The piece, kept at the Moscow Kremlin museums, was handed over to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia at a meeting with Russian Orthodox Church hierarchs on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the restoration of patriarchy.

Alexy II thanked Putin and said the holy relic would be kept at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. “This is a big spiritual gift and one of

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the most important Christian relics,” he said.

Putin said he had ordered the relevant authorities to consider the possibility of handing over the most revered Christian relics from the Moscow Kremlin museums to the church.

Christ’s raiment was seized by Iranian Shah Abbas I in Georgia. In 1624 he offered it to Russian Tsar Mikhail Romanov. After its authenticity had been verified in 1625, a reliquary with Christ’s raiment was brought to Moscow and placed at the Dormition Cathedral.

In the 17th century, the raiment was divided into several parts that were kept in Yaroslavl, Kostromf, the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev, and St. Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Cathedral.

MOSCOW, November 19 (Itar-Tass)