By Konstantinos Karastathis
The monk Alexander (13th century) gives us the very interesting information that Constantine, after the completion of the proceedings of the First Ecumenical Synod and the hosting of the Members of the Synod in the palace, urged the Bishop of Jerusalem, Makarios, who participated in the Synod, to search for the Cross of the Lord, the Tomb, and all the Holy Places:
“Having honored the bishops with generosity, the emperor, after embracing them, dismissed them in peace to their own dioceses, rejoicing at the agreement of the Churches. And he exhorted Makarios, the Bishop of Aelia, who was present at the synod and was contending for the apostolic dogmas, to seek out the life-giving Cross, and the God-possessed Tomb, and all the Holy Places; and likewise he urged the other bishops to ask for whatever each might foresee as contributing to the completion of his own Church. And it was the nineteenth year of his reign when the synod at Nicaea took place.
After these things the emperor sent his own mother Helen, the praiseworthy and God-loving one, to Jerusalem with letters and an abundance of money to Makarios of Jerusalem, for the search for the life-giving Wood and the building of the Holy Places, this having been requested by the empress herself, who said that she had seen a divine vision commanding her to go to Jerusalem and to bring the Holy Places to light, which had been buried by the lawless and had become invisible for so many years.”
Helen, guided by dreams, believed that she would find this most venerable of all relics and that she would restore it as the most sacred symbol of Christian worship. “Let us worship at the place where His feet stood,” she said, citing the biblical saying to Constantine and the courtiers. Although her age exceeded seventy-eight years, thanks to her strong will and the inexhaustible reserves of her inner strength, she decided to make this laborious but also dangerous journey. Kedrenos writes that in the twentieth year of the reign of Constantine, “Crispus, the son of Constantine, a Christian, fell asleep; and Helen, the mother of the emperor, having been crowned by a vision, departed for Jerusalem.”
She crossed the Balkans, passed over into Asia Minor, and through the roads of the western coasts, and then by her sea voyage from island to island of the Dodecanese, as tradition relates, she arrived in Cyprus, where she spent the winter. She built many churches and founded many monasteries on the island, among them also the “Vasilomonastiro,” as it was later called in her honor. The Cypriots preserve her memory vividly in their traditions.
When spring came, she departed from Cyprus and crossed over opposite to Palestine. When Bishop Makarios learned, writes the monk Alexander, that Empress Helen had arrived in Jerusalem, he received her together with the other bishops of the province. She announced to them the purpose of her arrival in the Holy Places, namely the finding of the Cross of Christ, and all were wondering about the location, while each of them began to express his suspicions about the place. Finally, the Bishop of Jerusalem asked them to be silent and to pray concerning their problem.
Eusebius and other historical writers confirm the first actions of Saint Helen in Palestine. They speak about the freeing of prisoners, exiles, and slaves in the mines, as well as about her generosity toward the naked and unprotected poor through the distribution to them of money and clothing. For her son, the emperor, provided her with every assistance and allowed her to spend money lavishly on acts of charity and on the construction of sacred churches.
Eusebius Pamphilus gives us many related pieces of information. Some godless and impious men, he writes, many years earlier, in order to obscure the truth about the Resurrection of the Lord, devised to eliminate the sacred place of the Lord’s burial by covering it to a great height with much earth that they carried from far away. And after they made this great filling-in, they built upon it a temple of Aphrodite and placed in front of it a large statue of the goddess, in order to profane the place, so that with the passage of time the Christians might forget it.
But the site was quickly identified by Saint Helen. The place, writes Sozomen, she knew from a paternal writing and it was revealed by a certain Jew, from among those who dwelt in the East; but as more true and more believable it appears that God revealed it (to Saint Helen) through divine signs and dreams.
And the monk Alexander writes that the place where the Lord was crucified and buried was divinely revealed at the location where the temple of Aphrodite stood. And he provides the information that Saint Helen, making use of her imperial authority, gathered a multitude of many craftsmen and laborers and ordered them to demolish the pagan temple from its foundations. And when this was accomplished, the divine tomb appeared, and the place of the Skull, and the three crosses buried, and the nails.
Constantine, who appears to have been informed very quickly about all the actions of his mother, ordered that the temple of Aphrodite be immediately demolished and that the thick layer of rubble, with which they had filled in the sacred place, be removed far away from the holy site. And as the rubble was removed, the sacred cave was indeed revealed, where the risen Christ had been buried.
