Icon "Holy Martyrs Guriy, Samon and Aviv"

The icon shows the holy martyrs Guriy (left), Samonas (center), and Abibus (right), standing together, full-length; Guriy in a three-quarter turn to the right, Samonas frontally, Abibus in a three-quarter turn to the left. Guriy is dressed as a Roman soldier; Samonas wears a phelonion, with an orarion draped over his left shoulder; Abibus wears a tunic and himation. Guriy holds a four-pointed cross in his right hand, his left pressed to his chest; Samonas holds a four-pointed cross in his left hand, supporting the orarion with his right; Abibus holds a four-pointed cross in his left hand, his right pressed to his chest. The saints are shown against a dark-blue background, which changes to yellow in the lower part of the icon. Blue, brown, yellow, and dark-blue predominate in the garments. Above their heads are golden halos. Above the halos are the inscriptions: "ST. MARTYR GURIY," "ST. MARTYR SAMONAS," "ST. MARTYR ABIBUS."

The icon was donated to the museum by Yurii Borysovych Krasusky of Kharkiv in 1983.

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.