The Robe of our Lord Jesus Christ

Tomorrow, July 10, is the Translation of the Honorable Robe of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The July 10 entry in the Prologue of Ohrid speaks of this.    I found this rather amazing as one of the books my daughter chose to read this summer is Lloyd C. Douglas’ The Robe.  The book is fiction and is well written but does not reflect the actual history of our Lord’s Robe.  Of course, my daughter naturally asked, “What became of Christ’s Robe?”  The query prompted me to investigate further the documented history on the Robe of our Lord. 

I found a wealth of great information of the Full of Grace and Truth blogspot and here is the link:  http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2009/07/precious-robes-of-christ-and-orthodox.html  The article is well worth reading and meditating upon.  Great and marvelous are all the works of the Lord!

I will also share a special blessing that came to me a couple months ago without any real awareness on my part.  I came upon an icon in a thrift store (four thrift shop found icons have found homes with us over the years).  This icon (the one which puzzled me up until today) is specifically related to the Lord’s Robe.

In the icon, Christ and His angels look down upon a holy pillar that appears to hover over a stump beneath which someone has reposed, is wearing a halo and is clutching something to his/her chest—the figure is dim, though the halo glimmers.  St. Nina is pictured on the right, along with other faithful and there appear a pious king and queen and clergy in the foreground.  The pillar of wood is being held by an angel and above it is a crown and some stars.  I’d never seen anything like this before but when I first came across it, I was able to pick out St. Nina with her grapevine cross.  Since my daughter is named for St. Nina, I felt blessed to have it, but still couldn’t figure out what the scene related to.  However, after reading on the Full of Grace and Truth blogspot, I learned what a lovely treasure I’d found, indeed!  In our icon, the holy one beneath the stump is St. Sidonia of Georgia (Iberia) clutching Christ’s Robe!  Also shown are King Mirian and Queen Nana along with St. Nina and pious clergy.  This icon depicts the revealing of our Lord’s Robe in Georgia.  Wow—what a surprise—what a blessing!  (I wish I could post a photo of the icon but the colors are not particularly bright and it would be hard to see much detail.  There is no indication anywhere on the icon from where it came.)  

I hope you’ll have time to visit the link to the Full of Grace and Truth blogspot to learn more about the Robe of our Lord and its history.  And I want to thank the blogger for the edifying and educational posts that so often appear there.

Love in Christ,

Pres. Candace