“Having honored the bishops with generosity, the emperor, after embracing them, dismissed them in peace to their own dioceses, rejoicing at the agreement of the Churches. And he exhorted Makarios, the Bishop of Aelia, who was present at the synod and was contending for the apostolic dogmas, to seek out the life-giving Cross, and the God-possessed Tomb, and all the Holy Places; and likewise he urged the other bishops to ask for whatever each might foresee as contributing to the completion of his own Church. And it was the nineteenth year of his reign when the synod at Nicaea took place.
After these things the emperor sent his own mother Helen, the praiseworthy and God-loving one, to Jerusalem with letters and an abundance of money to Makarios of Jerusalem, for the search for the life-giving Wood and the building of the Holy Places, this having been requested by the empress herself, who said that she had seen a divine vision commanding her to go to Jerusalem and to bring the Holy Places to light, which had been buried by the lawless and had become invisible for so many years.”
Helen, guided by dreams, believed that she would find this most venerable of all relics and that she would restore it as the most sacred symbol of Christian worship. “Let us worship at the place where His feet stood,” she said, citing the biblical saying to Constantine and the courtiers. Although her age exceeded seventy-eight years, thanks to her strong will and the inexhaustible reserves of her inner strength, she decided to make this laborious but also dangerous journey. Kedrenos writes that in the twentieth year of the reign of Constantine, “Crispus, the son of Constantine, a Christian, fell asleep; and Helen, the mother of the emperor, having been crowned by a vision, departed for Jerusalem.”
She crossed the Balkans, passed over into Asia Minor, and through the roads of the western coasts, and then by her sea voyage from island to island of the Dodecanese, as tradition relates, she arrived in Cyprus, where she spent the winter. She built many churches and founded many monasteries on the island, among them also the “Vasilomonastiro,” as it was later called in her honor. The Cypriots preserve her memory vividly in their traditions.
When spring came, she departed from Cyprus and crossed over opposite to Palestine. When Bishop Makarios learned, writes the monk Alexander, that Empress Helen had arrived in Jerusalem, he received her together with the other bishops of the province. She announced to them the purpose of her arrival in the Holy Places, namely the finding of the Cross of Christ, and all were wondering about the location, while each of them began to express his suspicions about the place. Finally, the Bishop of Jerusalem asked them to be silent and to pray concerning their problem.
Eusebius and other historical writers confirm the first actions of Saint Helen in Palestine. They speak about the freeing of prisoners, exiles, and slaves in the mines, as well as about her generosity toward the naked and unprotected poor through the distribution to them of money and clothing. For her son, the emperor, provided her with every assistance and allowed her to spend money lavishly on acts of charity and on the construction of sacred churches.
Eusebius Pamphilus gives us many related pieces of information. Some godless and impious men, he writes, many years earlier, in order to obscure the truth about the Resurrection of the Lord, devised to eliminate the sacred place of the Lord’s burial by covering it to a great height with much earth that they carried from far away. And after they made this great filling-in, they built upon it a temple of Aphrodite and placed in front of it a large statue of the goddess, in order to profane the place, so that with the passage of time the Christians might forget it.
But the site was quickly identified by Saint Helen. The place, writes Sozomen, she knew from a paternal writing and it was revealed by a certain Jew, from among those who dwelt in the East; but as more true and more believable it appears that God revealed it (to Saint Helen) through divine signs and dreams.
And the monk Alexander writes that the place where the Lord was crucified and buried was divinely revealed at the location where the temple of Aphrodite stood. And he provides the information that Saint Helen, making use of her imperial authority, gathered a multitude of many craftsmen and laborers and ordered them to demolish the pagan temple from its foundations. And when this was accomplished, the divine tomb appeared, and the place of the Skull, and the three crosses buried, and the nails.
Constantine, who appears to have been informed very quickly about all the actions of his mother, ordered that the temple of Aphrodite be immediately demolished and that the thick layer of rubble, with which they had filled in the sacred place, be removed far away from the holy site. And as the rubble was removed, the sacred cave was indeed revealed, where the risen Christ had been buried.
The Discovery of the Honorable Cross of Christ
The discovery of the Honorable Cross is considered the greatest of the achievements of the Augusta Helen. For the identification of the sacred places of the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Nativity of the Lord, and the finding of the Honorable Cross of the Lord, many historical writers of the time of Constantine the Great, as well as of the immediately following years, speak in their writings.
