The exaltation cross of bishop anthony, 1212 (kept in the novgorod sophia cathedral) the cross depicted on print no. 25, reduced to half its natural size, is one of the exaltation crosses that were raised in cathedrals and some monasteries on the feast of the exaltation of the honorable and life-giving cross. Differing in its place and purpose from the throne cross, the blessing cross, placed on the throne, it was kept either in the sacristy or placed in the altar in the high place. Anthony's cross, kept in the novgorod sophia cathedral, is similar to the polotsk cross of st. Euphrosyne and the rostov avramiev; it is six-pointed, wooden, overlaid with gilded silver. In six hallmarks on the front side are minted images of the sign of the mother of god, the lord almighty, two cherubs and st. John the theologian. Between them are two crosses: one is a musion, eight-pointed, with the crucified christ surrounded by the faces of the mother of god and st. John the theologian, or forerunner, and the other with a particle of the life-giving tree. On the sides of the cross are minted: o agios petros, o agios paulos, o agios ibo. . O agios semion, and the following inscription: lord help thy servant antony, archbishop of novgorod, who gave the cross to st. Sophia. Veliky novgorod elected antony as archbishop in 1211, but expelled him 8 years later; then, together with mitrofan, his predecessor, he presented it to the judgment of the metropolitan of all russia, who, having confirmed mitrofan on the vladychny throne in novgorod, gave anthony the see in przemysl. After arseny, novgorod again summoned anthony to the archbishopric, from which he then descended to the khutynsky monastery, where he ended his life. Neither the history nor the inscription show when and on what occasion this cross was erected by the bishop of novgorod, but by its antiquity, more than five centuries old, by the place of construction and by the person of the builder, this inscribed monument of the beginning of the 13th century belongs to our most curious antiquities. Together with it, in the sacristy of the st. Sophia cathedral, there are three panagias, two of the novgorod archbishops and one papal. B, c - silver, folding, with the image of the crucifixion of i. Kh. , and on the other - the savior. E, f — silver, decorated with enamel, with the image of st. Nicholas. H, i — a gold cross with three oblong open sapphires, on which the crucifixion of jesus christ with the mother of god and john the evangelist standing before him is carved in relief. At the three ends of the cross are depicted three bees, apparently hinting at the words of psalm cxvii, 12: "they surrounded me like bees around a honeycomb. " at the center of the cross on the reverse side is the sun, whose triple rays protrude to the other side as well. At the foot of the cross, according to mr. Solntsev's photograph, we read the inscription urb. Viii. Pm, i. E. Urbanus viii, pontifex maximus. But the "historical description of the novgorod shrine" (st. Petersburg, 1848) and the novgorod "gubernskie vedomosti" (1848, no. 9) erroneously attribute this cross to urban ix and urban xi. Empress catherine ii granted this holy decoration to metropolitan of novgorod and st. Petersburg gavriil petrov, and from him it was transferred to the sacristy of the st. Sophia cathedral. Date: 1846—1853.
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