True Cross

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Christ Crucified by Giotto, c. 1310

The True Cross is said to be the real

Jesus of Nazareth was crucified
on, according to Christian tradition.

It is related by numerous historical accounts and

Roman Catholic
, Lutheran, and Anglican churches.

The Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, and the

Protestant and other Christian churches, who do not hold them in high regard.[2]

Provenance

The Queen of Sheba venerates the wood from which the Cross will be made (fresco by Piero della Francesca in San Francesco, Arezzo).

The Golden Legend

In the Latin-speaking traditions of Western Europe, the story of the pre-Christian origins of the True Cross was well established by the 13th century when, in 1260, it was recorded by

Bishop of Genoa, in the Golden Legend.[b]

The Golden Legend contains several versions of the origin of the True Cross. In The Life of Adam, Voragine writes that the True Cross came from three trees which grew from three seeds from the "Tree of Mercy" which Seth collected and planted in the mouth of Adam's corpse.[3]

In another account contained in "Of the Invention of the Holy Cross", Voragine writes that the True Cross came from a tree that grew from part of the

his temple but not found suitable in the end.[5]

After many centuries, the tree was cut down and the wood used to build a bridge over which the Queen of Sheba passed on her journey to meet Solomon. So struck was she by the portent contained in the timber of the bridge that she fell on her knees and revered it. On her visit to Solomon, she told him that a piece of wood from the bridge would bring about the replacement of God's covenant with the Jewish people by a new order. Solomon, fearing the eventual destruction of his people, had the timber buried.[4][5]

After fourteen generations, the wood taken from the bridge was fashioned into the Cross used to crucify Jesus Christ.[4][5] Voragine then goes on to describe its rediscovery by Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine.[4]

In the

Legend of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca, which he painted on the walls of the chancel of the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo
between 1452 and 1466, faithfully reproducing the episodes of The Golden Legend.

Eastern Christianity

According to the

Jerusalem Temple as being God's footstool,[7] and the prescribed Three Pilgrimage Festivals, in Hebrew aliya la-regel, lit. ascending to the foot).[8]

Tradition of Lot's triple tree

A further tradition holds that these three trees from which the True Cross was constructed grew together in one spot. A traditional Orthodox

reconstruction of the Temple, the wood from these trees was removed from the Temple and discarded, eventually being used to construct the cross on which Jesus was crucified ("and I will make the place of my feet glorious").[citation needed
]

Empress Helena and the Cross

The Finding of the True Cross, Agnolo Gaddi, Florence, 1380

Eusebius

The

Constantine ordered in about 325–326 that the site be uncovered and instructed Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, to build a church on the site. Eusebius' work contains details about the demolition of the pagan temple and the erection of the church, but does not mention anywhere the finding of the True Cross.[9]

Socrates Scholasticus

The three crosses are discovered. An injured young man is healed by the True Cross. Fifteenth-century frescoes at the Church of San Francesco, Arezzo by Piero della Francesca.

In his Ecclesiastical History, nearly a century after Eusebius,

nails from Jesus's crucifixion were uncovered as well. In Socrates's version of the story, Macarius had the three crosses placed in turn on a deathly ill woman. This woman recovered at the touch of the third cross, which was taken as a sign that this was the cross of Christ, the new Christian symbol. Socrates also reports that, having also found the cross's nails, Helena sent these to Constantinople, where they were incorporated into the emperor's helmet and the bridle of his horse.[10]

Sozomen

In his Ecclesiastical History,

Kyriakos
.

Theodoret

Très Riches Heures

Theodoret (died c. 457) in his Ecclesiastical History Chapter xvii gives what would become the standard version of the finding of the True Cross:

When the empress beheld the place where the Saviour suffered, she immediately ordered the idolatrous temple, which had been there erected, to be destroyed, and the very earth on which it stood to be removed. When the tomb, which had been so long concealed, was discovered, three crosses were seen buried near the Lord's sepulchre. All held it as certain that one of these crosses was that of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the other two were those of the thieves who were crucified with Him. Yet they could not discern to which of the three the Body of the Lord had been brought nigh, and which had received the outpouring of His precious Blood. But the wise and holy Macarius, the president of the city, resolved this question in the following manner. He caused a lady of rank, who had been long suffering from disease, to be touched by each of the crosses, with earnest prayer, and thus discerned the virtue residing in that of the Saviour. For the instant this cross was brought near the lady, it expelled the sore disease, and made her whole.

