The Philothean staurotheke was of tremendous importance in the history of New Testament relic worship in Old Rus'. That very fragment of the True Cross was in the 15th and 16th C. the principal ancestral relic of the Moscovite Grand Dukes and Tsars. To all appearances, the staurotheke was brought to Moscow later as Philotheus occupied the Patriarchal see (1353-54; 1364-76). Byzantium, Constantinople, 12th C.