Saint Jerome, in a letter to Paulinus, writes: “From the time of Hadrian until the reign of Constantine [a period of about one hundred and eighty years, Hadrian died in A.D. 138 and Constantine became emperor in A.D. 306] the place which had confirmed the Resurrection had been occupied by the figure of Zeus, while on the rock where the Cross had been set up there had been installed a marble statue of Aphrodite by the pagans and it had become an object of worship. The former persecutors truly thought that by profaning our holy places they would deprive us of our faith in the Passion and the Resurrection. Even our Bethlehem, the most sacred place in the world, the very cave where Christ was born and where His infant cries were first heard, became the beloved of Aphrodite.”
Saint Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, who lived a few years later, openly confirms the discovery of the Honorable Cross in a letter to Emperor Constantius, the son of Constantine the Great: “For in the time of your father Constantine, the most God-loving and of blessed memory, the saving wood of the Cross was found in Jerusalem, the divine grace granting the discovery of the hidden Holy Places to the one who sought piety well.”
Saint Cyril refers (around A.D. 345–350) to the Honorable Cross at least three more times in his catechetical lectures:
a) In his catechetical lecture number 4, paragraph 10, he informs us that the whole world has been filled with pieces of the Cross of the Lord (“and of the wood of the Cross the whole world has been filled in part”)!
b) In his catechetical lecture number 13, paragraph 4, he mentions that the Cross was broken into pieces and distributed throughout the whole world (“the wood of the Cross convicts me, which little by little from here has been spread to the whole world”).
c) And in catechetical lecture number 10, paragraph 19, he says that “the holy wood of the Cross bears witness concerning Christ, which is seen among us to this day, and through those who in faith take from it, from here it has almost already filled the whole world.” (In the last phrase he means those who keep small pieces of the Cross for their help, as amulets.)
According to the testimony of Saint Ambrose (A.D. 395), Saint Helen was inspired by the Holy Spirit with the desire to investigate in the Holy Places for the finding of the Cross of the Lord. The search lasted many days and, finally, brought to light three crosses, which were located inside an ancient cistern of Golgotha. The Cross of Christ was recognized thanks to the trilingual inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” as well as the nails that the Roman soldiers had driven into the hands and the feet of Christ.
Rufinus, some years later (around A.D. 400), gives the following information: Helen came to Jerusalem with the inspiration of God. A heavenly sign showed her the place where she had to dig. She drew up the three crosses, but she was troubled as to which was the Cross upon which Jesus had suffered.
Makarios, the Bishop of Jerusalem, brought on a stretcher a woman who was at the point of death. The sick woman, upon touching the first and second cross, remained unaffected. But when she touched the third, which belonged to Christ, she immediately rose up and walked, glorifying God. Helen divided the Cross into three parts: the first for Jerusalem, the second for Constantinople, and the third for Rome.
Saint Jerome also mentions the nail that was used in the bridle of the horse of Constantine the Great, and the images of Zeus and Aphrodite that were located at the places of the Passion and the Resurrection until the time of the same emperor.
Socrates Scholasticus writes that Helen “having been instructed through dreams came to Jerusalem,” and he informs us that: The pagans had constructed at the place of the Lord’s burial a temple of Aphrodite. Helen demolished the temple and dug up the place and exhumed three crosses, the board with the three inscriptions of Pilate, and the nails with which the hands and feet of Christ had been nailed to the Cross. Helen divided the Cross into two, left one part in Jerusalem in a silver case, and took the other to the emperor. To Constantine she also brought two nails, which he used as a protective charm, placing one in his helmet and the other in the bridle of his horse.[1]
Constantine, Socrates further assures us, wrote to Bishop Makarios to hasten the construction of the churches in the Holy Land that Saint Helen had founded.
Saint John Chrysostom, in one of his homilies, writes that three crosses were found and that the true Cross was recognized by the inscription of Pilate nailed upon it. Also in another homily he writes: “And this very wood, on which the Holy Body stood and was crucified, how is it that it is fought over by all? And many, taking a small particle from it and enclosing it in gold, both men and women hang it from their own necks, adorning themselves. Yet the wood was one of condemnation, of punishment.”
