Русь, Византия и Западная Европа: Из истории внешнеполитических и культурных связей XII—XIII вв.

One more name Euphrosine is famous under in the scientific literature is Ann, which she must have taken on returning to nunnery in the beginning of the 1220s. The connection of «the great Roman's princess» with the cult of St. Ann, Our Lady's mother, is witnessed with the chapel of St. Joachim and Ann built on her grave according to the chronicle of Galich and Volyn. There is the unique icon of the «Assembly for St. Joachim and Ann» painted at the edge of 13–14th cc. and copying the older altar icon.

The name of Ann and the scene of Transfigutation used by the princess of Galich at her personal seals (such scene is quite unique for the Russian seals and is very rare for the Byzantine ones) can indicate some personal attitude of the elder daughter of Isaac II to the memory of the nun-empress Anna Dalassina which was honored as the ancestor of all the Comnenos and the Angelos at the Byzantine court.

It is thanks to Euphrosine of Galich that several famous Christian relics of both liturgical and political (as the insignia of power) significance appeared in Galich and Volynian Rus'. First of all it was the reliquary cross with the particle of Holy Cross which is kept in Our Lady's of Paris. «Crowned Manuel Comnenos» is ought to be identified with Manuel I.

The creating of the Galich Aprakos Gospel of the beginning of the 13th c. (now in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow) is also connected with Euphrosine of Galich. The miniatures and ornaments illuminating the manuscript are considered to be some of the best examples of the Russian artistic bookwork.

The influence of great princess Euphrosine explains the appearance of unusual and unique Christian names among the Galich and Volynian Rurikides. First of all it is the name «Daniel», which was adopted by the Moscow princes afterwards. This name became in use thanks to the spreading of the cult of Daniel Stylites and rising of the interest in the attributes of stylites which can be seen in sigillography and in the numerous architectural monuments of Galich and Volyn of the 13th — beginning of the 14th c. as well. Thanks to the family links of the Galich and Volyn princes and their Vladimir Suzdalsky this cult spread in the North- East of Rus' and then in Moscow.

Euphrosine being the daughter of Isaac II the interest in the stylites increased among the princes. According to Niceta Choniate emperor Isaac showed hot love and especially protected the stylites and the hermits astonishing the contemporaries, because since the times of iconoclasm stylites lost their previous influence on the emperors and their movement declined.

Byzantine hagiographical tradition on St. Daniel Stylites and emperor Leo the Great explains the connection of the names Daniel and Lev (Leo) among the descendants of Roman Mstislavich and Euphrosine. Daniel Stylites was the spiritual father and the main councilor of emperor Leo I. It seems as if this circumstance reflected in the pair of names of the Galich princes: father and son — Daniel Romanovich and Lev Daniilovich.

The name of prince Iraclii (Hercules) Daniilovich is connected with cult of the Holy Cross. Though the Byzantine emperor Hercules I who returned the main Christian relic the Holy Cross from the Persian captivity hadn't been canonized by the Chuch his memory was worshiped both in the East and in the West. The special interest in Hercules marked the Crusade epoch in Europe, when his name became the symbol of liberating and the defense of Holy Land and thus impressed in numerous monuments of art and literature and in the names of Patriarchs of Jerusalem also.

Together with the untypical for the Rurikides «Byzantine» names of the Galich princes the political and cultural inheritance of Roman Mstislavich displayed in some attributes and symbols of the imperial power. First of all it is the double-headed eagle known from the descriptions of the monumental sculptures and the information about the territorial symbols of Galich and Volynian Rus'. Depicting the appearance of Daniel the chronicler witnesses the unusual case of bearing «Greek olovir». This special term meant «real» or «imperial» purple.

The external attributes of the imperial dignity corresponded to the imperial title of the Princes of Galich and Volyn. Using the title «tsar» and «autorcator» and the derivates towards the princes of Galich and Volyn is seen in the numerous literary sources all the 13th c. along. The features of the Byzantine emperor are evidently shown in the political activity of Roman Mstislavich and his descendants. First of all it is seen in their attempts to enlarge their powers according to the idea of the imperial (that of Basileus) power, in their claims of the investments of the bishops, in their choice of the instruments of the political struggle.