Placing of the Precious Robe of the Lord at Moscow

The tradition surrounding the Robe traces its origin to the Crucifixion. According to the Gospel of John, the soldiers who crucified Christ cast lots for His seamless tunic rather than dividing it, because it was woven whole from the top down. One strand of tradition holds that the tunic was awarded to a soldier from the land of Iberia (Georgia), who carried it back to his homeland. A related Georgian account holds that a Jewish rabbi named Elioz of Mtskheta purchased the robe from a soldier after the Crucifixion. The relic came to be preserved in Georgia, in the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral at Mtskheta, where the Chiton of the Lord was kept beneath a crypt; in Georgia the feast in honor of the Chiton is celebrated on October 1.

In the early seventeenth century, Shah Abbas I of Persia invaded Georgia and, along with other treasures, carried off the Robe of the Lord. At the insistence of the Russian ambassador and Tsar Michael Feodorovich, the Shah sent the Robe as a diplomatic gift to Patriarch Philaret (1619–1633) and Tsar Michael in 1625. The Shah's envoy, recorded as Irusambek, arrived in Moscow with many gifts and a letter, and first presented the Patriarch with a golden box adorned with precious stones, within which the Robe was enclosed.

Patriarch Philaret convened a synod to examine the relic. Its authenticity was attested by Nectarius, Archbishop of Vologda, who testified to having witnessed the Robe's location in Georgia during his prior service there; by Patriarch Theophanes of Jerusalem, who had come from Byzantium; and by Joannicius the Greek. Verification was also sought through miracles: at the Patriarch's order, Metropolitan Cyprian placed the vestment upon the sick, and accounts report that all who were sick were healed. Following this attestation, the Robe was transferred to the Dormition Cathedral and placed in a specially arranged room on the west side of the cathedral.

A portion of the Robe was thereafter kept at the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow, in a chapel named for the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Additional portions were distributed to other churches: the cathedral of the Winter Palace and the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, the Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, the Ipatiev Monastery near Kostroma, and other ancient temples. Annually on July 10 the Robe was solemnly brought out of the Peter and Paul chapel at the Dormition Cathedral and placed on a stand for veneration during the time of the divine services.

The feast honors a relic of Christ's Passion, and through it the Church draws the faithful back to the Crucifixion itself — the seamless tunic being the very garment for which the soldiers cast lots at the Cross. In venerating the Robe, the Church venerates the memory of the Lord's suffering made present in a tangible sign.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk drew out the theological significance of the Robe as a token of Christ's redemptive suffering: that God's justice required that human sin be answered, and that Christ's sacrifice demonstrates at once both divine justice and divine mercy. The garment, borne by the Savior to the place of His death, thus points beyond itself to the whole economy of salvation accomplished on the Cross.

The many healings associated with the relic — from its first attestation, when the sick placed under it were healed, to the miraculous signs by which the Lord was said to confirm its authenticity — express the Orthodox conviction that grace works through material things sanctified by their contact with Christ. The feast celebrates the relic not as an object in itself but as a channel of the Lord's continuing mercy toward His people.

• John 19:23–24 — The soldiers cast lots for Christ's seamless tunic, woven whole from the top, rather than tearing it.