Image: The Exaltation of the True Cross | anonymous Russian icon painterImage: The Exaltation of the True Cross | anonymous Russian icon painterPosted on 09/14/2018 4:48:19 PM PDT by Salvation
Image: The Exaltation of the True Cross | anonymous Russian icon painter
Early in the fourth century, Saint Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. She razed the second-century Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher on that spot. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.
The cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century, according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus’ head: Then “all the people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on.”
To this day, the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica’s dedication. The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.
The cross is today the universal image of Christian belief. Countless generations of artists have turned it into a thing of beauty to be carried in procession or worn as jewelry. To the eyes of the first Christians, it had no beauty. It stood outside too many city walls, decorated only with decaying corpses, as a threat to anyone who defied Rome’s authority—including Christians who refused sacrifice to Roman gods. Although believers spoke of the cross as the instrument of salvation, it seldom appeared in Christian art unless disguised as an anchor or the Chi-Rho until after Constantine’s edict of toleration.
Religion Moderator's Guidelines to Caucus/Prayer/Ecumenical threads
Feast of the Day — The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Exaltation of the Glorious Cross - September 14
We All Praise the Tree that should be Worshipped -- Feast of the Elevation of the Most Holy and Life-Giving Cross
Exultation/Triumph of the Holy Cross
The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross
The Feast of the Holy Cross (Fr. Elfeghali's report)
Catholic, Crusader, Leper and King: The Life of Baldwin IV and the Triumph of the Cross
HOMILIES PREACHED BY FATHER ALTIER ON THE FEAST OF THE TRIUMPH OF THE HOLY CROSS
Orthodox Feast of The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, September 14
Triumph of the Cross - September 14th
Feast of The Exaltation of The Holy Cross - September 14
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 09-08-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam, 09-07-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Blessed Claudio Granzotto, 09-06-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, 09-05-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Rose of Viterbo, 09-04-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Gregory the Great, 09-03-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Blessed John Francis Burté and Companions, 09-02-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Giles, 09-01-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saints Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Jeanne Jugan, 08-30-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Martyrdom of John the Baptist, 08-29-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Augustine of Hippo, 08-28-18
[Catholic Caucus] Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Monica, 08-27-18
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Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Joan of the Cross, 08-17-18
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Stephen of Hungary, 08-16-18
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, 08-15-18 [Catholic Caucus]
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Day by Day -- Saints for All, 07-15-17, Saint Bonaventure
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Day by Day -- Saints for All, Annunciation of the Lord, 03-25-17
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Day by Day -- Saints for All, St. John of God, 03-08-17
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Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Casimir, 03-04-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Katharine Drexel, 03-03-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, St. Agnes of Bohemia, 03-02-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, St. David of Wales, 03-01-17
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