Date: 2026-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Treatises & Other

Historical Study Concerning the Precious Cross

Modern English Translation

Saint Nektarios of Aegina

Royal Archives

2026

Copyright

The modern English translation and the cover design are © 2026 Royal Archives. All rights reserved.

The underlying source text is in the public domain.

Published by Royal Archives

First published 2026

Translated by Royal Archives

Source: Ἱστορικὴ μελέτη περὶ τοῦ Τιμίου Σταυροῦ

Cover: Cross in the Mountains (Tetschen Altar) by Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774–1840), Wikimedia Commons, which is in the public domain.

Edition identifier: urn:royalarchives:precious_cross:en:1

Introduction

The Author

The bishop who wrote this book on the Cross had himself been made to carry one. He was born Anastasios Kephalas on the first of October 1846 at Selymbria in Thrace, then a town of the Ottoman Empire on the Sea of Marmara, into a poor and pious family. As a boy of fourteen he made his way to Constantinople to work and to keep learning, and in 1866 he crossed to the island of Chios to teach school. There, in his late twenties, the schoolmaster became a monk and received the name Nektarios; ordination to the diaconate followed a few years after. His piety and his evident gifts drew the notice of the Patriarch of Alexandria, who supported his theological studies at the University of Athens; he graduated in 1885. Returning then to Egypt, he was ordained priest and served the church of Saint Nicholas in Cairo with such distinction that in 1889 the Patriarch of Alexandria, Sophronios, consecrated him Metropolitan of Pentapolis—an ancient see in Cyrenaica, in what is now Libya.

The elevation lasted scarcely a year. His preaching and the affection of the people stirred the envy of other clergy, and on the strength of slander he was removed from office, censured, and sent out of Egypt without a hearing and without a charge he was ever allowed to answer. He bore the injury in silence. The historical record has since vindicated him—more than a century afterward, in 1998, the Patriarchate of Alexandria formally lifted the old censure—but at the time he returned to Greece under a cloud, and passed the years from 1891 to 1894 as a wandering preacher before a fitting appointment restored him to steady work.

That appointment was the directorship of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens, the seminary that formed candidates for the Greek priesthood. He held the post for some fourteen years, from 1894 until his resignation in December 1908, and it was in these years—teaching, administering, and writing for his students—that the greater part of his prose theology took shape. The stories preserved from this period turn less on his learning than on his humility; he is remembered, finding a sick janitor unable to do his rounds, for having risen before dawn to do the man’s cleaning himself rather than let him lose his place. In 1904, at the request of a group of pious women, he began to build a convent of the Holy Trinity on the island of Aegina, and when in 1908 he judged that his presence there was needed he withdrew to it, living out his last twelve years as its spiritual father—writing, hearing confessions, tending the garden, and helping raise the buildings with his own hands and means. He died on the evening of the eighth of November 1920, following surgery for prostate cancer.

Many received him as a saint already in his lifetime, and the wider Church confirmed that reception in due course: the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople glorified him as a saint on the twentieth of April 1961, and he is commemorated on the ninth of November, the day after his repose. He is among the most widely venerated of modern Greek saints, and his tomb on Aegina remains a place of pilgrimage. In the received tradition he is named plainly and without qualification—Saint Nektarios of Aegina, the Wonderworker—and that is the attribution this edition keeps.

The Work: Occasion and Purpose

The book here presented in English is titled, in Nektarios’s own Greek, Historical Study Concerning the Precious Cross (Historikḕ melétē perì toû Timíou Stauroû). The title is exact and worth pausing over, because it announces the kind of book this is. It is not a devotional meditation on the Cross, nor a systematic treatise on the doctrine of the atonement, though reverence and doctrine both run all through it. It is a historical study—a marshalling of documentary and patristic evidence, ordered as an argument, in defense of a claim about the past.

