Pectoral cross, 19th century

Bronze casting

Height × width: 7.5 × 4 cm Weight: 54.6 g.

The image recalls the culminating moment of the Passion narrated in the Gospels, when Christ, already dead on the Cross, is pierced in the side by the spear of the soldier Longinus and is offered a sponge soaked in vinegar. The combined presence of the spear and the sponge emphasizes the narrative and devotional character of the object: on the one hand, the wound that confirms Christ’s death; on the other, the humiliation endured during the Passion. These symbols also carry a theological significance, recalling the blood and water that flowed from Christ’s pierced side, interpreted in Christian tradition as symbols of the sacraments and of the birth of the Church. On the reverse of the cross there is an extensive inscription in Cyrillic characters, probably devotional in nature and related to the religious tradition of the Russian Old Believers.