New Word
I learnt a new word at the Byzantine exhibition last week. Psychosostria. It means "she who saves souls".

I also looked an object that is said to contain a bit of the cross Jesus was nailed to. Apparently (or as legend has it), Constantine's mum, Helena, went searching for the cross in 200 something AD and found it. And a bit of the cross was put into a ornamental cross, which we can all see in the Royal Academy.

I'm not really a religious person, but hearing this story on the audio guides certainly gave me a kind of lightning bolt. Was I really looking at a fragment of the cross? The cross that could have be spattered with the blood of Christ? Had the son of God touched this artefact?

The mind boggles.