"Every Day We Should Celebrate the Exaltation of our Cross" (St. Ephraim of Katounakia)

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Venerable Ephraim of Katounakia said: “I came here to Mount Athos on September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross. The day on which I was born again. Every day we should celebrate the exaltation of our cross. When we take up the cross, we die and are born again. The taking up of the cross is death and resurrection” (From the book by Fr. Spyridon Vasilakos, Come, O Light..., Thesvitis Publications, p. 75).

The great Elder, Venerable Ephraim of Katounakia, celebrated the Feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross in a particular way. Why? Because it was the day on which he entered Mount Athos: “I came to Mount Athos on the Feast of the Cross, September 1933,” he would constantly repeat. Yet he did not celebrate it merely as an event of simple remembrance that changed even the course of his life — from a man living in the world he became a monk — but as an event that left its mark on his inner spiritual life. The holy Elder, with his great, completely luminous eyes that reflected the light of Heaven which he lived in his heart and throughout his entire being, felt, upon entering the Holy Mountain as a young man, the mystical significance of this sanctified place — the grace that permeates it like an inner current of life. It was then, he confessed, that "I was born again.” The person who is baptized in the holy font of the Church is born again spiritually, as is the person who finds the true path of repentance, in which he bathes himself with his tears. God gave the young Evangelos, the man who would later become Ephraim, the grace to understand that being a monk means a person who struggles in repentance. He understood that he had received the power of repentance from the “womb” of the Church, the holy font, and for this reason, many years later, he would seek it out in his village and venerate it with many tears, and that this repentance is the work of every Christian, and all the more so of the “model” of Christians, the Orthodox monk.

Homily for the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Holy Cross 

On the Different Crosses in the Life of Those Who Are Being Saved

St. Cleopa of Sihastria
 

“For the preaching of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Beloved faithful,

Our Savior Jesus Christ says in the Holy Gospel: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). Today we shall speak about the different crosses through which we may be saved on earth. We remind you that we Christians honor the Cross of Christ in two ways: the material, visible cross, which we honor, kiss, and carry, and the spiritual cross, which is suffering endured for the sake of doing good.

If we read the Holy and Divine Scriptures attentively, we see that the sign of the material Cross was symbolically manifested from the earliest times. Thus, we see that the Patriarch Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph with his hands in the form of the Cross (Genesis 48:13–16).

The sign of the visible Cross was prefigured by Moses holding up his hands in prayer in the form of a cross during the battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:11–12).

Homily for the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Sergius Mechev)

 

 

Homily for the Sunday After the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

On the Sunday before the Exaltation and on the Sunday after the Exaltation, the Holy Church directs our attention to the meaning of the Cross of the Lord, as well as to those crosses that each of us must bear, whether we desire it or not.

In the Gospel read at the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday after the Exaltation, the Holy Church reveals to us the meaning of the Christian struggle: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).

Taking up our own cross, denying ourselves in our sinful and defiled state, and following after the Lord — these are the foundations of the Christian struggle that the Church reveals to us today and in which she considers it necessary to strengthen us once again on this day following the feast.

Homily Two on the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on the Day of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord 

(Delivered in Kiev when Bishop Innocent was a Student at the Kiev Theological Academy)

By St. Innocent of Kherson

“And the people answered, saying, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’” (Matthew 27:25)

The desire of your heart, O godless people, has been fulfilled! Your princes and leaders have been destroyed; “the walls of your city have been overthrown, your altars have been dug up, your prophets saw vanity, your priests sigh; the infants asked for bread; those who were joined to it have rejected it” (Lamentations 2:14–16; 4:4; 1:2; 3:44). The Most High Himself “covered Himself with a cloud, so that your prayer might not reach Him” (Lamentations 3:44).

