In Byzantium there existed an unusual and instructive custom during the crowning of the emperors in the Church of the Divine Wisdom [St. Sophia]. The custom was that when the patriarch placed the crown on the emperor's head, at the same time, he handed him a silk purse filled with dirt from the grave.

“What made our Lord Jesus Christ lay aside His garments, gird Himself with a towel, and, pouring water into a basin, begin to wash the feet of those who were below Him, if not to teach us humility? For it was humility He showed us by the example of what He then did. And indeed those who want to be accepted into the foremost rank cannot achieve this otherwise than through humility; for in the beginning, the thing that caused downfall from heaven was a movement of pride. So, if a man lacks extreme humility, if he is not humble with all his heart, all his mind, all his spirit, all his soul and body – he will not inherit the kingdom of God.” —St. Anthony the Great, Early Fathers from the Philokalia, E. Kadloubovsky and G.E.H. Palmer, Faber and Faber, London, 1954, pp. 45-46