Birch icon "Nikolai Mozhaisky" in Kyoto

The ancient miraculous carved image of St. Nicholas with a temple in his left hand and a sword in his right was named after the place of his glorification in the city of Mozhaisk, where the sculpture was placed in a special kiosk in St. Nicholas Cathedral. The monument is the first in a series of images of the saint in this iconographic type. The origin of the iconography of "Nikola Mozhaisky" is usually explained by an oral local legend, recorded at the end of the XIX century, about the appearance of St. Nicholas over the besieged city of Mozhaisk with a sword in his hand. However, other, more ancient texts related to the formation of iconography are also known. First of all, it is "The Story ... about the coming of the wonderworker Nicholas to Caesarea Philippova ...", included in his "Life ...", written by Simeon Metaphrastus (X century). The story was also part of the so-called "Other Life", translated into Slavic in the XI century. The Bulgarian edition of the Syrian life "Nikola the Wanderer" was widely distributed in Russia.