His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has signed an agreement with the leadership of the Tretyakov Gallery for the transfer of the icon of Andrei Rublev's "The Trinity" to the Church, as reported by the Moscow Patriarchate's website. The document was signed by Patriarch Kirill and Olga Lyubimova, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation.

After the signing, the Patriarch thanked the government of the Russian Federation and stated that the time has come for the return of sacred relics to the Church, which hold immense cultural and historical value.

"An important historical event has taken place," Patriarch Kirill addressed the gathering after the ceremony. "Today, we symbolically testify that the country is living in a different time, in a different era. We hope that the time when sacred relics were seized from the Church has irreversibly passed, and now the Church sees the return of relics, even those of great cultural and historical significance. The document we have signed today clearly indicates that the terrible era, when under the guise of confiscating church treasures, relics were taken away from the Russian land, has definitively become a thing of the past. I sincerely thank you and, through you, the entire Ministry of Culture and the entire government of the Russian Federation. May the church-state dialogue develop in such a way, and not otherwise, for the benefit of our homeland and our people."

The masterpiece of ancient Russian painting, the icon of the Holy Trinity, was painted by Andrei Rublev in the 15th century for the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where it remained until the 1920s. After the revolution, in 1929, the icon was transferred to the State Tretyakov Gallery. It has been kept in a special capsule in the museum for many years, under the constant supervision of restorers. In 2022, for the first time in many years, "The Trinity" was taken out of the museum and sent to the Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra for a two-day celebration of the 600th anniversary of the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh.

On May 15, 2023, it was announced that the President had decided to transfer the icon of Andrei Rublev's "The Trinity" from the Tretyakov Gallery to the possession of the Russian Orthodox Church. Following this decision, "The Trinity" was brought to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior for the celebration of Pentecost, which took place on June 4. It was then announced by the Patriarchate that the icon would be exhibited in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and later take its historical place in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra Cathedral.