Christians! We, being “wild branches,” have by the grace of God been deemed worthy to take the place of the “natural branches,” the Jews, and to be grafted onto the good olive tree, Jesus Christ, from which they were broken off (Romans 11:17–21). What feeling does this change wrought by the right hand of the Most High produce in us? Shall we say in shameful self-exaltation, “The branches were broken off so that we might be grafted in” (Romans 11:19)? But have we considered through what they were broken off from the tree of life, and through what we were grafted onto this tree? “They were broken off through unbelief” (Romans 11:20); we, however, stand through faith. Yet faith is not “from ourselves, but the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). The same merciful God who bestowed upon us the pledge of faith can also restore it to them; the same righteous God who sent them a spirit of insensibility, “that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear” (Luke 8:10; Romans 11:8), can send us “an activity of delusion, so that we should believe the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11). Therefore, we must not become high-minded when we look upon the rejected Jews, but must be filled with fear, lest God, who “did not spare the natural branches,” “should not spare” us either (Romans 11:21). The example of this people should awaken us from sinful carelessness. Let us unfold this thought.

Homily for the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Sergius Mechev)

 

Homily for the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

There are two understandings of the feasts of the Church and two attitudes toward them: a worldly one and a spiritual one. The worldly understanding consists in thinking that we must not forget events that took place in ancient times, and that we gather in church on these days in order to “remember” them. Such an attitude toward the feasts is the fruit of an “ideological,” or merely conceptual, understanding of Christianity.

For those who understand Christianity in this way, Christianity is reduced to certain religious and moral ideas about which one can speak, which one can accept intellectually, and with which one can even become fired up for a time.

This “ideological” understanding of Christianity is a condemnation against us; it kills true Christian life within us. The worst thing for us would be to be called ideological Christians. Therefore, we must struggle against this “ideological” character in Christianity, overcome it within ourselves if it is present in us, and strive for another understanding of Christianity, a spiritual one.

Homily One on the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily on the Eve of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord

By St. Innocent of Kherson

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

The present evening service differs from all others in that during it the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord is performed, in memory of that glorious exaltation which once took place in Jerusalem, following the finding of this Cross by the Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Helen. The large number of people gathered here shows that the sight of the Cross being raised is precious to Christians. But, brothers and sisters, our Savior and Lord did not come down from heaven for the sake of a spectacle; He did not ascend the Cross for the sake of a spectacle; nor is the Cross of Christ raised today for the sake of a spectacle. Wherever the Cross is, there must be not only the eyes of the Christian, but also his heart. The raising of the Cross of the Lord represents everything “that was and is in the life of our Lord, and everything that ought to be, and perhaps is not, in our own life.” Let us consider this more closely.

By the raising of the Cross is represented, first of all, the whole life of our Lord. For what does this life consist? It consists of an incomprehensible humiliation and an equally incomprehensible glory which, despite their opposition to one another, are joined together and intersect one another, and by this very fact form a cross. “Who, being in the form of God,” thus does the Apostle describe the life of our Lord, “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross” (Phil. 2:6–8). Here is the ladder of the Son of God’s descent! Who can count all its steps? “Therefore,” the Apostle continues, “God also highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9–11). Here is the ladder of the ascent of the Son of Man! Who can point out its final limit?

Homily on the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross (St. Andrew of Crete)

Introduction

This homily is attributed to Saint Andrew, Archbishop of Crete, also known as Andrew of Jerusalem (ca. 660–740), and is preserved here from Manuscript No. 5 of the Skete of Kavsokalyva. It was delivered for the feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross, celebrated on September 14. The feast commemorates the finding of the Cross of Christ and its solemn exaltation before the Christian people, and the homily reflects this theme by presenting the Cross as both the instrument of Christ's Passion and the source of humanity's salvation.

The sermon is characterized by an extended sequence of rhetorical praises of the Cross. Saint Andrew moves from its significance in the Passion of Christ to its biblical prefigurations, drawing extensively upon events and images from the Old Testament—Jacob, Abraham and Isaac, Moses, the bronze serpent, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the prophets—to demonstrate how the mystery of the Cross was foreshadowed throughout Scripture. He then turns to the many blessings associated with the Cross, describing it as the hope of Christians, the weapon of salvation, the source of freedom, the guide toward heaven, and the means by which the curse introduced through the Fall is transformed into blessing. The homily concludes by directing all praise ultimately toward Christ Himself, whom the preacher calls the treasure of the Cross.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 15

The Month of September

Day 15

16. To Soldiers Going into Battle

(From the Life of the Holy Martyr Niketas. Menaion, September 15.)

