White stone works form part of the Andrei Rublev Museum’s archaeology collection. Its development is connected with the history of the Savior St. Andronicus Monastery. Several carved blocks, including those depicting the serpent fighter, belonged to the Savior Cathedral. They were reused during the rebuilding of the cathedral and were discovered in the later masonry walls during the restoration and research works of 1956–1959, whereupon they were handed over to the museum.

The dating of the found objects is difficult. Their archaic appearance and simplified nature of carving led researchers to the assumption that the fragments had been created earlier than the Savior Cathedral and may have originally decorated another church. Yet, there is an opposite point of view, according to which the “Serpent Fighter” and other details with carvings were part of the ancient stone altar screen of the Savior Cathedral.

The warriors who defeated the evil forces in the form of a serpent were Archangel Michael, Archistrategos of the Heavenly Host, and the holy warriors, the Great Martyrs George the Victorious, Theodore Stratelates, and Theodore Tiron. The miracle of St. George and the serpent was widely known to the Old Russian people, and the saint himself was honored both among the common people and in the circles close to grand princes.

It is possible that the white stone block represents the Great Martyr George, but according to the established iconography, he was usually depicted on horseback. A similar arrangement, with a tall frontal figure of a warrior piercing a serpent with a spear is found in the icons of Theodore Tiron. However, both Tiron and his namesake Theodore Stratelates were depicted as middle-aged warriors, with short hair and beards, which slightly differed in shape.

Since antiquity, Tiron has been considered the patron of Christians who decided to resist the evil forces. The hagiography of Theodore Tiron tells the story of how the devil in the form of a serpent captured the mother of the holy warrior and hid her in a deep cave. The warrior penetrated into the lair of the beast and was able to free his mother. Their joint depictions are also known in wooden sculptures, for example, on the Lyudogoshch cross (1359) in Novgorod and in iconography of the 16th–17th centuries. However, the small number of details in the available fragment does not allow researchers to accurately attribute the image and establish the name of the saint.