Sozomen writes around A.D. 430 the following: “The Synod of Nicaea ended and each of the priests returned to his place. The emperor rejoiced at the great success. In order to thank God for the concord of the bishops, he thought to build a church in Jerusalem at the place of the Skull. At that time his mother Helen had also arrived in Jerusalem to pray and to see the Holy Places. Being a devout Christian, she occupied herself with the finding of the wood of the Revered Cross. (…) A Jew, who knew from his ancestors, indicated the exact place, but it is more true that this place was revealed by signs and dreams. There, by digging, three crosses were revealed, as well as the wood with the trilingual inscription (of Pilate). The Cross of Christ was the one among the three that shortly afterward healed a woman who was gravely ill and raised a dead man. Helen left the larger piece in Jerusalem and took the smaller one to her son the emperor, together with the nails that had been driven into the body of Christ. One of them, as they confess, the emperor placed in his helmet and the other in the bridle of his horse. Thus, according to theological interpretation, the prophecy of the Prophet Zechariah was also fulfilled, who said: ‘On that day that which is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty.’ (…) And the Sibyl also had foretold concerning the wood of the Cross: ‘O blessed wood, upon which God was stretched.’ These events have been handed down to us by persons of great reliability, to whom the information came successively from father to son, and others have also recorded the same events in writing for the benefit of the future.”
Theodoret also confirms (around 448 A.D.) the journey of Saint Helen to the Holy Places, the discovery of the three crosses, the identification of the Cross of the Lord through the miracle of the healing of the dying woman, and the transfer of the nails to Constantine for the purposes also mentioned by Sozomen, while also making reference to the related prophecy of Zechariah.
Gregory of Tours likewise affirms that Saint Helen found the wood of the Cross with the information provided by Judas, who was baptized a Christian and was named Kyriakos.
The Apostate Julian also speaks about the wood of the Cross in an outburst of indignation toward the Christians, saying: “...but you worship the wood of the Cross and drag its likeness upon your foreheads and engrave it upon your households.”
Saint Gregory of Nyssa also refers to the existence of the Cross in that era. He writes: “The wood of the Cross possesses saving effectiveness for all people, although it is, as I am informed, a piece of poor wood, less valuable than many other trees.”
The discovery of the Honorable Cross is considered the greatest of the achievements of the Augusta Helen. For the identification of the sacred places of the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Nativity of the Lord, and the finding of the Honorable Cross of the Lord, many historical writers of the time of Constantine the Great, as well as of the immediately following years, speak in their writings.
Saint Jerome, in a letter to Paulinus, writes: “From the time of Hadrian until the reign of Constantine [a period of about one hundred and eighty years, Hadrian died in A.D. 138 and Constantine became emperor in A.D. 306] the place which had confirmed the Resurrection had been occupied by the figure of Zeus, while on the rock where the Cross had been set up there had been installed a marble statue of Aphrodite by the pagans and it had become an object of worship. The former persecutors truly thought that by profaning our holy places they would deprive us of our faith in the Passion and the Resurrection. Even our Bethlehem, the most sacred place in the world, the very cave where Christ was born and where His infant cries were first heard, became the beloved of Aphrodite.”
Saint Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, who lived a few years later, openly confirms the discovery of the Honorable Cross in a letter to Emperor Constantius, the son of Constantine the Great: “For in the time of your father Constantine, the most God-loving and of blessed memory, the saving wood of the Cross was found in Jerusalem, the divine grace granting the discovery of the hidden Holy Places to the one who sought piety well.”
Saint Cyril refers (around A.D. 345–350) to the Honorable Cross at least three more times in his catechetical lectures:
a) In his catechetical lecture number 4, paragraph 10, he informs us that the whole world has been filled with pieces of the Cross of the Lord (“and of the wood of the Cross the whole world has been filled in part”)!
b) In his catechetical lecture number 13, paragraph 4, he mentions that the Cross was broken into pieces and distributed throughout the whole world (“the wood of the Cross convicts me, which little by little from here has been spread to the whole world”).
c) And in catechetical lecture number 10, paragraph 19, he says that “the holy wood of the Cross bears witness concerning Christ, which is seen among us to this day, and through those who in faith take from it, from here it has almost already filled the whole world.” (In the last phrase he means those who keep small pieces of the Cross for their help, as amulets.)
According to the testimony of Saint Ambrose (A.D. 395), Saint Helen was inspired by the Holy Spirit with the desire to investigate in the Holy Places for the finding of the Cross of the Lord. The search lasted many days and, finally, brought to light three crosses, which were located inside an ancient cistern of Golgotha. The Cross of Christ was recognized thanks to the trilingual inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” as well as the nails that the Roman soldiers had driven into the hands and the feet of Christ.
Rufinus, some years later (around A.D. 400), gives the following information: Helen came to Jerusalem with the inspiration of God. A heavenly sign showed her the place where she had to dig. She drew up the three crosses, but she was troubled as to which was the Cross upon which Jesus had suffered.
