Russia's St. Andrew Foundation brought the head of St. Luke, an Apostle and the writer of the third Gospel, to Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, where the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexy II, 50 bishops, hundreds of priests and thousands of ordinary believers were on hand to receive it.
Long lines of worshippers formed early, and many were unable to enter the cathedral for the evening prayer service and had to wait to kiss the relic following the service.
It will be accessible to the public until June 17, and will then be taken to a number of other Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian cities.
St. Luke, who also wrote the Book of Acts in the New Testament, left Rome after the martyrdom of Apostles Peter and Paul, and preached Christianity in Achaia (Greece), Libya, and Egypt. He was crucified at the age of 85 in Thebes.
Mount Athos is a peninsula in the northeast of Greece with 20 monasteries - 17 Greek, one Russian, named after St. Panteleimon, one Bulgarian and one Serbian.
The 20 monasteries rule Athos through their representatives that make up the Holy Kinot (council). No women are allowed into the republic. St. Luke's head was kept in the Russian monastery.