You are now, God-loving soldiers, stationed in a place of military action, and perhaps today or tomorrow you will enter into battle with the enemies of our homeland. What, then, should you do now? First of all, look and see whether each of you has the Cross of Christ upon his breast. Whoever has one, let him say, “Glory to God”; and whoever does not, let him put one on himself immediately. Then, as you enter into battle, let each of you reverently make the sign of the Cross and, with firm faith, call upon the invincible power of the Cross of Christ for help.

Why do I advise you so earnestly to do this? Because I know that the Cross of Christ is a great weapon for a warrior in his struggle against the enemy, and I will prove this by actual events. Thus, in the Life of the holy martyr Niketas, we read:

“When the Gothic commander Fritigern went to war against Prince Athanaric, he made an image of the Cross of the Lord and, during the battle, ordered the cross to be carried before his ranks. And by the power of the Cross, it is said, the entire army of Athanaric was utterly defeated: some of the soldiers were killed, others were taken captive, and Athanaric himself barely escaped by fleeing.”

Homily on the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross and the Resurrection (St. Sophronios of Jerusalem)

This homily of St. Sophronios, Archbishop of Jerusalem, is a seventh-century witness to the liturgical celebration of the Cross and the Resurrection in Jerusalem, probably dating from 634 or shortly thereafter, during his patriarchate. Its title reflects the close historical and liturgical connection between the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross on September 14 and the preceding celebration associated with the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis), whose dedication was commemorated on September 13. Sophronios himself reflects upon the relationship and changing order of these celebrations, noting that formerly the Cross preceded the Resurrection, whereas in his own time the Resurrection preceded the Cross. For him, however, the two remain inseparable mysteries of salvation: the Cross destroys death and the power of sin, while the Resurrection restores humanity to life and communion with God.  

 

Homily on the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross and the Resurrection

Oration 4 

 

By St. Sophronios, Archbishop of Jerusalem

The festival of the Cross, and who would not exult? The proclamation of the Resurrection, and who would not laugh for joy? For the Cross, fixed in the place of the Skull and having the Master of creation Himself nailed to it, tore up “the handwritten document that was against us”¹ and set us free from the bonds of sin—the document that our forefather Adam had signed when he transgressed the commandments of God—and enabled us to “exult” with gladness, “like calves released from their bonds.”² For where sin abounded, the grace of God abounded all the more.³

When Father John Kalaides Healed an Abbot With the Sign of the Cross

In the photograph, Fr. John Kalaides (right) with Fr. Nektarios, now Bishop of Argolis (left), during one of his visits to Neochori, Sintiki.

 

By Miltiadis Tsesmetzis, Educator

In 2002, we went with a group from Serres on a pilgrimage to the Sacred Monastery of Sagmata, where Father Nektarios Antonopoulos was then the abbot (and is now the current Bishop of Argolis, who also is the author of the book on Saint Luke of Crimea, who was a physician).

He warmly welcomed us and said:

“You have a great Saint in Serres: Father John Kalaides! Doctors had confirmed that I had a polyp in my throat. He made the sign of the Cross over me at two points, on the right and on the left, and the polyp disappeared.”

As he told us, he wondered why the Holy Father had made the sign of the Cross over him on the right and left, since he himself believed that the polyp was in the middle of his throat. When he went in for the operation, the doctors told him that the polyp had disappeared. When he asked them at precisely what location in his throat it had been found, they told him that it had been located exactly at the points where Father John had made the sign of the Cross over him!

The Exaltation of the Honorable Cross in Iconography (Photios Kontoglou)

The Exaltation of the Honorable Cross in Iconography 

By Photios Kontoglou

The iconography of the Eastern Orthodox Church is principally symbolic and dogmatic in character, whereas that of the Western Church is especially historical in character. There are many icons in which Orthodox iconographers also depict particular events in the history of the Church, or of Christ, the Panagia, and the Saints. Such depiction, however, is not a literal representation of an event. A liturgical icon does not merely portray a historical event, but reveals to us through that event its eternal aspect.

Such icons, which depict historical events, likewise breathe forth mysticism and inspire compunction in Orthodox Eastern iconography, owing to the dogmatic character of this art, which immortalizes even historical events as salvific occurrences within the divine economy. The liturgical icon does not represent things or persons from the corruptible world of matter, but from the renewed world, elevating them into symbols.