The claim is that the Christian veneration of the Cross is as old as the Church herself, an apostolic inheritance and not a later invention. Nektarios states his occasion in his own opening words, “To the Reader.” He undertook the study, he says, at the request of Theokletos, Metropolitan of Athens and President of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece—that is, Theokletos I (Minopoulos), who occupied the see of Athens through the years in which the work was written and published. He wrote it, in his own phrase, to refute “the erroneous opinions and beliefs of those who, having been led astray, possess intellect yet complete ignorance of the historical manifestation of the precious Cross.” The book first appeared in installments in the periodical Hieros Syndesmos (“The Sacred Bond”), the organ of a clerical association of that name; the volume printed at Athens in 1914, from which this translation is made, is its revised and enlarged reissue, offered—again in his words—so that “the historical truth concerning the origin of the manifestation of the precious Cross, its discovery, and its veneration” might reach a wider circle of readers.

It is one of the last works of a long writing life; Nektarios died six years after its publication. And it grows directly out of the concerns of his final decade. The adversaries he names are “certain modern scholars” who “seek to deny every truth handed down to the Church”—the critical historiography of his own century, which had come to question the antiquity of Christian devotion to the Cross and, in particular, the tradition that the Emperor Constantine’s mother, the Empress Helena, discovered the True Cross at Jerusalem. To that skeptical scholarship Nektarios opposes not counter-speculation but testimony: the Fathers, the sacred canons, the Church historians of antiquity, the imperial letters, and the liturgical memory of the Church, laid side by side so that the reader may weigh the weight of the record for himself.

Argument and Structure

The work runs to twenty short chapters, and for all the density of its citation it follows a clear line. After the brief preface (chapter one), the argument opens by establishing the sheer antiquity of the practice, then narrates the great historical episodes that fixed the Cross at the center of Christian life, and closes by turning from history to worship—from what happened to why the Christian should venerate the Cross at all.

The first movement (chapters two through four) argues the apostolic pedigree of the sign of the Cross. Here Nektarios assembles his earliest witnesses. Tertullian, in the De corona militis, describes Christians tracing the Cross over every act of daily life—rising, dressing, bathing, eating, lighting the evening lamp. Ignatius the God-bearer, John Chrysostom in a series of vivid passages, the Council in Trullo’s seventy-third canon on the honor owed the life-giving Cross, the canonists Rhalles and Potles, Photios of Constantinople, Jerome of Jerusalem, and a long, careful extract from John of Damascus’s Exposition of the Orthodox Faith all converge on a single point: that the faithful honored the sign and figure of the Cross “from the very beginning,” tracing its use back, as the most ancient Fathers did, to apostolic tradition. The Damascene extract supplies the theological grammar the rest of the book will assume—that the veneration is offered not to the wood as such but to what the wood signifies, the crucified Christ, and that the Cross was foreshadowed all through the Old Testament in the tree of life, the crossed hands of Jacob blessing Joseph’s sons, the rod of Moses dividing the sea, the brazen serpent lifted on wood. Chapter four gathers the standing liturgical evidence: the Cross sealed in chrism at baptism as “the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit,” imprinted on the eucharistic gifts, made at every ordination and blessing, and read by interpreters into the sealing of the servants of God in the Book of Revelation.

The second and largest movement (chapters five through sixteen) is frankly narrative, and it is the heart of the historical case. Nektarios recounts the vision of the Cross of light granted to Constantine before his battle with Maxentius, with the words “By this conquer,” quoting Eusebius’s Life of Constantine at length and corroborating it from Socrates Scholasticus, Sozomen, Philostorgius, and the later Byzantine chroniclers Cedrenus, Zonaras, and Nikephoros Kallistos. He describes the cross-bearing statue Constantine raised in Rome and its inscription. He records a second appearance of a luminous Cross over Jerusalem, stretching from Golgotha to the Mount of Olives, in the reign of Constantine’s son Constantius and the episcopate of Cyril of Jerusalem—the wonder the Church still commemorates on the seventh of May. Then comes the pivot of the whole book. Chapter eight meets head-on the modern doubt about Helena’s discovery of the Cross, which the critics rested on the supposed silence of Eusebius. Nektarios answers first by argument—the silence of one historian who set out to write only the life of Constantine, and who compressed Helena’s stay in Jerusalem into a few lines, cannot outweigh the concurrent testimony of the whole tradition—and then by evidence: the letters of Constantine to Macarius of Jerusalem and to the prefect Dracilianus, preserved by Theodoret; the account of the three crosses and the healing that identified the Lord’s; the division and distribution of the wood. Chapters nine and ten give the imperial correspondence and Helena’s building of the church over the holy places in full. The remaining chapters of this movement turn to the continuing life of the relic and its feast: the miracle wrought at Apamea through a fragment of the wood, as told by Evagrius; a chapter on the divine power indwelling the wood; the inscribed cross of Shirin, consort of the Persian king Chosroes; the feast of the Finding and the Exaltation; the Procession of the Cross; and a chapter on the dimensions of the Cross, the sacred nails, and the crosses of the two thieves.

