In the Missal of Banking of the monastery in 1428 the name Matthew is inscribed to mention how the deceased, along with his wife Mary and their children, one of the daughters named Anna. This information allows otnesni shroud to the XV century.
The iconography is traditional for the epitaph. Images of a scene called "Tombstone crying"
(About EGPTAFYUE 0PHNOI), its symbolic ¬ faces linked to the liturgical texts ¬ mi, and its function - with devotions during Holy Week on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. In the richly decorated shroud represented body of Christ (IS XZ) on his deathbed, flanked by two angels in Be ¬ lyh robes and processional fans in their hands over him. On the bed there is a dedicatory inscription. In the four corners - the symbols of the evangelists: an angel - Matthew (MO), the lion - Mark (MK), a bull - Luke (LK), the eagle - John (W). This composition NE ¬ lyaetsya traditional for the shroud and corporal. Shroud circled frame ¬ Coy, filled with vegetable Orna ¬ cops, and on the background of embroidered crosses inscribed in a circle.
Embroidery extremely graceful, the body of Christ, despite the styling and graphic contours, to model volume. Person depicted in detail. beautifully iridescent shades of beige and brown Otenko; ¬ Tide close of each private eye, eyelids and eyebrows to emphasize ™, which gives the expression image. Nimbus in all places are embroidered in different ways, with varied terrain, with a predominance of blue and silver, angel hair - with carefully embroidered mi curls. With regard to color the exception of the eagle - the symbol of John the Evangelist, embroidered in various nuances of green.
With the restoration of the shroud after separation of its original lining the back of her hand were found sewn pages from three different Greek manuscripts, which were used in the qual ¬ TVE foundation for embroidery. This secondary use of manuscripts - a unique phenomenon in the Balkans. Dr. Prior ¬ rotey Geti identifies pages from three different manuscripts that represent fragments of works from the ascetic, the content of didactic and dated by the second half of XIV century. And troparia fragments that are executed during the liturgy, from the early XV century. This is a defining dating and dating of the Shroud, which in its stylistic characteristics would include the second half of XIV century.
Exceptionally high level of performance shroud conform to the tradition of masters of Constantinople XIII-XIV centuries, and puts it in some of the most outstanding monuments of ecclesiastical embroidery in Bulgaria, along with the Ohrid shroud Emperor Andronicus Paleologos.