touch the hem of someone's garment

• kiss someone's hem, kiss the hem of someone's garment, touch someone's hem, touch someone's robe, touch the hem of someone's robe

An allusion to the Biblical tale (Matthew 9:20) of the woman who was cured of disease when she touched the hem of Christ's garment.

touch the hem of someone's garment

1. (idiomatic) To give respect or reverence to someone; to express servitude to someone; to draw strength or comfort from someone who is superior.
   • 1847, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, Part the First, I:

     Thus, at peace with God and the world, the farmer of Grand-Pré

     Lived on his sunny farm, and Evangeline governed his household.

     Many a youth, as he knelt in the church and opened his missal,

     Fixed his eyes upon her, as the saint of his deepest devotion;

     Happy was he who might touch her hand or the hem of her garment!

   • 1903, Irving Bacheller, chapter 29, in Darrel of the Blessed Isles:

     "I do love you," he said with a strong effort to control himself, "but I am not worthy to touch the hem of your garment."

   • 1994 March 9, Todd S. Purdum, "Clinton's Coming to New York, But Mayor May Skip Invitation," New York Times (retrieved 17 Sept 2013):

     President Clinton is due at Brooklyn College. . . . "If he just wants to cut a ribbon or let us touch the hem of his garment, we don't need that."

   • 2001 June 24, Richard Lacayo, "A Hero's Welcome," Time (retrieved 17 Sept 2013):

     Nelson Mandela . . . can bathe in the adulation of a worldwide throng yearning to, if not touch the hem of his garment, at least catch a glimpse of him whirring by in a motorcade.

• kiss someone's ring