The third movement (chapters seventeen through twenty) leaves the archive and turns to the Cross’s abiding power and the duty of veneration. Chapter seventeen gathers the great testimonies to that power: Gregory the Theologian’s account, in his First Invective Against Julian, of the young apostate signing himself against the demons that terrified him in a pagan crypt; Theodoret’s version of the same episode; Chrysostom on the Cross as trophy and sword; and Athanasius’s report, from the Life of Antony, of the desert father who cleansed the demon-possessed by the sign of the Cross before the astonished philosophers, insisting that “it is Christ who does such things through those who believe in Him.” Chapters eighteen and nineteen answer, in two parts, the plain question why the Cross is to be honored: first because upon it Christ shed his blood and saved the world—here Nektarios draws on Gregory of Nyssa and on Saint Paul’s image of the height and depth and breadth and length by which all creation is held together—and second because it has been given as a weapon against the devil, with Cyril of Jerusalem’s counsel to seal oneself at every act, Chrysostom’s and Isidore of Pelusium’s testimonies, and a practical instruction on how the sign of the Cross is to be made and what each motion of the hand confesses. The book closes, fittingly, with an extended passage from the homilies of Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, on the Cross as the sum of the whole economy of salvation—the trophy that gathers into itself the mystery of Christ’s coming and reconciles heaven and earth—a homiletic crown set upon the historical argument.

Theological and Spiritual Significance

The distinctive thing about this book is its method. Faced with a devotional question—should the Christian venerate the Cross, and is that veneration authentic?—Nektarios answers as a historian and a reader of the sources rather than as a preacher pressing a point. Almost the whole of the book is dossier: he prefers to let Tertullian and Chrysostom and Eusebius and the Damascene speak, and to arrange their testimonies so that the cumulative witness makes the argument. In this he is very much a man of the learned nineteenth century, and the work belongs recognizably to the same scholarly world as his other writings of the Rizarios and Aegina years, in which he sought to ground Orthodox teaching in the Fathers and the councils rather than in the philosophical handbooks then imported into Greek theology. The Historical Study is his contribution to a long tradition of Christian apologetic that meets the critic on the critic’s own ground, the ground of evidence.

Its theological substance is the theology of the Cross the Fathers held in common. The governing distinction, taken over from John of Damascus and repeated by canonist and homilist alike, is that between the honor paid to an image and the honor paid to what it represents: the veneration terminates not on the material—gold, wood, or stone, which once the figure is dissolved is only material again—but on the crucified Lord whom the figure signifies. This is the same principle by which the Church, East and West, had long distinguished the veneration of holy things from the worship due to God alone, and Nektarios’s dossier is in effect a demonstration that the principle is ancient and unbroken. Around it he lets his sources develop the fuller doctrine: the Cross as the instrument of a cosmic reconciliation, its four arms figuring the height and depth and length and breadth in which all things are held together; the Cross prefigured throughout the Law and the Prophets; the Cross as the tree of life answering the tree of the fall; the Cross as the seal that marks the faithful and the trophy before which the powers of evil give way.

There is a polemical charge in the book, and honesty requires noting it, but its temper is worth stating precisely. Nektarios writes against two positions. The first is the historical skepticism of certain modern scholars who dated the cult of the Cross no earlier than Constantine and doubted the finding of the True Cross; against them he argues, in the ordinary way of historians, from the antiquity and convergence of the evidence—and the questions he engages (the reliability of the vita Constantini, the meaning of Eusebius’s silence, the origins of the Jerusalem tradition) remain genuine questions on which careful readers still differ, so that the book is best read as one learned and reverent voice in a continuing conversation rather than as its last word. The second position, surfacing especially in the closing homily of Palamas, is the objection that the Cross, as the instrument of a shameful death, is unworthy of honor—an objection Christians of various ages have raised against venerating the image of the Cross. To it the answer given is theological: that the very death endured upon the Cross is the source of life, so that the tree of the execution has become the tree of salvation, and to despise it would be to despise the death into which the baptized are baptized. Nektarios does not turn this into a quarrel among the churches; he presents it as the perennial Christian answer to a perennial objection, drawn from Fathers honored across the traditions.

