The Translation of the Precious Robe of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Life

At the time of the suffering of the Lord Jesus for the human race, there was in the detachment of the Roman army in Jerusalem a certain Georgian, Elioz, from the city of Mtskheta. His mother had heard of Christ and believed in Him in her heart. Sending her son off to military service in Palestine, she counseled him not to do anything against Christ. When the Lord was being nailed to the Cross, the sound of the hammer on Golgotha reached the ears of the mother of Elioz in the city of Mtskheta. Hearing that sound, she cried out: "Woe is me, that I did not die before this time; death would have delivered me from this terrible sound!" And having said this, she fell dead. Elioz was then standing beneath the Cross and with the other soldiers was casting lots for the robe of Christ. The robe fell to him, and he brought it to Mtskheta and gave it to his sister Sidonia. She, upon hearing of the death of the Lord and that her brother had been a participant in the shedding of innocent blood, fell dead with the tunic of the Lord, clutching it firmly in her hands so that no one could wrest it from her, and they were compelled to bury her together with the tunic. From her grave a cedar tree grew, from which a healing myrrh flowed. In time the cedar fell and the place was forgotten. Saint Nina discovered that place by means of a fiery pillar over it, which appeared after her prayer. And the baptized King Mirian erected a church there dedicated to the Holy Apostles. In the year 1625, Shah Abbas took that robe and sent it to Moscow as a gift to Prince Michael Feodorovich and Patriarch Philaret. That robe was placed in the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow.