CHRISTIAN TREASURES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 29

CHRISTIAN TREASURES

AMAZING RELICS SAVED FROM SOVIET FRAGMENT OF TRUE CROSS Valuable treasures ot the Russian Orthodox Church, which were saved from the Bolsheviks, and are now in safe keeping in the new Russian Church, Berlin, are again occupying public attention, says the Berlin correspondent of the “London Times."’ These treasures Consist primarily of what are alleged to be fragments of the Cross of Calvary, part of an arm claimed to be that of John the Baptist, and an icon with a picture of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus, said to have been painted by St. Luke and framed in gold ornamented with valuable jewels. These relics are contained in a gold shrine richly decorated with curious precious stones, so that the treasures are not only of unusual historical importance, but of immense material worth. The relics themselves were taken to Russia by the Knights of Malta to prevent their seizure by Napoleon 1., and were presented to Tsar Paul 1., who kept them in the Winter Palace. The shrine in which they are enclosed was, however, constructed by order of the Russian Imperial Family, and October 1, 1790, was declared to be a public holiday in their honour, and on every anniversary of that day the treasures were exhibited to the public in the Cathedral, Gatchina.. How the treasures were got out of Russia is not known, but the late Empress Marie, mother of the Tsar Nicholas, took them to Copenhagen after the 1917 revolution, and on her death they passed into the possession of her daughter, Grand Duchess Xenia. The latter handed them to Metropolitan Antonius, head of the Russian Church, who in turn transferred them to Bishop Tichon, who is in charge of the Church in Berlin. Here the treasures are guarded Russian ex-officers until it has been decided whether the wish of the Russian Imperial Family, namely, that they shall be removed to the Royal Palace, Belgrade, into the keeping of Metropolitan Antonius, can be fulfilled. The Russian clergy in Berlin say that the Bolshevist Government has laid no claim to the treasures, and that there is no truth in the report that English banks are endeavouring to place an embargo on them as security for the loan toward the cost of building the Berlin church, because i no such loan was advanced.