Makarios, the Bishop of Jerusalem, brought on a stretcher a woman who was at the point of death. The sick woman, upon touching the first and second cross, remained unaffected. But when she touched the third, which belonged to Christ, she immediately rose up and walked, glorifying God. Helen divided the Cross into three parts: the first for Jerusalem, the second for Constantinople, and the third for Rome.
Saint Jerome also mentions the nail that was used in the bridle of the horse of Constantine the Great, and the images of Zeus and Aphrodite that were located at the places of the Passion and the Resurrection until the time of the same emperor.
Socrates Scholasticus writes that Helen “having been instructed through dreams came to Jerusalem,” and he informs us that: The pagans had constructed at the place of the Lord’s burial a temple of Aphrodite. Helen demolished the temple and dug up the place and exhumed three crosses, the board with the three inscriptions of Pilate, and the nails with which the hands and feet of Christ had been nailed to the Cross. Helen divided the Cross into two, left one part in Jerusalem in a silver case, and took the other to the emperor. To Constantine she also brought two nails, which he used as a protective charm, placing one in his helmet and the other in the bridle of his horse.[1]
Constantine, Socrates further assures us, wrote to Bishop Makarios to hasten the construction of the churches in the Holy Land that Saint Helen had founded.
Saint John Chrysostom, in one of his homilies, writes that three crosses were found and that the true Cross was recognized by the inscription of Pilate nailed upon it. Also in another homily he writes: “And this very wood, on which the Holy Body stood and was crucified, how is it that it is fought over by all? And many, taking a small particle from it and enclosing it in gold, both men and women hang it from their own necks, adorning themselves. Yet the wood was one of condemnation, of punishment.”
Sozomen writes around A.D. 430 the following: “The Synod of Nicaea ended and each of the priests returned to his place. The emperor rejoiced at the great success. In order to thank God for the concord of the bishops, he thought to build a church in Jerusalem at the place of the Skull. At that time his mother Helen had also arrived in Jerusalem to pray and to see the Holy Places. Being a devout Christian, she occupied herself with the finding of the wood of the Revered Cross. (…) A Jew, who knew from his ancestors, indicated the exact place, but it is more true that this place was revealed by signs and dreams. There, by digging, three crosses were revealed, as well as the wood with the trilingual inscription (of Pilate). The Cross of Christ was the one among the three that shortly afterward healed a woman who was gravely ill and raised a dead man. Helen left the larger piece in Jerusalem and took the smaller one to her son the emperor, together with the nails that had been driven into the body of Christ. One of them, as they confess, the emperor placed in his helmet and the other in the bridle of his horse. Thus, according to theological interpretation, the prophecy of the Prophet Zechariah was also fulfilled, who said: ‘On that day that which is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty.’ (…) And the Sibyl also had foretold concerning the wood of the Cross: ‘O blessed wood, upon which God was stretched.’ These events have been handed down to us by persons of great reliability, to whom the information came successively from father to son, and others have also recorded the same events in writing for the benefit of the future.”
Theodoret also confirms (around 448 A.D.) the journey of Saint Helen to the Holy Places, the discovery of the three crosses, the identification of the Cross of the Lord through the miracle of the healing of the dying woman, and the transfer of the nails to Constantine for the purposes also mentioned by Sozomen, while also making reference to the related prophecy of Zechariah.
Gregory of Tours likewise affirms that Saint Helen found the wood of the Cross with the information provided by Judas, who was baptized a Christian and was named Kyriakos.
The Apostate Julian also speaks about the wood of the Cross in an outburst of indignation toward the Christians, saying: “...but you worship the wood of the Cross and drag its likeness upon your foreheads and engrave it upon your households.”
Saint Gregory of Nyssa also refers to the existence of the Cross in that era. He writes: “The wood of the Cross possesses saving effectiveness for all people, although it is, as I am informed, a piece of poor wood, less valuable than many other trees.”
Concerning the dimensions of the Honorable Cross, Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Chrysostom state that the length of the upright beam reached fifteen feet (4.5 m), the crossbeam eight feet (about 2.4 m), and the thickness of the upright beam one span (20 centimeters).
With regard to the discovery and identification of the Cross, because of the lack of precise information in those times, there are certain differences in the writings of the historical authors, who in any case do not all belong to the same era. Thus, in some places they speak of the healing of a dying woman through the power of the Cross, while others speak of the resurrection of a dead person, and others mention both. Some speak of the discovery of the nails of Christ and others do not; some speak of the building of churches and others do not, and so on.
