Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem has consecrated a copy of the Gethsemane Shroud of the Mother of God intended for the Holy Dormition Convent in Staraya Ladoga, Russia, the Russian Embassy in Israel reported.

The consecration took place during a meeting between the Primate of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church and a delegation of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation, at whose initiative the copy of the revered shrine was produced. The meeting was attended by Russia’s Ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, and the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Vassian (Zmeyev).

According to the embassy, the Russian side expressed gratitude to Patriarch Theophilos III for his efforts to preserve the religious status quo of Jerusalem, protect Christian communities in the Middle East, ensure access for pilgrims to holy sites, and support pilgrimages from Russia.

The Gethsemane Shroud of the Mother of God is one of Jerusalem’s most venerated Orthodox shrines. In Orthodox tradition, it is not a cloth relic but a three-dimensional wooden depiction of the repose of the Virgin Mary, adorned with a silver covering. The shroud is associated with the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos and symbolizes her burial in Gethsemane. The original is kept at Little Gethsemane, a metochion of the Jerusalem Patriarchate near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Each year, on the eve of the Dormition feast, the shrine is carried in a procession to the Tomb of the Mother of God in the Garden of Gethsemane, where it remains until the end of the праздничные services.

Historians and church sources link the appearance of the Gethsemane Shroud to 19th-century Russian benefactress Countess Anna Orlova-Chesmenskaya, who donated substantial funds for the adornment of holy sites in the Holy Land. From the mid-19th century onward, copies of the shroud became widespread in Russia.

Earlier, Patriarch Theophilos III also met with Archimandrite Vassian to discuss the visit of a delegation from the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation to Jerusalem for the Feast of Theophany and the associated services on the Jordan River.