MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Boris Kaimakov) - This story enjoyed a lot of press coverage in the perestroika years.
It is the story of how Herbert Lungwitz, a German World War II veteran, gave the Russian Orthodox Church a relic dating from the mid-17th century - the shroud that once covered the sarcophagus of St. Nicetas, Bishop of Novgorod.
Herr Lungwitz tells it in his own words: "As soon as our troops entered Novgorod on August 22, 1941, I decided to go and see the town's renowned St. Sophia's Cathedral. In those days it housed an Atheistic Propaganda Museum. The great dome had collapsed and the floor was covered with dust and debris. I saw a length of cloth lying there in the rubble. I am a Christian, and so I realized at once that it was a sacred relic. I picked it up and decided to keep it. Shortly after, I was given leave to go back to Germany, and I took the cloth with me, though I knew that it wasn't allowed and that were it discovered I could be shot. I kept the cloth at home all those years, and never mentioned it to anyone outside my family. It was our hidden treasure."
When I asked him why he had not returned the shroud earlier, Lungwitz replied, "I didn't want it to end up in another Museum of Atheism. But when I saw that the Russian Orthodox Church had survived and that services were once again being held in St. Sophia's Cathedral, I decided to hand the relic back. To tell you the truth, it had never occurred to me just how precious it was."
Lungwitz's find was a unique religious and cultural treasure.
In the bottom right hand corner of the shroud there is an embroidered inscription: "This shroud was finished under His Beatitude Joachim the Metropolitan of Novgorod the Great and Velikiye Luki." This inscription allowed experts to date the shroud to 1664-1672.
The shroud is decorated with a delicate embroidered portrait of St. Nicetas of Novgorod, which is framed with pearl. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Bishop Nicetas in the 13th century. The sarcophagus containing his relics has been well preserved and now lies in one of the churches of Novgorod. As local legend has it, during the occupation a German soldier pierced the saint's remains with his bayonet and a liquid resembling blood trickled out.
Lungwitz was an old man when he decided to return the relic to Russia. He was completely aware that people would react in different ways to his story. On the one hand, the former Nazi soldier was doing a noble thing. On the other hand, it was he who had taken the relic out of Russia in the first place. This had haunted him all his life.
"True, I was a Wehrmacht soldier, but I am an artist! I knew the shrine would be lost in that cruel war. It destroyed many other treasures. That was the only reason why I took it. Now, my conscience is clear. I am glad I lived long enough to return the shroud myself."
