Cjss second Issue: cjss second Issue qxd

and at the same time, a symbol of the independence of the state and of the
sovereign policy free of the influence of Byzantium which had claims over the
country. This can also explain the reason why St Eugenios remained a local
saint at all stages of the evolution and expansion of the cult, and despite a few
exceptions, failed to reach outside the borders of Trebizond (J.O. Rosenqvist,
2003, pp. 200-201, 210). 
After the fall of the Empire of Trebizond in 1461, the importance of the
cult of St Eugenios began to diminish gradually. It is noteworthy that none of
the works of architecture or fine arts associated with St Eugenios can be
found among post-Byzantine (second half of the 15
th
century through the 19
th
century) samples collected by scholars specializing in the history and culture
of the Pontos, namely A. Bryer, D. Winfield, S. Balance and G. Isaac (A. Bryer,
2002). In the early 20
th
century the Russian researcher, F. Uspenskij could not
hide his surprise over the fact that the patron saint of the city was given to
oblivion by local Orthodox Greeks and despite applying to various clerics, he
failed to find a single image of St Eugenios even among old icons (F. Uspenskij,
1929, pp. 113,42). The archbishop of Kartli and Metropolitan of Kutaisi, Tim-
ote Gabashvili, who visited Trebizond among other holy sites toured by him
from 1755 to 1759, provides an interesting note in his Momosvla. Of three
great relics of the city of Trebizond, seized by the Turks, which included the
Monastery of St Eugenios, he identified only Hagia Sophia (Timote Gabashvili,
1983, pp. 456-457). With respect to the cult of St Eugenios, he noted the fol-
lowing: ‘And from there we reached Chaldia (now called Gumishkhana),
where St Eugenios, St Kanidios and St. Valerianos were martyred. Thereafter
we studied the churches and they were built by the Georgians. And we en-
quired about it and were said that Gumishkhana belonged to the kings of
Georgia, as the silver mined here was for Georgia. The source of the Chorokhi
river forms the boundary of Georgia’ (1983, p. 561). Georgians here certainly
meant inhabitants of Chaldia since Gumishkhana, modern-day Giumushene
(Argyropolis) located in the mountains near Trebizond, was the centre of the
settlement of the Chans with a medieval castle from which the Chans con-
trolled a highly important  pass of Zigani (E. Zhordania, 2002, p. 14). What is
interesting in this passage is that the cult of the patron saint of the Empire is
no more in evidence in Trebizond proper in the 18
th
century but is rather lo-
calized in Chaldia, in the settlement of the Georgian tribes. 
Thus the overview of the stages of the evolution of the cult of St Eugenios
allows us to assume that St Eugenios, instrumental in the spread of Christian-
ity in Trebizond together with his three companions, all of whom were mar-
tyred in Trebizond, was popular with local people back in the 11
th
century.
Yet the cult failed to further develop even in the 11
th
century when a
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metaphrastic text describing the miracles of his martyrdom was created. The
next and the most important stage of the evolution of the cult is related to the
transformation of the image of the popular saint into the patron of the Empire
and the icon of the guardian of battles. The final stage saw the gradual disap-
pearance of the cult of the saint in the region together with the fall of the Em-
pire of Trebizond. It also demonstrates that in the 18
th
century it was alive on
the territory populated by the Georgians, while no trace of the worship of the
cult is evident in Trebizond, the city of St. Eugenios. 
The emergence of the images of St Eugenios and the formation of its
iconographic type are assigned to the period of the evolution of the cult. The
iconography of the saint was far from being formulated in the early period,
which is evidenced by several images of St Eugenios from the 10
th
-11
th
cen-
tury to the 1204, among which note must be made of a miniature in the
Menologion of Basil II showing the beheading of the saint, as well as two seals
of individuals, the figures featured on which are considered to be St Eugenios
(J.O. Rosenqvist, 2003, pp. 207-208).
The number of the images began to increase from the period of the foun-
dation of the Empire of Trebizond. The same period saw the spread of two
clearly formulated iconographic representations of St Eugenios. The first,
which spread earlier than the second, is St Eugenios the Martyr, who is a richly
dressed courtier. He is shown as a middle-aged man with a high forehead, his
dark hair combed behind reaching the neck and with short beard. Decorated
with edges and precious stones, he wears a long tunic and a patterned gown.
He holds a cross fixed onto a long staff in one hand, and a wrinkled edge of the
gown, in the other. Similar representations can be found in the cave church of
St Eugenios’s monastery at Trebizond, the ‘Upper Church’ of Sarmashicle in
the Matzuka gorge, and in the chapel of the tower of Hagia Sophia in Trebi-
zond (A. Bryer and D. Winfield, 1985, 224f, 273f, fig.83, 236, fig.73). All these
examples are from the 14
th
-15th century. One of the finest and best preserved
images of St Eugenios is a double-side icon dating from 1374 which preserves
in the Monastery of Dionisius on Mount Athos. One side of the icon shows
Alexios III Komnenos together with John the Baptist, while another features
St. Eugenios, St. Kanidios, St. Valerianos and St. Akylas (A. Karakatsanis, Thes-
salonike, 1997, pp. 96-97). Similar is the miniature of the typicon of 1346 of
the Monastery of St Eugenios (O. Rosenqvist, 2003, p. 209). Similar icono-
graphic types were presented on Trapezuntine aspers (O. Rosenqvist, 2003,
p. 208), however, the mounted images of the saint were also in evidence (A.
Bryer, 2002, part 2, p. 91), which is another iconographic type spread at the
time. This is St. Eugenios in armour, a warrior’s gown and a long dagger. For
example, paintings from the late 13
th
and early 14
th
century of the chapel of
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Caucasus Journal of Social Sciences

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