Sunday, July 02, 2006

Just When You Thought We Had The Russkies Beat...

Now there's a Hand-Gap...

Hand of John the Baptist in Russia

"It was the only part of John the Baptist's body that Luke the Apostle could take away from the village where he was buried, and it has since been cited as the cause of miracles. It was given to the Russian royal family in St Petersburg to protect it from Napoleon's advancing armies and then whisked away to central Europe when the Bolshevik revolution broke out.

Now, as part of the Kremlin's bid to forge a national identity, John the Baptist's right hand, which Christians think baptised Jesus Christ, has returned to Russia for the first time in 89 years.

The return has been hailed by the Russian Orthodox church with great pomp and reverence. The head of the church, Patriach Alexei II, welcomed it at a ceremony on Wednesday at the Church of Christ the Saviour in central Moscow. The hand will remain there until Friday, when it will be taken on a tour of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine before returning in July to Montenegro, its present home.

The Patriach called on Christians to pray before the hand, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti."

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