The Gospel of John says soldiers diced for the executed Jesus's seamless robe, and three churches claim to have it

The Gospel of John says that when Roman soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. His tunic was woven in one piece without a seam, so they cast lots for it instead of tearing it. The writer links this to a line of scripture about dividing garments and casting lots. Several churches claim the tunic. Trier Cathedral in Germany holds that Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, brought it from the Holy Land in the early 4th century; that is legend. Its documented history begins in 1196, when Archbishop Johann I consecrated an altar containing it. In 1512 the emperor Maximilian I, at an imperial diet in Trier, asked to see it, and public showings began. The 1844 showing led to a schism, the German Catholic movement. The city reported 700,000 pilgrims in 1996, and half a million were expected in 2012, the 500th anniversary. The robe has been altered over the centuries, and the surviving original parts are unsuitable for carbon dating. Argenteuil, near Paris, holds that Charlemagne gave the robe to his daughter, an abbess, about 800; a priest cut it up in 1793 to hide it during the Revolution, and two radiocarbon tests dated it to the Middle Ages. Georgia's Svetitskhoveli Cathedral claims it too. The Trier robe lies in a climate-controlled glass shrine in the cathedral.