Georgian
Orthodox Church celebrates today “meeting of the twelve Apostles”
Svetitskhovloba.
Public
prayers will be conducted in all the churches throughout Georgia.
Svetitskhoveli
is considered to be one of the main and foremost churches of Georgians, as it
holds the great sanctity - Christ’s cloak in it. Georgian Jews from Mtskheta named Elias and
Longinos were in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. Elias received clothes of Jesus. The Holy robe
was brought to Mtskheta by them. Returning to his native city, Elias was met by his sister, Sidonia. Sidonia found out about
crucifixion from his brother and upon touching the robe immediately died from the emotions engendered by
the sacred object.
The robe
could not be removed from her grasp, so she was buried with it. The place where
Sidonia is buried with Christ's robe is preserved in the Cathedral. Later, from
her grave grew an enormous cedar tree. Ordering the cedar chopped down to build
the church, St. Nino had seven columns made from it for the church’s
foundation. The seventh column, however, had magical properties and rose by
itself into the air. It returned to earth after St. Nino prayed the whole
night. Here the Church Svetitskhoveli was built. It was further said that from
the magical seventh column a sacred liquid flowed that cured people of all
diseases.
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