Prayer icons representing St Christopher; the dog-headed (Christopher Kynokephalos in Greek; Pesnoglavets in Russian) were forbidden by the Holy Synod in 1722; but this seems only to have increased their popularity among the Old Believers. The Byzantine depiction of St. Christopher as dog-headed may have resulted from the misinterpretation of the Latin term Cananeus (Canaanite) to read canineus (canine).