In a letter of Constantine the Great to the Bishop of Jerusalem Makarios, which Eusebius records in the Life of Constantine, the following is mentioned among other things:
“Therefore, this is always my first and only aim: that the certainty of the truth may display itself daily through new miracles, so that the souls of all of us may become more diligent toward the holy law with all prudence and united zeal. I desire therefore that you be convinced of what I think is evident to all, namely that I am concerned above all things to adorn with magnificent buildings that place which, by the command of God, I relieved from the most shameful addition of the idol as from an oppressive burden — the place which was holy from the beginning according to the judgment of God, but which proved even holier after it brought to light the confirmation of the saving Passion.”
The discovery of the Cross is also mentioned by Sulpicius Severus, who also reports that Helen built the churches of the Passion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension. The Cypriot chronicler Leontios Machairas writes: “With great labor and much expense and threats she found the Honorable Cross and the other two crosses of the thieves.”
Furthermore, findings from those excavations have been preserved that rule out the possibility of fraud. The inscription “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews” is preserved today in the Church of Santa Croce in Rome, and experts consider it impossible that it is a forgery.
Saint Paulinus also gives the information that the Cross was distributed in small pieces throughout Christendom and that the piece he received was almost the size of a finger.
The monk Alexander recounts that basil plants always grew above the place of Golgotha, beneath which the Honorable Cross was buried, and that the pagans who had the temple of Aphrodite there cut its branches, but the basil would continually sprout again.
Important information about the discovery of the Cross is also preserved by the great theologian of Orthodoxy and Patriarch of Jerusalem Dositheos (1669–1707 A.D.).
He writes that the location of the Most Holy Tomb of Christ was shown by the Jew Judas, who, after the discovery of the Cross, was baptized a Christian, received the name Kyriakos, and died twenty-five years after the death of Patriarch Makarios.
In order that the place of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ might be forgotten by the Christians and not remain recognizable, the pagans of the time after Christ piled so much earth (rubble) upon it that everything was covered over. Afterwards they paved the place with large stones, and upon it they built a temple of Aphrodite and set up her statue.
But through the intervention of Constantine the Great and Patriarch Makarios, in preparation for the excavations, the statue of Aphrodite was thrown down and her temple was demolished. Afterwards all the stones and the remaining debris were removed and carried far away from the sacred place.
And Dositheos adds in a triumphant tone:
“And there was found this cave of the Holy Tomb, venerable and worthy of reverence even to the Angels, and the world-saving Golgotha; and the light was set upon the lampstand, and life was given to the Church, so that all flesh might visibly see where the salvation of the world took place, where the trophy against the Devil was accomplished, where human nature received incorruption, from where we were lifted up from the earth and arrived in heaven.”
Dositheos writes elsewhere:
“Indeed it was the work of the heavenly and divine Providence which governs and orders all things in measure and balance, that the triple-formed Cross — made of cypress, pine, and cedar together with the trilingual Title — should be hidden and buried in the depths of the earth, so that it might not be burned or destroyed by fire. For how otherwise could the symbols of our salvation have been preserved, unless they had been buried and concealed during the time of the complete devastation?”
The Christians of Jerusalem, moved by the news of the discovery of the Honorable Cross, asked Bishop Makarios to see the holy find. He therefore ascended the ambo, and from there he lifted up the Cross. This event of the Elevation of the Cross was established by the Fathers of the Church to be celebrated every year on September 14.
The monk Alexander (13th century) reports that an annual celebration of the Elevation of the Honorable Cross was instituted:
“The venerable day of the dedication of the Holy Places and of the elevation of the venerated Cross was appointed by the Fathers, by imperial decree, to be celebrated every year on the fourteenth day of the month of September, which is the eighteenth day before the Kalends of October, to the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Since by the grace of God our discourse has reached the illustrious day of our feast, which is the manifestation of the life-giving Cross, come then, as much as is possible, let us greet it briefly and bring this discourse to a close.”
Dositheos incorporates into his Dodekabiblos the following related narrative of the monk Alexander (which evidently comes from a pamphlet that no longer survives):
“And when more earnest prayer had been made by Makarios, immediately the place was shown by God to the bishop where the temple and statue of the impure demon (that is, Aphrodite) had been established.
