The Practice of Dedicating Churches by Tsar Ivan the Terrible During the Livonian War

Abstract

The article analyzes for the first time the practice of dedicating churches by Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Churches that he ordered to be built in the conquered cities of Livonia in 1577. This practice characterizes some features of the Tsar’s religiosity. In most cases, when choosing such dedications, he was guided by the church calendar, but he did it arbitrarily, following his personal preferences. These preferences were expressed in the fact that the tsar dedicated a significant part of the churches to the Mother of God and Russian saints.