In 988 AD Prince Vladimir of Kiev brought Christianity to Russia’s loosely knit pagan tribes. He employed the new faith as a strategy for uniting the tribes in a common defense against invading enemies. Embracing the faith of Constantine, Vladimir established Eastern Orthodoxy as Russia’s official religion and encouraged its heavy use of Christian images in the form of icons and crosses.

Cast metal icons and crosses were inexpensive, durable and portable objects of veneration. Small crosses of brass or silver were given to infants at the time of baptism and were often worn for a lifetime. Brass crosses and icons depicting saints, Christ and the Virgin adorned every Russian family’s “beautiful corner”—the place in each home designated for spiritual devotions.

In the middle of the seventeenth century, a great split occurred in the Russian Orthodox Church over changes made to the liturgy. This resulted in large factions breaking away from the state sponsored church. A group known as the “Old Believers” favored the use of metal icons and set up workshops throughout the countryside devoted to the production of these religious items.

Despite a decree by Peter the Great in 1723 that forbade the production and sale of cast metal icons, they continued being made until the late nineteenth century. Sacred Russian Castings chronicles the history of the Russian Church through these holy objects.