The miter from the collection of the Bishop’s House used to belong to Metropolitan Cornelius of Siberia and Tobolsk, who had received it as a gift from the Tobolsk military leader and boyar Ivan Repnin. The hat is made of blue fabric and along the bottom edge there is a metal band with the inscription,

 
The four smaller side medallions feature the evangelists Luke, Mark, Matthew and John. All medallions are framed by circles with an openwork floral ornament composed of enamel rosettes and half-opened buds.

 
Wide strips of brocade densely embroidered with pearls, rubies, and other stones descend from the center of the upper part. They also have a pattern of floral rosettes. At the bottom of the miter are two small figured plates. They are framed by applied plates with floral ornament.

 
The miter, as well as other details of church vestment, had a symbolic meaning. It was associated both with the crown, which represented the power of God, and Christ’s crown of thorns. In the Orthodox Church, bishops, archimandrites and married priests, to whom this right was given for special merits had the right to wear a miter. It is believed that patriarch of Constantinople Gennadius II Scholarius first used this headdress after 1453, when Byzantium was under the power of the Ottoman Empire.