The President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Andrija Mandić, believes that the icon of the Virgin Filermosa should be handed over to the Metropolitanate of Montenegrin and Littoral (MCP) of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).
The Assembly announced that Mandić presented the President of the Parliament of Malta, Anđelo Feruđa, with a reproduction of the icon of the Virgin Filermosa.
"Taking into account its great history and importance for all of Christianity, Mandic pointed out that this shrine should be reunited with the right hand of St. John the Baptist and the particles of the Holy Cross in the Cetinje monastery, so that it finds its place alongside the life of St. Peter of Cetinje." they said from the Assembly.
The announcement of the Assembly also states that "foreseeing the events in Germany, in 1932 the icon together with the right hand of Saint John the Baptist and particles of the Holy Cross of the Lord was taken to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to King Aleksandar I Karađorđević".
The Assembly stated that with the upcoming occupation in 1941, those holy things were secretly kept in the Ostrog Monastery until 1978, when the treasures of the Cetinje Monastery were returned, and the icon of the Virgin Philermosa was handed over to the National Museum of Montenegro in Cetinje.
In October 2017, the late Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral Region said that the government had imprisoned the icon of the Virgin Filerimosa and that it should be returned to the temple.
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This was opposed by the Metropolitan of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church (CPC) Mihailo, who called on the state prosecutor to interfere in the "unconstitutional agreements of the administration and the Belgrade Patriarchate".
He then said that the competent state authorities determined and confirmed that the icon of Filermos is a movable cultural asset owned by the state.
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The former Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazović, and the Mayor of the Capital of Cetinje, Nikola Đurašković, agreed in November 2022 that the Capital has great and untapped tourist potential, such as the icon of the Virgin Filermosa.
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Some Christians believe that the right hand of John the Baptist with which he baptized Jesus Christ and the particles of the cross on which he was crucified have been preserved.
Encyclopaedia Britannica writes that the worship of the Holy Cross led to the sale of its fragments, which were sought after as relics.
"The French reformer and theologian Jean Calvin pointed out that all the existing fragments, if collected, would fill a large ship. His objection was considered invalid by some Roman Catholic theologians, who claimed that the blood of Christ gave the Holy Cross a kind of material indestructibility, so that can be shared indefinitely without diminishing. Such beliefs resulted in the proliferation of relics of the Holy Cross wherever Christianity spread in the medieval world, and the fragments were deposited in most of the great cities and in a great number of abbeys. The livings were designed to hold multiplied fragments, and some precious objects of this kind have survived to this day," according to the Britannica text.
Several churches claim that the right hand of John the Baptist is preserved in them. Allegedly, there is one in the Cetinje monastery, one in the cathedral in Siena, and one in the Armenian church in India.
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