Andrei Rublev’s icon of the Holy Trinity is one of the most sacred and artistically significant Russian icons believed to have been created in honor of Saint Sergius of Radonezh at Sergiev Posad near Moscow.

The image depicts three angels who visited Abraham at the oak of Mamre in the book of Genesis, the first of the Bible, and until recently was on display in a museum, the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

The Church is one of the most ardent institutional supporters of Russia’s war in Ukraine. In fact, its head, Patriarch Kirillos himself, calls on Russians to support Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, while last year he declared that those killed fighting in Ukraine would have their sins forgiven.

Today, Peskov announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to hand over the historic 15th-century icon of the Holy Trinity to the Russian Orthodox Church “due to the interest of its faithful.”

The Kremlin spokesman told reporters: “This concerns a large number of believers in our country, for whom it is a very sacred object. For them, our believers, of course keeping it in a museum does not satisfy their desire”.

The icon will now adorn – for at least one year – the Cathedral of Jesus the Savior in Moscow and then it will be kept in a monastery in Sergiev Posad: the Lavra of the Holy Trinity of St. Sergius, which is the spiritual center of the Russian Church and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The image has been transferred several times during various periods of internal strife.

In 1929 the authorities of the officially atheist communist Soviet Union placed the image in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

Since then it has only left the museum a few times.

During World War II it was moved to a safe location for a time.

In 2022, it was transferred due to religious celebrations to the Lavra of the Holy Trinity of Saint Sergius.