HOLY COAT: An ancient garment preserved at Treves, and held to be the "coat without seam" of John xix. 23. This coat was regarded by the Church Fathers after Tertullian as a symbol of the indivisible Church, but was believed by them to be no longer in existence. The earliest trace of the belief that the Holy Coat was at least partially pre served occurs in an Arabic life of the Egyptian monk Shnudi of Athribe (d. 451); but the real development of the tradition is medieval. The legend assumes two chief forms, according to whether the Holy Coat is regarded as gray or brown. The former is the older. According to it, Christ wore at his crucifixion a gray "coat without seam," which his mother had woven for him in his infancy, and which had increased with his stature. After the crucifixion Herod gave it to a Jew who, unable to remove the blood stains, threw it into the sea, where it was swallowed by a whale. Meanwhile Orendel, or Arendel, son of the Christian king Eygel of Treves, had been shipwrecked near Palestine and had been forced to enter the service of a fisherman. The two took the whale, and for thirty gold guldens, the sum for which Judas had betrayed Christ, and which the Virgin had sent Orendel, the prince purchased the Holy Coat, which rendered him invulnerable and invincible. Orendel became king of Jerusalem. In obedience to an angelic revelation, he returned to Treves and rescued his father from his enemies, but was soon obliged to seek the Holy Land to fight for the Holy Sepulcher. At the command of an angel, he left the Holy Coat at Treves. Another version of this type of the legend makes the Emperor Constantine take the place of Orendel, while the Jew is represented by Pilate until Veronica reveals to the emperor the means of gaining the Holy Coat. In the second recension of the legend of the Holy Coat, which gradually became the one officially held at Treves, the knightly element is replaced by clerical figures. To this cycle, which is probably of later origin than the one described above and apparently developed after the eleventh or twelfth century, belongs the tradition that the Holy Coat was brought to Treves by a Christian maiden who had received it from a Jew in payment for a year's wages. In another recension the Empress Helena sends or gives the Coat to Treves, and a bishop, Agricius, receives or transmits it. Yet as late as the beginning of the twelfth century Abbot Theofried of Echternach, when writing to Archbishop Bruno of Treves, though mentioning a Holy Coat, describes it as having been brought from Safed, in Palestine, to Jerusalem, where it had remained. After 1132, however, the Holy Coat of Treves was frequently mentioned as a genuine relic.

Besides Treves and Safed, other places are said to contain the Holy Coat, as Galathea, near Constantinople, San Iago de Compostella, St. John Lateran at Rome, and a Franciscan monastery in Friuli. There are, indeed, no less than twenty rivals to the HolyCoatof Treves,the most formidable being that at Argenteuil, near Paris, which can boast in its favor a brief of Gregory XVI. (Aug. 22,1843). The Holy Coat of Treves is described as five feet one and one-half inches long, and reddish-brown in color, consisting, according to some, of fine linen, and according to others, of fine muslin. It was first made an object of public veneration and pilgrimage in 1512. It was then exhibited frequently, especially in 1515 (when Leo X. issued a bull defending its authenticity), 1531, 1545, etc., evoking the anger of Luther. It was again exhibited in the seventeenth century, particularly in 1653, but the French invasions of the eighteenth century forced it to be taken for a considerable time to Ehrenbreitstein and in 1792 to Augsburg, where it remained until 1810, when it was brought back to Treves and venerated by more than 200,000 pilgrims. In 1844 it was exhibitedby Bishop Arnoldi and venerated by 1,100,000, many miraculous cures being reported. Opposition to this led to the German Catholic movement of Ronge and Czerski (see German Catholicism). Despite attacks on the authenticity of the relic, including more or less skepticism from Roman Catholics, Bishop Korum, with the sanction of Leo XIII., exhibited the Holy Coat in 1891, when it was venerated by nearly 2,000,000 pilgrims.

O. Zöckler†.

Bibliography: The two works in English are: E. A. Plater, The Holy Coat of Treoea, London, 1891; and R. F. Clarke, Pilgrimaps to the Holy Coat of Treves, ib. 1892, In German, from the Catholic standpoint are: J. Marx, Geschichte do* heiligen Rocks, Treves, 1844; F. J. Clemens, Der heilige Rock und die protestantische Kritik C oblens, 1845; A. J. Binterim ZoWnisae für die Ech"t des heiligen Rocks, Düsseldorf, 1845; J. N. von Wilmovsky, Der hei IiQ6 Rock sins arcA9ologische Prafung, Treves, 1878; C. Willems, Der Wigs Rock su Trier, ib. 1891; idem, Der Wigs Rock . . . und seine Gepner, ib. 1892; F. Korum, Wunder and gbttliche Gnadenerweise bei der Auaatellung des Wigen Rocks, ib. 1891; J. Hulley, Kurze GeackicAts der Walifahrt sum hsiligen Rock, ib. 1891. From the Protestant standpoint: J. Gildemeister and H. von Sybel, Der heilige Rock su Trier und die 80 anderen heiligen u ngenahten Racks, Düsseldorf, 1844; F. Jaskowski, Der Wigs Rock won Trier gerichtet von semen sigenen Freunden, &ar brileken, 1891; J. Risks, Der Trierer Rock, Hadereleben, 1891; T. Fbrster, Der heilige Rock son Trier im . . . 184,4 and 1891, Halle, 1891; 13. Benecke, Der Wigs Rock zu Trier im . . . 1891, Berlin, 1891; M. Lindner, Der heilige Rock vu Trier und die Wunderhsilungen, Leipsic, 1891; G. Kaufmann, Die Lends room heiligen ungenahten Rock und'das Verbot der .j Lateransynode, Berlin, 1892;

H. Kurtz, Trier und der heilige Rock, Zurich, 1892.