For the modern reader the book’s value is twofold. It is, first, a compact anthology of what the ancient Church actually said and did about the Cross—a single place in which the relevant texts of Tertullian, Ignatius, Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, the Damascene, the historians, the canons, and Palamas are gathered and translated. And it is, second, a window into the mind of a modern saint at work: patient, evidential, unpolemical in tone even when the matter is contested, more concerned to set the record before the reader than to overwhelm him. The devotion that made Nektarios one of the best-loved saints of the modern Greek world is present here not as sentiment but as scholarship placed in the service of prayer.

The Text and This Edition

This is a fresh, standalone English translation of Saint Nektarios’s Historical Study Concerning the Precious Cross, rendered directly from the original Greek. The base text is the first book edition, printed at Athens in 1914 by the press of Paraskevas Leonis under the author’s own name—“Nektarios Kephalas, Metropolitan of Pentapolis”—which stands in the public domain; the working copy was a digital facsimile preserved on the Internet Archive. Because the archive’s automatically generated transcription of that scan confused Greek and Latin letterforms throughout, the Greek was re-established from the page images with an optical-character-recognition model trained on polytonic Greek, then cleaned and segmented into its chapters and numbered paragraphs—twenty chapters in all—before translation. The English is made from that restored Greek text, not from any earlier English version.

A few conventions of this edition follow the practice of the series. The author is named as the Church receives him, Saint Nektarios of Aegina; those who prepared the translation are credited as translators and never as authors. Nektarios cited his sources in the manner of a nineteenth-century Greek scholar—by Migne’s Patrologia volume and column, by the volume and page of the Athens and older European reprints, and by the traditional book-and-chapter abbreviations of the ancient historians—and these parenthetical citations are preserved as he gave them, so that a reader who wishes to follow him back to the sources may do so. Scripture quotations are set off as he set them off. Where the argument turns on a division or a number, references are given in the plain modern style. A small number of editorial notes, marked as translator’s notes, clarify a difficult phrase or flag the handful of places where the 1914 printing is too damaged for confident recovery of the text; these are the translator’s, not the author’s. Chapter headings are rendered as Nektarios wrote them, and his chapters are presented in the order he arranged them, so that the shape of his argument—from the antiquity of the sign, through the history of the relic and its feasts, to the power of the Cross and the duty of its veneration—stands before the English reader as it stood before the Greek.

Suggestions for Reading

A reader coming to this book for the first time will find it least puzzling if he keeps its genre in view. It is a work of evidence, and much of it consists of quotation; the connective argument is Nektarios’s, but the bulk of the words are the Fathers’ and the historians’. It rewards being read as one would read a well-made brief—noticing how each testimony is placed, and how the witnesses accumulate. Those who want the argument in brief may begin with the preface and chapter two, where the thesis of apostolic antiquity is stated, and then turn to chapter eight, where the decisive case over Helena’s discovery is joined. Those who care most for the theology of the Cross will find it concentrated in the long extract from John of Damascus in chapter three, in the twin chapters (eighteen and nineteen) on why the Cross is to be honored, and in the closing homily of Gregory Palamas, which lifts the whole study from history into worship. However it is read, the book is best received in the spirit in which it was written: as the offering of a learned and humble bishop who believed that the truth of the Church’s oldest devotion could be shown, patiently and from the record, to anyone willing to weigh it.

To the Reader

The study concerning the precious Cross that I wrote at the request of His Eminence the Metropolitan of Athens and President of the Holy Synod, Theokletos, for the refutation of the erroneous opinions and beliefs of people who have been led astray, who possess an intellect yet complete ignorance of the historical manifestation of the precious Cross, etc. Having accepted the proposal of His Eminence, we composed the present study, which we published in the periodical Hieros Syndesmos of the sacred association of the same name. We are publishing this study again with some additions, so that we may disseminate it to a wider circle and make known to the Greek faithful of the Church the historical truth concerning the origin of the manifestation of the precious Cross, its discovery, and its veneration as the precious Wood and as the saving instrument in the saving oikonomia that was accomplished.