With the Cross were also found the

Holy Nails
, which Helena took with her back to Constantinople. According to Theodoret, "She had part of the cross of our Saviour conveyed to the palace. The rest was enclosed in a covering of silver, and committed to the care of the bishop of the city, whom she exhorted to preserve it carefully, in order that it might be transmitted uninjured to posterity."

Syriac tradition

Another popular ancient version from the

Thaddeus of Edessa (Addai in Syriac texts), one of the seventy disciples.[14] The narrative retrojected the Helena version to the first century. In the story, Protonike traveled to Jerusalem after she met Simon Peter in Rome.[12] She was shown around the city by James, brother of Jesus, until she discovered the cross after it healed her daughter of some illness.[12] She then converted to Christianity and had a church built on Golgotha.[12] Aside from the Syriac tradition, the Protonike version was also cited by Armenian sources.[15]

Catholic commemoration

According to the 1955 Roman Catholic Marian Missal, Helena went to Jerusalem to search for the True Cross and found it 14 September 320. In the 8th century, the Feast of the Finding was transferred to 3 May and 14 September became the celebration of the "

Persians by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, as a result of which the relic was recovered and returned to Jerusalem.[16]

The True Cross in Jerusalem

Late antiquity

The silver reliquary that was left at the

Latin
: Itinerarium Egeriae), which she sent back to her convent:

Then a chair is placed for the bishop in Golgotha behind the [liturgical] Cross, which is now standing; the bishop duly takes his seat in the chair, and a table covered with a linen cloth is placed before him; the deacons stand round the table, and a silver-gilt casket is brought in which is the holy wood of the Cross. The casket is opened and [the wood] is taken out, and both the wood of the Cross and the

title are placed upon the table. Now, when it has been put upon the table, the bishop, as he sits, holds the extremities of the sacred wood firmly in his hands, while the deacons who stand around guard it. It is guarded thus because the custom is that the people, both faithful and catechumens, come one by one and, bowing down at the table, kiss the sacred wood and pass through. And because, I know not when, some one is said to have bitten off and stolen a portion of the sacred wood, it is thus guarded by the deacons who stand around, lest any one approaching should venture to do so again. And as all the people pass by one by one, all bowing themselves, they touch the Cross and the title, first with their foreheads and then with their eyes; then they kiss the Cross and pass through, but none lays his hand upon it to touch it. When they have kissed the Cross and have passed through, a deacon stands holding the ring of Solomon and the horn from which the kings were anointed; they kiss the horn also and gaze at the ring...[17]

Before long, but perhaps not until after the visit of Egeria, it was possible also to venerate the crown of thorns, the pillar at which Christ was scourged, and the lance that pierced his side.

The Perso-Byzantine Wars

The

Constantin Zuckerman going as far as to suggest that the True Cross was actually lost by the Persians and that the wood contained in the allegedly still sealed reliquary brought to Jerusalem by Heraclius in 629 was a fake. In his analysis, the hoax was designed to serve the political purposes of both Heraclius and his former foe, recently turned ally and father-in-law, the Persian general and soon-king Shahrbaraz.[19]

Islamic rule and the Crusades

Reliquary of the True Cross at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

When Jerusalem fell to the Muslims in 638, Heraclius retrieved the True Cross but did not attempt to retake the city.[20]

Around 1009, the year in which

Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, had the Greek Orthodox priests who were supposedly in possession of the Cross tortured in order to reveal its location.[21] The relic that Arnulf recovered was a small fragment of wood embedded in a golden cross, and it became the most sacred relic of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, with none of the controversy that had followed their discovery of the Holy Lance in Antioch. Displayed in a jewel-encrusted housing of gold and silver, it was housed in a northern chapel at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, overseen by its canons and protected by its knights. A second chapel beside it was overseen by the Syrian Orthodox and displayed another reliquary holding their fragment of the cross.[22] The Latin fragment of the cross was repeatedly carried into battle against the Muslims.[22]

Over the course of each

edicule of the Holy Sepulchre while the congregation waited with unlit candles. A New Fire would "spontaneously" light within the sepulchre. The crossbearer then would light his own candle from it, transit the entire church, and light the candle of the waiting patriarch. The candles of the canons and then the congregation were then lit from one to another, gradually filling the church with light.[23]

