The position of the honest robe of our Lord Jesus Christ in Moscow (1625)

In March 1625, Moscow received an unusual cargo from Persia. Shah Abbas I, whose troops had previously ravaged Georgian lands, sent Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich and Patriarch Filaret a casket with part of the robe of the crucified Savior. So the shrine, for centuries kept in the sacristy of the Mtskheta Cathedral of Svetitskhoveli, found a new place of stay in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin.

It is important to understand the difference between the two things mentioned in the Gospel. The Apostle John describes how the Roman soldiers divided the outer robes of Christ into four parts, and about the whole fabric of Chiton, which could not be torn, cast lots. It was this Heaton, according to Georgian chronicles, that Rabbi Elioz brought to Mtskheta immediately after the crucifixion, and today it rests under the foundation of the patriarchal church. It was left untouched even by the most fierce conquerors. But part of the upper Reese — a bitch — for centuries lay in the cathedral treasury, until Abbas moved to Georgia.

The Persian ruler decided to present the relic to the Russian court, apparently wanting to establish a political dialogue. But before accepting the gift, the church hierarchs made a strict check. The truth was confirmed by Archbishop Nectarius of Vologda, Patriarch Theophanes of Jerusalem and the Greek Ioannicius. The last word was left behind a series of miraculous healings that occurred right during the examination of the imported tissue.

The ceremony of introducing the Riza in the Assumption Cathedral fell on March 27. In the old style, it was the week of the Cross, which is why the church calendar and combined the veneration of two different events. Until the revolution, every year on July 10, priests removed the ark from the chapel of the Apostles Peter and Paul and installed it in the middle of the temple for universal worship.

The fate of the Moscow shrine was subsequently fragmented: the particles settled in St. Petersburg — in the Winter and Peter and Paul Cathedrals, as well as in Kiev, Kostroma and other ancient centers. European analogues are stored in the German Trier and the suburb of Paris Argenteuil.