Concerning the Veneration of the Faithful for the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and That it is an Apostolic Tradition to Mark Oneself With the Sign of the Cross and to Depict and Inscribe it Everywhere

The veneration of the faithful for the life-giving Cross of the Lord was great from the very beginning. The Apostle Paul in First Corinthians (1:18) commends the sign of the Precious Cross to the faithful as the power of God, saying: “the word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Christians, keeping with reverence the teaching of the Apostles concerning the Cross, honored the sign and the figure of the Precious Cross and believed in its redemptive and life-giving power. The depiction and seal of the Precious Cross was believed in and was for them an invincible weapon against the plots of visible and invisible enemies. Hence the distinctive veneration and exceptional honor given to it from the first ages of the Church.

The most ancient Fathers of the Church trace the reverence and veneration of the precious Cross back to apostolic tradition. Tertullian (de corona militis III), who lived in the middle of the second and third centuries [160–240], says that the figure of the Cross was in use in all the circumstances of life: that they marked the entrances of their houses with the figure of the Cross, when they rose from bed, when they put on their garments, when they bathed, when they left the house, when they lit the lamp, likewise at meals and drink, they sealed both themselves and their food with the figure of the precious Cross, and in short, the sign and figure of the precious Cross was the starting point and forerunner in every undertaking. Ignatius the God-bearer, in his Epistle to the Philippians, page 86, says: “For the ruler of this world rejoices when anyone denies the Cross; for he knows that the confession of the Cross is his own destruction. For this is the trophy against his power, which he shudders to see and fears to hear of.” Saint John Chrysostom describes for us the daily use of this sacred sign as follows: “This cursed and execrable thing, the symbol of the ultimate punishment, has now become desirable and beloved. For no royal crown adorns a head as the Cross does, being more precious than the whole world. And what everyone once shuddered at, this sign is now so eagerly sought after by all that it is found everywhere: among rulers, among the ruled, among women, among men, among virgins, among the married, among slaves, among the free. For everyone continually inscribes it on the most prominent part of our members, and they carry it displayed on their foreheads like an inscription on a pillar, traced out each day. It shines forth at the holy altar, at the ordinations of priests, and again with the body of Christ at the mystical supper. One would see it celebrated everywhere: in homes, in marketplaces, in deserts, on roads, on mountains, in valleys, on hills, at sea and on ships and islands, on beds, on garments, on weapons, on bridal chambers, at banquets, on silver vessels, on golden ones, on pearls, in wall paintings, on the bodies of irrational animals that have suffered much, on bodies besieged by demons, in war and in peace, by day and by night, in the dances of the luxurious and in the assemblies of the ascetics.” And elsewhere likewise: “We all bear the Cross on our foreheads, not only without shame, but even taking pride in it. For not only laypeople, but even those who wear diadems inscribe it on their foreheads above the diadems.” Chrysostom, On Despair.[1] You, for whom the symbol of the Cross was present everywhere, for this reason “inscribe it with great zeal both on houses and on walls and on windows, and on foreheads and on the mind.”[2] (Chrysostom, On the Betrayal of the Precious Cross, vol. 5, Eton edition 1612, p. 879).

“This Cross we offer both on the bed and at the table, and everywhere we may be” (ibid., p. 881). Sozomen the historian, in his Ecclesiastical History (books 4 and 8), says of Constantine the Great that “he marked the soldiers’ weapons with the sign of the Cross.”

The theory of certain modern writers that Constantine the Great was the first to devise the honor given to the Precious Cross of the Lord or to the figure of the Precious Cross is, as has already been shown and as will be shown below, very much mistaken.

Constantine the Great found the use of the Precious Cross common in the Church from the most ancient times, and following this practice he honored the sign of the Precious Cross, which, because of the revelation given to him, he exalted also as the symbol of his new Christian kingdom.

