(I don't think it did them any good.)

The Russian warship that was confirmed as sunk on Thursday may have been carrying a holy relic when it went down.

The Moskva, a missile cruiser that was the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, sank on Thursday following an explosion onboard, Russian state media reported.

A news report from 2020 has given rise to the question of whether the vessel sank with a Christian relic — a piece of the "true cross" — onboard.

The Russian Orthodox Church announced in February 2020 that the relic had been delivered to the then-commander of the Black Sea fleet, Vice Admiral Igor Osipov, and was at the fleet's headquarters, ready to deliver it to the ship "shortly," the state-run Tass news agency reported at the time.