Piece of the Holy Wood

A large piece of the Holy Wood on which the Lord Jesus, “our life,” was crucified, is kept in the Vatopedi Monastery, coming from Serbia.

This section of the Life-Giving Wood, one of the few in size in the world, is shaped like a patriarchal Cross and covered with silver and is richly decorated with rows of pearls, carved natural crystals and silver variations; it is kept in a reliquary specially constructed for this purpose. In the reliquary space, around the Cross, there are figures of Saints engraved on silver door panels and inscriptions with the names of saints in Serbian. Under the door panels there are panels with relics of the same Saints.

From the inscription on the cross it appears that the reliquary was commissioned by Stefan and Lazarus Mušić and the Metropolitan of Toplice Jovan (perhaps their brother) on the occasion of the death of their mother, nun Theodosia. The donors offered the reliquary to the church of the Monastery of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, in present-day Nova Pavlica on the banks of the Ibar River, where nun Theodosia was buried. In fact, Theodosia is Dragana, the sister of Prince Lazarus, who died between 1381 and 1389.

Therefore, the reliquary should be dated to this period. The reliquary was located in this Serbian church and must have reached the Vatopedi Monastery in the 15th century, because in the middle of this century the Pavlica Monastery seems to have been deserted; it was renovated in 1464.