The Empress, with great joy and reverence, embraced it and venerated it, and from that time the feast of the Elevation began in Jerusalem after the renowned Church of the Resurrection of Christ had been adorned, as even Zosimas writes — though unwillingly — in his fifth book. But since when the dedication of the Church of the Holy Tomb took place it happened to be on the thirteenth day of the month of September, the celebration of both the dedication and the Elevation continued together for eight days. During this time the Orthodox came from the whole world to venerate the Holy Places, although later, because of the heavenly light of the Holy Tomb, such pilgrimage of the Christians was transferred to Holy Pascha. In order that the Christians might also see the Honorable Wood, it became customary that another elevation take place on the third Sunday of Holy Lent, which is especially called the Veneration.”
As a conclusion to all that has been presented above, it follows that the discovery of the Honorable Cross does not belong to the realm of imagination, as many enemies of the faith and of Constantine claim, but is an undeniable fact, overwhelming and great for Christians and full of hope.[2]
Those who doubt the discovery of the Cross, in addition to their various and unsupported arguments, also point to the absence of any explicit mention of the discovery in the writings of Eusebius. But they are mistaken, because this significant historian alludes to incidents of miracles at the Most Holy Tomb, which presuppose the discovery of the Cross.
The Cross, about which Apostle Paul wrote, “But far be it from me to boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and elsewhere, “For the word of the Cross is to those who perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God,” is regarded by our Church as the supreme symbol of sacrifice and sanctification, and as such it entered into Christian worship.
The Vision of the Cross Over Jerusalem in 346 A.D.
Concluding this chapter on the discovery of the Honorable Cross of Christ, we deem it necessary to mention the great vision of the Cross seen in the year 346 by all the inhabitants of Jerusalem as well as of other distant cities, as recorded by Saint Gregory in his chapter on the historicity of the discovery of the Honorable Cross.
For this reason, Saint Cyril refers to it in his letter to Emperor Constantius II, as cited above. He writes:
“And upon you, most pious sovereign, the surpassing devotion of your ancestors in their reverence toward God has been victorious, not from the earth, but from heaven through miraculous works. And the blessed Cross of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, the trophy against death, shone forth in flashes of light in Jerusalem. For on these holy days of Pentecost, in the month of May, around the third hour, a Cross of immense size, constructed of light, appeared in heaven, above the holy Golgotha and extending to the holy Mount of Olives. It was not only briefly visible, but clearly shown to the entire populace of the city; and not as one might imagine, fleetingly in the imagination, but for many hours, visibly above the ground, defeating the sun’s rays with its flashing brilliance (for if it had been overcome by them, it would have been hidden, had not a brighter light than the sun provided its illumination to those who beheld it).”
Cyril further notes to Emperor Constantius that men and women, young and old, Christians and pagans, locals and foreigners, out of fear of this divine vision, all “with one accord, as with one voice,” praised the Lord Jesus Christ and came to understand from the works and experience the pious dogmas of the Christians, and from the demonstration of the Spirit and of divine power, not from the persuasive words of human wisdom.
He emphasizes that this dogma is not proclaimed only by humans, but also witnessed by God from the heavens. Furthermore, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, having the miracle still before their eyes, thanked God and His Only-Begotten Son, and offered prayers for the welfare of the empire. Cyril deemed it necessary not to leave these heavenly visions unrecorded but to report them to the emperor to strengthen his faith. He also mentions that this miraculous event, which had happened and would happen again in greater measure, had been foretold by the prophets and by Christ Himself when He said to His disciples, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven,” as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew.
This supernatural event is confirmed by other writers as well:
Socrates Scholasticus, recounting certain events in Alexandria caused by George the Arian, informs us that after Constantius II appointed his nephew Gallus as Caesar and sent him to Antioch to guard the eastern empire, as Gallus arrived in Antioch, the “sign of the Savior” appeared in the East: a cross-shaped column in the sky, a great miracle for those who saw it. He had sent other generals with considerable forces against Magnentius.
Philostorgius, recounting events prior to the battle of Constantius II with the tyrant Magnentius, writes:
“Constantius, having become the avenger of the tyrant, beheld the sign of the Cross appearing most prominently and shining forth with astounding brilliance in the daylight. It was seen over Jerusalem around the third hour of the day, during the feast called Pentecost. And that theophanic form extended from the so-called Place of the Skull to the Mount of Olives, and appeared encircled in the manner of a great rainbow. (…) That luminous and venerable spectacle was not invisible even to those in the military camp, but was clearly visible to all.”
