However, Paul was neither one of the 12 closest Apostles of Christ, nor even an Apostle of the Seventy. Moreover, he participated in persecutions against Christians and even attended one of the executions: lapidation of the first martyr Stephen. Paul did not want to worship the Crucified One: in those days, that type of execution was considered disgraceful. Crucifixion was used to execute traitors, bandits and runaway slaves. Paul accepted Christ only after the resurrection of the latter, when he heard the voice of Jesus in the desert and lost his sight for three days; later he was healed with a prayer of Ananias, one of the Savior’s disciples. 

Peter and Paul made several apostolic travels and converted to Christianity thousands of Romans, Greeks and Jews. SS Peter and Paul suffered for their faith and, according to the church tradition, were executed on the same day. Paul was decapitated and Peter was crucified upside down.

 
Although they preached separately, icons often show SS Peter and Paul together. In earlier icons, the Apostles are shown next to each other and strictly frontal, while starting from the 16th century they are painted facing each other. This is how they are painted in the icon that belongs to the collection of the Rybinsk Museum Reserve.

 
Scientists believe that the icon was created for a wooden church in Petrovskoye, an estate of the gentry family of the Mikhalkovs. In 1730 a stone SS Peter and Paul cathedral substituted for the wooden church, and the icon was kept there as the temple icon. In1921, when antiquities and valuables were removed from the vacated estate, the icon was transferred to the Rybinsk Museum Reserve.