Seamless: pilgrims touch the “Holy Robe” reportedly worn by Jesus shortly before his crucifixion, during the 20th pilgrimage of the robe, in Trier, Germany, on Friday. The garment is usually kept in a reliquary in Trier Cathedral, but will be on public display now for a series of ecumenical events, until the middle of next month. The earliest record­ed mention of the robe places it in 1196 at Trier Cathedral, where it is said to have been brought from Jerusalem by St Helena, mother if the Emperor Constantine, in the fourth century. The Trier pilgrimage dates from 1512, when Emperor Maximilian I demanded a personal viewing of the robe, at a time when citizens of Trier were challenging the church hierarchy. In 1844, the pilgrimage provoked conflict when it was used by Roman Catholics to assert their identity in the face of Protestant rule. In 1959, the RC diocese of Trier introduced an ecumenical element into the pilgrimage