After

Byzantine emperor Isaac II, and Queen Tamar of Georgia sought to ransom it from Saladin,[25] the cross was not returned. In 1219 the True Cross was offered to the Knights Templar by Al-Kamil in exchange for lifting the siege of Damietta. The cross was never delivered as Al-Kamil did not, in fact, have it. Subsequently the cross disappeared from historical records. The True Cross was last seen in the city of Damascus.[26]

21st-century status

The Greek Orthodox church presents a small True Cross relic shown in the Greek Treasury within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the foot of

Coptic Christians as thanks for his protection.[29] The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims these relics are still held at either Egziabher Ab or Tekle Maryam, two monasteries near the former imperial cemetery on Amba Geshen
.

Dispersion of relics

An inscription of 359 found at Tixter, in the neighbourhood of Sétif in Mauretania (in today Algeria), was said to mention, in an enumeration of relics, a fragment of the True Cross, according to an entry in Roman Miscellanies, X, 441.

Fragments of the Cross were broken up, and the pieces were widely distributed; in 348, in one of his Catecheses, Cyril of Jerusalem remarked that the "whole Earth is full of the relics of the Cross of Christ" and, in another, "The holy wood of the Cross bears witness, seen among us to this day, and from this place now almost filling the whole world, by means of those who in faith take portions from it."

inscription in the Felix Basilica of Nola, built by bishop Paulinus at the beginning of 5th century. The cross particle was inserted in the altar.[32]

The

Dream of the Rood mentions the finding of the cross and the beginning of the tradition of the veneration of its relics. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also talks of King Alfred receiving a fragment of the cross from Pope Marinus (see: Annal Alfred the Great, year 883).[33] Although it is possible, the poem need not be referring to this specific relic or have this incident as the reason for its composition. However, there is a later source that speaks of a bequest made to the 'Holy Cross' at Shaftesbury Abbey in Dorset; Shaftesbury abbey was founded by King Alfred, supported with a large portion of state funds and given to the charge of his own daughter when he was alive—it is conceivable that if Alfred really received this relic, that he may have given it to the care of the nuns at Shaftesbury.[34]

Most of the very small relics of the True Cross in Europe came from

Chronica Regia Coloniensis relates that "After the conquest of the city Constantinople inestimable wealth was found: incomparably precious jewels and also a part of the cross of the Lord, which Helena transferred from Jerusalem and [which] was decorated with gold and precious jewels. There it attained [the] highest admiration. It was carved up by the present bishops and was divided with other very precious relics among the knights; later, after their return to the homeland, it was donated to churches and monasteries."[c][d] The French knight Robert de Clari wrote that "within this chapel were found many precious relics; for therein were found two pieces of the True Cross, as thick as a man's leg and a fathom in length."[36]

The misplacement of which particular class relics of the Holy Cross (and others in general)

Medieval Age. This happened, often in order to attract pilgrims; or even to facilitate the lucrative practice of Simony
.

By the end of the Middle Ages so many churches claimed to possess relics of the True Cross, that John Calvin is famously said to have remarked that there was enough wood in them to fill a ship:

There is no abbey so poor as not to have a specimen. In some places there are large fragments, as at the Holy Chapel in Paris, at Poitiers, and at Rome, where a good-sized crucifix is said to have been made of it. In brief, if all the pieces that could be found were collected together, they would make a big ship-load. Yet the Gospel testifies that a single man was able to carry it.

— Calvin, Traité Des Reliques

Conflicting with this is the finding of

Florence Cathedral, were microscopically examined. "The pieces came all together from olive."[38] It is possible that many alleged pieces of the True Cross are forgeries, created by travelling merchants in the Middle Ages, during which period a thriving trade in manufactured relics went on.[citation needed
]

Smyrnakis notes that the largest surviving portion, of 870,760 cubic millimetres, is preserved in the Monastery of

Koutloumousiou on Mount Athos, and also mentions the preserved relics in Rome (consisting of 537,587 cubic millimetres), in Brussels (516,090 cubic millimetres), in Venice (445,582 cubic millimetres), in Ghent (436,450 cubic millimetres) and in Paris (237,731 cubic millimetres).[39]

