The Hidden Church
(Sakli Kilise)
The Military Saint

The saint is wearing a lamellar klibanion with what appear to be jewelled decoration and with armoured sleeves made of strips of leather, or perhaps padded material. He does not have kremasmata (armoured skirt). His cloak is clasped with a circular jewelled brooch, and the tunic under the armour is decorated with a pattern of repeating roundels.

A detail of the figure shows the plates of the klibanion. Each plate has two dots at the top, and two vertical lines at the bottom. The latter are almost certainly laces; the former could be laces each of which goes between two closely adjacent holes, but seem more likely to be rivets. More detail can be seen of the brooch, which can be seen to be a disc or a circular stone, surrounded by a ring of jewels or perhaps pearls. The jewelled decoration appears to extend to the cloak, the neck of the tunic, and the region between the klibanion and the armoured sleeves.



Referenced on p.48, Byzantine Cavalryman c.900-1204 by Timothy Dawson (Author), Giuseppe Rava (Illustrator)
This warrior saint depicted in an eleventh-century fresco in the 'Hidden Church' at Goreme in Kappadokhia shows fine detail of his klivanion - two rivets securing the plates and two laces suspending them, and the splinted upper sleeves. The cloak and heavily trimmed brocade tunic show that this is parade dress of the courtly elite.

Back to the Hidden Church (Sakli Kilise) Cappadocia, Turkey, showing Byzantine Costume & Soldiers