Feast of the Holy Cross When empress Helena, mother of Roman emperor Constantine the Great (4th century), was in Jerusalem, she decided to look for the precious Cross of The Lord Jesus Christ. An old Jew called Judah was the only person who knew the whereabouts of the Cross, and, under pressure from the empress, he revealed that the Cross was buried under the Temple of Venus that the emperor Hadrian had built on hill Golgotha where The Lord was crucified. The empress ordered for The Cross to be pulled out, but than during digging they found three crosses - the two other crosses were from two thieves, Dismas and Gestas, that were crucified with Christ. While they were uncertain which cross is The Lord`s Cross, a funeral procession was passing by. Than Patriarch Macarius told them to place the crosses one by one on the dead man. When they placed the first and second on him, the dead man remained unchanged, but when they placed the third on him, he was restored to life. By this, they knew that this was the Precious and lifegiving Cross of Christ. Later on, The Cross was divided in many smaller pieces which are now located almost all over the world. The biggest pieces are kept in Jerusalem and on Mount Athos in Greece. Today on September 27th (September 13th according to the old Church calendar) we commemorate this event of finding of the Lord`s Cross.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 07:02:46 +0000
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