St Menas on Horseback, with Scenes from His Life, Sts Victor and Vincent

This is a vita icon: one saint in the centre, ringed by small scenes from his life. The saint on the horse is Menas, an Egyptian who served as a soldier in the Roman army and was put to death around the year 309 for refusing to give up his faith. He was prayed to as a protector of travellers and traders, and in older images he usually stands between two camels, from the story that camels carried his body to its burial. Here he rides as a warrior instead, with Saints Victor and Vincent alongside him. It was made in 1823 by painters working in Edirne, the old Adrianople, then a city of the Ottoman empire with a large Orthodox population, and its wooden panel is finished with carving around the image.