St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker and St Tsarina Alexandra
A. I. Tsepkov
Icon
1898
Wood, tempera, gilt
Tsepkov was a talented artist from the village of Mstiora, one of several centres in Russia famous for its lacquer painting. This icon shows the patrons of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker (3rd-4th centuries AD) was bishop of Myra in Lycia, and he was noted for his ardent faith, his works of charity, and his miracles. St. Nicholas was the most worshipped saint in Russia and several members of the Romanov family bore his name. St. Tsarina Alexandra, wife of Emperor Diocletian, suffered during the persecution of Christians in the early 4th century. Princess Alice of Hessen-Darmstadt converted to Russian Orthodoxy when she married Nicholas II and received the name Alexandra.
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