Early bishop's icon

[Georgiy]

Dear friends,
I am an orthodox icon painter and I was asked to paint icons of St Martin of Tour, Germain of Auxierre and Zeno of Verona, who all are also venerated in orthodox church. Perhaps you know, had these saints wear tonsure, because compulsory tonsure was introduced only in 660 in Toledo. Before that only few monastic brotherhoods practiced tonsure. I will depict saint bishops without mitres as it is characteristic for Byzantine tradition. That’s why this question is important for me.

 

[bpbasilphx]

Excuse me, but I don’t see how you have asked any question.

 

[Georgiy]

Excuse me, but I don’t see how you have asked any question.

Thank you for attention, I’ll try to clarify.
So the question is did snt Martin, snt Zeno and snt Germain wear tonsure?
Did they have the part of their head left bare by shaving, i.e so called tonsure (also called corona)? (as it became a compulsory practice for catholic bishops since Toledo council and these saints had lived centuries before)?
Do I have to depict these saint bishops with tonsure on their heads or without it?

 

[bpbasilphx]

**So the question is did snt Martin, snt Zeno and snt Germain wear tonsure? **

**As you know, icons do not always portray the mere historical facts of something. Many of the things in them are symbolic.

I’ve seen Icons of both St. Gregory Palamas and St. Augustine of Hippo that showed the Western tonsure: the latter was done by Fr. Michael of the Holy Mountain.**

 

[Georgiy]

Yes, I guess it’s hard to establish precise historical facts in this issue. It could be an interesting subject for Ph.D. research. Thank you.