The Seamless Robe

The relic is a brownish garment of wool, dyed with madder, surviving as fragments mounted on a backing; it is venerated as the seamless tunic that John's Gospel says Jesus wore to the crucifixion, the robe "woven in one piece from the top" for which the soldiers cast lots so as not to tear it. Because the Gospel stresses that it was without seam, the tunic became a powerful symbol of the unity of the Church.

The Argenteuil cloth has been examined several times: studies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries reported bloodstains, pollen said to be consistent with the Near East, and weaving of an ancient type, while a radiocarbon test in 2004 returned a date around the seventh century, which supporters attribute to contamination or to the many times the fabric was handled, cut and repaired. The Church venerates it as a relic of the Passion without asserting its scientific authenticity. The garment is fragile, which is one reason it is kept sealed and shown only at long intervals rather than displayed continuously.