[1] Translator’s note: ἀπελμ.: abbreviated title, likely “On Despair” (εἰς ἀπελπισίαν) or similar.

[2] Translator’s note: “inscribe it”: ἐπιγράφομεν rendered as active inscription; alt. “mark it” or “trace it”.

Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers

Concerning the veneration of the Precious Cross, the sacred canons of the God-bearing Fathers define the following: “When we join together the figure of the Precious Cross from two pieces of wood, if one of the unbelievers should accuse us of venerating wood, we can separate the two pieces of wood and dissolve the figure of the Cross, consider them mere pieces of wood, and silence the unbeliever, showing that we revere not the wood but the figure of the Cross” (Syntagma of the Sacred Canons of Rhallēs and Potlēs, vol. 5, p. 248).

And Canon 73 of the Council in Trullo defines the following: “Since the life-giving Cross has shown us salvation, we must make every effort to render the honor that is due to that by which we have been saved from the ancient transgression. Therefore, while we offer veneration to it both in word and in perception, we command that figures of the Cross made by some on the ground be completely removed, lest the trophy of our victory be insulted by the trampling of those who walk over it. Therefore, we decree that those who from now on make a figure of the Cross on the ground are to be excommunicated.”

Photios, Archbishop of Constantinople, says in his first letter: “We venerate the Precious Cross, on which the Lord’s body was stretched out and from which the cleansing blood of the world poured forth, and the nature of the wood, watered by the streams from there, brought forth ageless life instead of death. Thus we venerate the type of the Cross, through which hordes of demons are driven out and various diseases are healed, because the grace and power once manifested in the prototype extends even to the types themselves, accompanying them with the same efficacy” (Photius, Epistle. London edition 1651, pp. 16–17).

And Jerome, presbyter of Jerusalem, when the following question about the veneration of the precious Cross was put to him:

“Since your Scripture nowhere permits you to venerate the Cross, why then do you venerate it? Tell us, who are Jews and Greeks and all the nations that question you”—he gave this answer: “For this reason, O foolish and shameless in heart, God has perhaps permitted every nation that worships God to venerate something on earth that is the work of human hands, so that they may no longer be able to accuse Christians concerning the Cross and the veneration of icons. So just as the Jew venerated the ark of the covenant and the two tablets that Moses carved, though he was never permitted by God to venerate or kiss these things; so too we Christians do not venerate the Cross as God, but show the genuine disposition of our soul toward the Crucified One” [Gk. Patrologia Migne vol. 40 p. 865].

And finally, the great and most theological John of Damascus says the following most important things concerning the precious Cross:

“The word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God… Every deed and miracle of Christ is most great and divine and wondrous; But most wonderful of all is his precious Cross. For by nothing else than the Cross of the Lord has death been abolished, the sin of the first-formed man been loosed, Hades been plundered, the Resurrection been granted, the power to despise the present and even death itself been given, the return to the ancient blessedness been accomplished, the gates of paradise been opened, our nature been seated at the right hand of the Father, and we become children of God and heirs—except through the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through the Cross all these things have been accomplished. For as many as were baptized into Christ, says the Apostle, were baptized into his death, and as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. But Christ is the power of God and the Wisdom of God. Behold, the death of Christ—that is, the Cross—has clothed us with the hypostatic Wisdom and power of God. Now the word of the Cross is the power of God, either because the might of God—that is, the victory over death—has been revealed to us through it, or because just as the four extremities of the Cross are held and bound together by the central point, so by the power of God the height and the depth, the length and the breadth—that is, all visible and invisible creation—is held together.

“This has been given to us as a sign upon the forehead, just as circumcision was given to Israel. For through it we the faithful are distinguished and recognized from the unbelievers. It is shield and weapon and trophy against the devil; it is a seal so that the destroyer may not touch us, as Scripture says; it is the resurrection of those who have fallen, the support of those who stand, the staff of the weak, the rod of those who are shepherded, the guidance of those who are turning back, the perfection of those who are advancing, the salvation of soul and body, the averter of all evils, the procurer of all good things, the destruction of sin, the plant of resurrection, the tree of eternal life.

