MOSCOW, June 15 (RIA Novosti) - Tens of thousands of Russian Orthodox Christians have been drawn to the nation's largest cathedral by a Christian relic on loan from a cloister in Montenegro.
As many as 150,000 pilgrims have prayed by what is said to be the right hand of St. John the Baptist - the hand that allegedly baptized Jesus in the River Jordan - since it went on display in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral a week ago.
Taken out of Russia, where it had been kept since 1799, following the Bolshevik revolution, the relic was considered lost until its rediscovery in Montenegro in 1993.
A round-the-clock visiting schedule has been introduced by the cathedral to accommodate the growing number of worshippers, many of whom have queued for up to 14 hours to see the relic before it leaves Moscow on Friday.
The hand will be displayed in major Christian centers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus before its return journey to Montenegro July 16.