One such icon with a “subject” (that is, a theme) drawn from history is the icon of the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross, which our Church celebrates on September 14.

The Universal Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The Universal Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross presents before us each year that event through which man entered into the Kingdom of God: the Lord's sacrifice upon the Cross. For, according to the Hymnographer, “On the Cross the Lord slew him who had slain us; having been put to death, He brought us back to life and made us beautiful, and in His compassion, because of the abundance of His goodness, He deemed us worthy once again to live in the heavens.” We shall point out below some of the aspects of this mystery of the Cross, through which we have also been saved.

1. The Cross of the Lord: History and Mystery

Approaching the Lord's sacrifice upon the Cross is therefore no easy undertaking. Although it has historical coordinates—it took place at a particular time and in a particular place: in Judea under Pontius Pilate, as we confess in the Creed, “Who was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate”—something that no one can deny, even if he is the greatest atheist, it nevertheless far surpasses what human senses and faculties are capable of perceiving: a man suffering under cruel tortures. The Cross constitutes the greatest of mysteries, because upon it suffers God who became man, God Himself according to His humanity.

September: Day 14: Teaching 3: Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord

 

September: Day 14: Teaching 3: 
Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord
 
(Mere outward veneration of the Cross of Christ, without inward veneration, is displeasing to the Lord who was crucified upon it.)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today, brethren, we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. The Church has gathered us in the temple for its solemn veneration. And so, following her example and instruction, we fall on our knees before the Cross of the Lord, bow our heads before it, and kiss it with our lips. But is such an honoring of the Cross sufficient for true veneration of the Cross of the Lord?

Outward, bodily veneration before the Cross alone is not sufficient. The holy Cross is the visible representative of the invisible presence of the Lord who was crucified upon it; therefore, we must bow before it as before the very presence of Him who was crucified upon it. Man consists of body and soul; both his soul and body have alike been redeemed at the price of the blood of Christ; therefore, he must venerate the Redeemer who was lifted upon the Cross both with soul and body.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: September 14

The Month of September

Day 14

15. How Christians Should Conduct Themselves When Carrying Holy Icons and Banners in Cross Processions

(Sermon for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross of the Lord. Menaion, September 14)

To the Rural Parishioners

When, brethren, a cross procession goes forth from our church, those of you who undertake to carry the holy icons and banners from the church ordinarily conduct yourselves in a manner that is not entirely becoming. Almost invariably, disputes arise among you over who is to carry what; and then, once you have taken the holy objects into your hands, while waiting for the clergy to come out of the church, you either begin engaging in idle conversation among yourselves or, even worse, begin arguing with one another or exchanging jokes. This is not good—very far from good, brethren!

For a cross procession is a great and solemn act, and when we conduct one, we should not do so with arguments and laughter, but rather with lamentation and tears. For this is what Blessed Symeon of Thessaloniki says concerning the cross procession:

Homily for the Sunday Before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

 

Homily for the Sunday Before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross 

 

(Concerning the Sign of the Son of Man) 

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven” (Matthew 24:30).

Beloved faithful,

One of the great signs that will herald the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for judgment will also be the appearance of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross. It will appear upon the clouds of heaven, brought by the angels of God with great and ineffable glory, the radiance of which will surpass the light of the sun a thousand times. This appearance of the sign of the Son of Man, that is, of the Holy Cross, will bring great and unspeakable joy to all faithful Christians who have honored it and bowed down before it, the altar sanctified by the Blood of Christ. But it will bring great terror and trembling upon the wicked and unbelieving who have not honored the sign of the Son of Man, that is, the Holy Cross.

A thousand years before the Incarnation, the Holy Spirit revealed that the Holy Cross is the sign of Christ God's victory, which He would give to Christians as a powerful weapon by which Christians would conquer their invisible enemies. Thus the Psalmist says: “You have given those who fear You, O Lord, a sign, that they may flee from the face of the bow” (Psalm 59:4). The Most Holy Spirit revealed at that time that, through the signing with the Holy Cross, Christians would draw upon themselves the light of the face of God, as it is written: “The light of Your face has shone upon us, O Lord” (Psalm 4:6).