Santo Toribio de Liébana in Spain is also said to hold the largest of these pieces and is one of the most visited Roman Catholic pilgrimage sites. In Asia, the only place where the other part of the True Cross is located is in the Monasterio de Tarlac at San Jose, Tarlac, Philippines.[40]

The

Atse Emperor's personal possession into the 18th century, even being lost in battle, before being buried atop Amba Geshen.[41]

In 2016, a relic of True Cross held by

Oxford University.[42]

In February 2020, the

Russian invasion of Ukraine. After the sinking, there was speculation that the fragment may have gone down with the ship.[44]

  • An enamelled silver reliquary of the True Cross from Constantinople, c. 800
    An enamelled silver reliquary of the True Cross from Constantinople, c. 800
  • One of the largest purported fragments of the True Cross is at Santo Toribio de Liébana in Spain (photo by F. J. Díez Martín)
    One of the largest purported fragments of the True Cross is at Santo Toribio de Liébana in Spain (photo by F. J. Díez Martín)
  • A "Kreuzpartikel" or fragment of True Cross in the Schatzkammer (Vienna)
    A "Kreuzpartikel" or fragment of True Cross in the
    Schatzkammer (Vienna)
  • Fragments of True Cross in the Serbian Orthodox Monastery of Visoki Dečani
    Fragments of True Cross in the Serbian Orthodox Monastery of Visoki Dečani

Veneration

A relic of the True Cross being carried in procession through the Piazza San Marco, Venice. Gentile Bellini 15th century.

John Chrysostom wrote homilies on the three crosses:

Kings removing their diadems take up the cross, the symbol of their Saviour's death; on the purple, the cross; in their prayers, the cross; on their armour, the cross; on the holy table, the cross; throughout the universe, the cross. The cross shines brighter than the sun.

The

Twelve Great Feasts of the liturgical year, and the Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Cross on 1 August, the day on which the relics of the True Cross would be carried through the streets of Constantinople to bless the city.[47]

In addition to celebrations on fixed days, there are certain days of the

Great and Holy Friday for the people to venerate. The Orthodox also celebrate an additional Veneration of the Cross on the third Sunday of Great Lent
.

Image gallery

  • Reliquary of the True Cross at Notre Dame in Paris
    Reliquary of the True Cross at
    Notre Dame
    in Paris
  • Base of the reliquary with one of the Holy Nails
    Base of the reliquary with one of the Holy Nails
  • A second reliquary with another nail at Notre Dame
    A second reliquary with another nail at Notre Dame
  • A reliquary of the True Cross from the former Premonstratensian monastery in Rüti, Switzerland
    A reliquary of the True Cross from the former Premonstratensian monastery in Rüti, Switzerland

See also

Notes

  1. poet Cynewulf.[1] A detailed account of known sources for the legends is presented in Drijvers (1992).[2]
  2. hagiographies
    which produced its more usual modern sense.
  3. Latin: Capta igitur urbe, divitiae repperiuntur inestimabiles, lapides preciosissime et incomparabiles, pars etiam ligni dominici, quod per Helenam de Iherosolimis translatum, auro et gemmis precioses insignitum in maxima illic veneratione habebatur, ab episcopis qui presentes aderant incisum, ab aliis preciosissimis reliquis per nobilis quosque partitur, et postea eis revertentibus ad natale solum, per ecclesias et cenobia distrbuitur.
    German: Nach der Eroberung der Stadt wurden unschätzbare Reichtümer gefunden, unvergleichlich kostbare Edelsteine und auch ein Teil des Kreuzes des Herrn, das, von Helena aus Jerusalem überführt und mit Gold und kostbaren Edelsteinen geschmückt, dort höchste Verehrung erfuhr. Es wurde von den anwesenden Bischöfen zerstückelt und mit anderen sehr kostbaren Reliquien unter die Ritter aufgeteilt; später, nach deren Rückkehr in die Heimat, wurde es Kirchen und Klöstern gestiftet.[35]
  4. ^ See also the discussion of the relics of the True Cross on the German Wikipedia at de:Diskussion:Kreuzerhöhung.
  5. etymon "inventiō
    "—of anything which has been found or come across, rather than something created entirely new.

