Symbol and Image in the Iconography of Ukrainian Civil Religion

Abstract

The article examines the emergence and consolidation of a Ukrainian civil religion as a nexus of symbols, rituals, and narratives that—since the Revolution of Dignity—has integrated the political community around the values of freedom and dignity. Situating the concept within the line that runs from Rousseau and Durkheim to contemporary accounts (e.g., M. Cristi, V. Possenti), the study defines civil religion as a public ethos and a culture of memory distinct from political religion yet dialectically entangled with it. The core of the paper is a case study of the iconography of the Heavenly Hundred: archangelic motifs (St. Michael), the tryzub, fire, and the guardian-angel figure, and their sacralizing semantics across poetry, painting, murals, and digital graphics. These images and practices transform sacrifice into a founding myth and animate memorial rituals—panakhyda services, processions, and the flag as totem—generating both soteriological and integrative meanings. The article also maps the digital infrastructure of remembrance (project websites, social media) as a contemporary agora of ritual participation. In conclusion, it argues that the full-scale war launched on 24 February 2022 has intensified the consolidation of Ukraine’s civil religion by deepening frames of memory and expanding the symbolic repertoire. The contribution is twofold: an iconographic analysis coupled with ritual theory, and an account of how art and ritual shape the nation’s moral imagination under conditions of existential threat.