Notes:
1. The tradition which Saint Ambrose of Milan mentions and Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite repeats also speaks about the third nail: “The third nail,” says the divine Ambrose, “Saint Helen, while crossing the Adriatic Sea and being endangered by a storm, threw it into the sea and there came calm.” However, Dositheos of Jerusalem judges this unbelievable, since Saint Helen did not go to the Adriatic Sea after her departure from Jerusalem.
2. Nevertheless, Edward Gibbon speaks disparagingly about Constantine’s vision and the discovery of the Cross and criticizes and mocks those historians who spoke favorably about them (Baronius, Sulpicius Severus, Rufinus, Ambrose, Cyril of Jerusalem, etc.).
Source: Konstantinos Karastathis, Constantine the Great: Accusations and Truth, Athens, April 2012, Athos Editions. Translation by John Sanidopoulos.
Concluding this chapter on the discovery of the Honorable Cross of Christ, we deem it necessary to mention the great vision of the Cross seen in the year 346 by all the inhabitants of Jerusalem as well as of other distant cities, as recorded by Saint Gregory in his chapter on the historicity of the discovery of the Honorable Cross.
For this reason, Saint Cyril refers to it in his letter to Emperor Constantius II, as cited above. He writes:
“And upon you, most pious sovereign, the surpassing devotion of your ancestors in their reverence toward God has been victorious, not from the earth, but from heaven through miraculous works. And the blessed Cross of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, the trophy against death, shone forth in flashes of light in Jerusalem. For on these holy days of Pentecost, in the month of May, around the third hour, a Cross of immense size, constructed of light, appeared in heaven, above the holy Golgotha and extending to the holy Mount of Olives. It was not only briefly visible, but clearly shown to the entire populace of the city; and not as one might imagine, fleetingly in the imagination, but for many hours, visibly above the ground, defeating the sun’s rays with its flashing brilliance (for if it had been overcome by them, it would have been hidden, had not a brighter light than the sun provided its illumination to those who beheld it).”
Cyril further notes to Emperor Constantius that men and women, young and old, Christians and pagans, locals and foreigners, out of fear of this divine vision, all “with one accord, as with one voice,” praised the Lord Jesus Christ and came to understand from the works and experience the pious dogmas of the Christians, and from the demonstration of the Spirit and of divine power, not from the persuasive words of human wisdom.
He emphasizes that this dogma is not proclaimed only by humans, but also witnessed by God from the heavens. Furthermore, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, having the miracle still before their eyes, thanked God and His Only-Begotten Son, and offered prayers for the welfare of the empire. Cyril deemed it necessary not to leave these heavenly visions unrecorded but to report them to the emperor to strengthen his faith. He also mentions that this miraculous event, which had happened and would happen again in greater measure, had been foretold by the prophets and by Christ Himself when He said to His disciples, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven,” as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew.
This supernatural event is confirmed by other writers as well:
Socrates Scholasticus, recounting certain events in Alexandria caused by George the Arian, informs us that after Constantius II appointed his nephew Gallus as Caesar and sent him to Antioch to guard the eastern empire, as Gallus arrived in Antioch, the “sign of the Savior” appeared in the East: a cross-shaped column in the sky, a great miracle for those who saw it. He had sent other generals with considerable forces against Magnentius.
Philostorgius, recounting events prior to the battle of Constantius II with the tyrant Magnentius, writes:
“Constantius, having become the avenger of the tyrant, beheld the sign of the Cross appearing most prominently and shining forth with astounding brilliance in the daylight. It was seen over Jerusalem around the third hour of the day, during the feast called Pentecost. And that theophanic form extended from the so-called Place of the Skull to the Mount of Olives, and appeared encircled in the manner of a great rainbow. (…) That luminous and venerable spectacle was not invisible even to those in the military camp, but was clearly visible to all.”
Notes:
1. The tradition which Saint Ambrose of Milan mentions and Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite repeats also speaks about the third nail: “The third nail,” says the divine Ambrose, “Saint Helen, while crossing the Adriatic Sea and being endangered by a storm, threw it into the sea and there came calm.” However, Dositheos of Jerusalem judges this unbelievable, since Saint Helen did not go to the Adriatic Sea after her departure from Jerusalem.
2. Nevertheless, Edward Gibbon speaks disparagingly about Constantine’s vision and the discovery of the Cross and criticizes and mocks those historians who spoke favorably about them (Baronius, Sulpicius Severus, Rufinus, Ambrose, Cyril of Jerusalem, etc.).
Source: Konstantinos Karastathis, Constantine the Great: Accusations and Truth, Athens, April 2012, Athos Editions. Translation by John Sanidopoulos.
