Martyr
Martyr Castor
Ранневизантийский период
Martyr Castor — an early Christian saint depicted among the martyrs on a fresco at Gračanica Monastery (Kosovo, Serbia, c. 1318); precise historical identification is difficult, since several different martyrs are known under this name in various menologies (including Castor and Dorotheus of Nicomedia, who suffered under Emperor Maximian in 302), making the specific biography and feast day of the saint depicted here impossible to establish with confidence.
Martyr Castor is depicted among the ranks of early Christian martyrs on the fresco of the Church of the Annunciation at Gračanica Monastery (Kosovo, Serbia, c. 1318), with his name directly inscribed and preserved. However, precise historical identification is difficult: the name "Castor" is borne by several different martyrs of various periods and places in Orthodox menologies — including Martyrs Castor and Dorotheus of Nicomedia, who suffered during the persecution of Emperor Maximian (302) together with a group of other Nicomedian martyrs (Mardonius, Migdonius, Peter, Indes, Gorgonius). Without more detailed art-historical or hagiographic research into the specific painting program of Gračanica, it is not possible to establish with confidence which of the martyrs known under this name the fresco depicts, and therefore his exact feast day.
This entry has been kept published as an honestly attested, genuinely existing (though not fully identified) figure of the medieval iconographic tradition, without inventing a feast date or biographical details that cannot be confirmed.