Homily One on the Sunday of All Saints (St. Justin Popovich)

Homily One on the Sunday of All Saints 

By St. Justin Popovich

(Delivered in 1965 at Ćelije Monastery)

Today is the Sunday of All Saints. Today the Church celebrates all the Saints from time immemorial, all holy beings, beginning with the Angels, Archangels, Cherubim, and Seraphim, and then all the holy people from the beginning of the world until this very day.

Why does the Church celebrate All Saints today? On the first Sunday after Pentecost, the first Sunday after the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the Church celebrates All Saints in order to show that the Saints are confessors of the Holy Trinity, that their entire life in this world was from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit; that this world was created to become the Kingdom of God.

Today the Church unveils the souls of all the Saints and tells us their secret: by what they lived, for what they lived, how they lived in this world, and how they became sanctified. Through them the Church has revealed to the world the mystery of the human person, showing that man was created to become a temple of the Most Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Man was created to become the dwelling place of the Lord Christ in the Holy Spirit together with God the Father.

The Bright Heavenly Appearance of the Cross Over Jerusalem During the Reign of Constantius in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

Commemoration of the Sign of the Honorable Cross Which Appeared in Heaven, at the Third Hour of the Day, During the Reign of Emperor Constantius, Son of Constantine the Great

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. During the days of Holy Pentecost, on the seventh day of the month of May and around the ninth hour of the morning, the honorable and life-giving Cross appeared — consisting of light, while all the people looked on — stretching from holy Golgotha to the holy Mount of Olives. This Cross, by the brilliance of Its light, overshadowed the rays of the sun. Therefore every age, both young and old, together with infants and even nursing babes, came to the church, and with immeasurable joy and fervent compunction offered glory and thanksgiving to God for this wondrous sight.

2. If September 14 is the feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross — the feast on which human hands, Patriarchal and Imperial, raised up the Honorable Cross, presenting It as the symbol of the Christian faith and “the key of Paradise,” because It is the sign pointing us to Him Who poured out His all-holy blood upon It — then May 7 constitutes another feast of Its Exaltation, not by human hands this time, but by the “hands” of God Himself. For He willed, when the Christian faith had already been accepted and spread abroad, to reveal the Cross in Heaven, as a continuation, we might say, of Its manifestation in the days of Constantine the Great, with the well-known words, “By this conquer.” The hymnography of our Church presents this event and proclaims it in all its dimensions:

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Today the Holy Church, by the bringing forth of the Honorable Cross, gives us an image of the sufferings of Christ, recalling them especially now, as we complete the course of the Holy Fast, and thereby showing us that we too must bear our cross.

Today also is celebrated the memory of Saint Alexios, the Man of God, whom we especially venerate in our church.

But this day is especially dear to us also because it is and will be the name day of Batiushka, Father Alexei. Today the Lord has granted us to meet this day for the first time without him, and in the radiance of the Holy Cross. If today we have prayed to the Lord that His Holy Cross may not be fruitless in us, that, having venerated His sufferings, we may go from strength to strength and ourselves become laborers in the vineyard of Christ, let us remember that among us there was a man who not only bore his own cross, but also bore upon himself the countless crosses of his spiritual children. He was like the one of whom John Climacus speaks — that there are tears and sorrow according to God, and there is joy according to God, and that both — this and that — are sometimes united in one laborer of Christ.

Homily One for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily One for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

"We venerate Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy Resurrection."

The Holy Church did not establish the feast of the Honorable and Life-giving Cross in order simply to remind us once again of Christ’s sufferings on the Cross, but, my dear ones, so that on this feast we might have the opportunity to enter more deeply into that greatest sacrifice which the Savior offered for our sins. And if, constantly remembering the Lord’s death on the Cross, today we glorify His Honorable and Life-giving Cross, then perhaps — at least in these holy moments, after we have with such love sung, according to the order of the Church, the Vespers and Matins of this great feast — perhaps, I say, these holy moments will help us, who do not wish to walk His holy path, to penetrate at least somewhat into the mystery of the suffering of Him Who offered the greatest sacrifice, Who was crucified for the sins of people, for their salvation.

The Historicity of the Discovery of the True Cross of Christ by Saint Helen

By Konstantinos Karastathis 

 

Saint Helen in the Holy Land 

 

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.”