References

  1. ^ Holt (1904).
  2. ^ a b Drijvers (1992).
  3. ^ Ellis & al., Vol. I (1900).
  4. ^ a b c d Ellis & al., Vol. III (1900).
  5. ^ a b c d Herzog (1969), p. 68.
  6. ^ a b Roman, Alexander. "Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross". Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
  7. ^ Kittel & al. (1969), p. 627.
  8. ^ "Enormous 'foot-shaped' enclosure discovered in Jordan Valley". Science 2.0. 6 April 2009. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  9. ^ a b Richardson (1890).
  10. ^ Zenos (1890), Ch. xvii.
  11. ^ Hartranft (1890).
  12. ^ a b c d Saint-Laurent (2015), p. 42.
  13. ^ Wiles & al. (2001), p. 57.
  14. ^ Meerson & al. (2014), p. 121.
  15. ^ Pogossian (2019), p. 167.
  16. ^ "Exaltation of the Holy Cross". Franciscan Media. 14 September 2020. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  17. ^ McClure & al. (1919).
  18. ^ Treadgold (1997), p. 299.
  19. ^ Zuckerman (2013), pp. 197–218.
  20. ^ Norwich (1988), p. 308.
  21. ^ Runciman (1951), p. 294.
  22. ^ a b Hamilton & Jotischky (2020), p. 37.
  23. ^ a b Hamilton & Jotischky (2020), p. 38.
  24. ^ Malouf (1983).
  25. ^ Ciggaar & Teule (1996), p. 38.
  26. ^ Madden (2005), p. 76.
  27. ^ "Church of the Holy Sepulchre Chapels". See the Holy Land. 2010-03-15. Archived from the original on 2016-01-10. Retrieved 2016-01-08.
  28. ^ "Relic of the True Cross to be on View at St. Vartan Cathedral". The Armenian Church: Eastern Diocese of America. 6 September 2018. Archived from the original on 29 August 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  29. ^ መጽሐፈ ጤፉት [Mäṣḥafä Ṭefut, Book of Ṭeff Grains] (PDF) (in Geez) – via dirzon.com.
     • መጽሐፈ ጤፉት. Retrieved 2023-10-10 – via scribd.com.
  30. ^ Gifford (1894).
  31. ^ Duval (1982), pp. 331-337 & 351–353.
  32. ^ Ziehr (1997), p. 62.
  33. ^ White & al. (1915).
  34. ^ Studies in the Early History of Shaftesbury Abbey. Dorset County Council, 1999
  35. ^ Waitz (1880), p. 203.
  36. ^ Stone (1939), Ch. 82: Of the Marvels of Constantinople.
  37. ^ Marucchi & al. (1908).
  38. ^ Ziehr (1997), p. 63.
  39. ^ Smyrnakis (1903), pp. 378–379.
  40. ^ "Monasterio de Tarlac". Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  41. ^ E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), pp. 454f.
  42. ^ O'Shea, James (2016-07-25). "Truth Revealed about Irish Relic of Cross on which Jesus was Crucified". Irish Central. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  43. ^ Novoderezhkin (2020).
  44. ^ Roth (2022).
  45. ^ "Compendium of the Reforms of the Roman Breviary, 1568–1961: Part 10.1—The Reform of 1960". New Liturgical Movement. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
  46. ^ "14 September (27 September): The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Creating Cross of the Lord". Orthodox Church in America. Archived from the original on 2002-02-25. Retrieved 2022-05-24..
  47. ^ "Procession of the Honorable Wood of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord". Orthodox Church in America. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2012-03-21.

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Deuffic, Jean-Luc, ed. (2005), Reliques et Sainteté dans l'Espace Médiéval (in French), Pecia, archived from the original on 2008-01-17.
  • Frolow, A. (1961), La Relique de la Vraie Croix: Recherches sur le Développement d'un Culte (in French), Paris: Institut français d'études byzantines.
  • Murray, Alan V. (1998), "Mighty against the Enemies of Christ: The Relic of the True Cross in the Armies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem", The Crusades and Their Sources: Essays Presented to B. Hamilton, Aldershot, pp. 217–238.
  • Olmi, Massimo (2015), Indagine sulla Croce di Cristo (in Italian), Torino: La Fontana di Siloe.
  • Olmi, Massimo (2018), I Segreti delle Reliquie Bibliche (in Italian), Rome: XPublishing.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to True Cross.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to True Cross.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=True_Cross&oldid=1219191275"