cross whose lower end rests on the ground, its upper end rising above the saint's halo. In the background behind the saint's figure are the silhouettes of a fortress wall and stone buildings. The icon is set in a silver riza with a cutout for the "flesh" painting. On the riza everything but the flesh is engraved: the saint's garments, the cross, the silhouettes of the fortress, a frame with a geometric ornament around the perimeter, and, at the bottom, within a shaped frame, the inscription, using light-blue and dark-blue enamel: "St. Martyr Vera." Around the edge of the icon is a relief contour. On the reverse, the panel is reinforced with end-inset battens. The icon is set within a glazed kiot (case).

The icon belonged to Sofiia Petrivna Hryhorieva of Kharkiv, and was donated to the museum by Varvara Ivanivna Kreider in 1966.

Legend: Saint Vera was a Christian girl canonized together with her mother, Sophia, and her sisters Nadia and Liubov, as martyrs. They lived in the 2nd century and are among the early Christian saints who suffered for their faith. By order of the Roman emperor Hadrian, the three young sisters were tortured to death, and their mother Sophia, forced to watch the torment of her beloved daughters, died of grief at their grave. Vera, the eldest of the sisters, was the first of the three girls to undergo her Christian ordeal. She was cruelly tormented for a long time but did not renounce Christ, and was beheaded before the eyes of her younger sisters and her mother. She was only twelve years old at the time. Saint Vera is the patroness of all the sick. She protects against danger, misfortune, and hardship. Those who have lost their way, or who are troubled by anxiety and doubt, turn to her. The patroness heals wounds and helps one find the strength to face life's difficulties and move confidently into the future.