“The precious wood itself, then, is truly venerable, on which Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, and as it has been sanctified by the touch of His holy body and blood, it is rightly to be venerated—as are the nails, the lance, the garments, and His sacred dwelling-places; which are the manger, the cave, Golgotha, the Cross, the life-giving tomb, Sion the citadel of the churches, and the like; as David, the ancestor of God, says: We shall enter into his tabernacles and venerate at the place where his feet stood. That he is speaking of the Cross is made clear by what follows. ‘Arise, O Lord, into your rest’; for the Resurrection follows the Cross. For if the house, bed, and cloak of those we love are desirable, how much more so the things of God and the Savior, through which we have been saved?

“We venerate also the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross, even if it is made of other material, honoring not the material—God forbid—but the figure as a symbol of Christ. For He said to His own disciples, making a covenant, Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, meaning the Cross. Therefore the angel of the resurrection also said to the women, You seek Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. And the Apostle says, We proclaim Christ crucified. There are many Christs and Jesuses, but one who was crucified. He did not say ‘pierced with a lance,’ but ‘crucified.’

“Therefore the sign of the Cross must be venerated. For where the sign is, there He Himself will be also; but the material from which the figure of the Cross is composed—whether it be gold or precious stones—after the dissolution of the figure, should it happen, is not to be venerated.

“We therefore venerate all things dedicated to God, offering reverence to Him.

“This Precious Cross was prefigured by the tree of life, planted by God in Paradise; for since death came through a tree, it was necessary that life and the Resurrection be granted through a tree; Jacob, venerating the top of the staff and blessing the sons of Joseph with his hands crossed, most clearly depicts the sign of the Cross; the staff of Moses, striking the sea in the form of a cross and saving Israel but drowning Pharaoh; hands stretched out in the form of a cross and putting Amalek to flight; bitter water sweetened by wood, and a rock split open and pouring forth streams; the rod of Aaron signifies the dignity of the priesthood; the serpent on the wood displayed in triumph, showing that the enemy has been conquered on the wood, saves those who look upon the dead foe and believe—so too Christ in flesh that knew no sin nailed sin to the Cross. You will see the great Moses crying out, your life hanging on a tree before your eyes. He means the Precious Cross of the Lord.

“Isaiah says, ‘All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people’; may we who venerate this obtain a share in Christ who was crucified. Amen.” [John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith IV.28].

Testimonies From Sacred Tradition

The Church has received the sign of the Cross in the anointing with holy Chrism, and calls it the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit, imprinting it on the forehead and on the breast and on the back and on the hands and on the feet with the holy Chrism through the priest who performs the mystery, chanting “the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

The sign of the Cross is in use in the holy Eucharist. The Church has received and preserves inviolably the imprinting of the Cross upon the offerings destined for the celebration of the mystery of the divine Eucharist, and imprints the Cross upon the holy bread by means of the holy lance. The sign of the Cross is imprinted many times during the divine Eucharist by the hand of the priest. We find the sign of the Cross in ordination and in all the mysteries and in blessing. The sign of the Cross in the anointing of the baptized with the holy myrrh the Church calls the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Revelation there is mention of a seal in chapter 7:3–4 and 9:4, and 14:1, and the interpreters have understood this seal as indicating the sign of the Cross of the Lord, because the sign of the Cross is the seal of the Lord by which His own are known from strangers, and the trophy against the devil.

Saint Ambrose says, “We have the sign of the Cross on our forehead, on our heart, and on our hands; on the forehead, because we must always confess Jesus Christ; on the heart, because we ought always to love Him; on the hands because we ought always to work for the divine law (in the Life of Isaac).”

Saint Ambrose, defending against the pagans who thought that Christians worship the Cross on which He died (“id colunt quod merentur”), says that it is not the Cross—the wood—that Christians worship, but Christ who suffered on the Cross. “Christ who hung on the wood… not the wood” (On the Death of Theodosius XLV). Ambrose lived around the years 380–397; the making of the precious Cross out of wood and its veneration in honor took place before the emperor Constantine the Great.

The Christians of the first centuries represented the crucifixion of the Savior Christ through symbolic monograms. Archaeologists date these monograms to the first century, at the same time when the faithful in Antioch were called Christians there, long before the reign of Constantine the Great. Rossi holds a different opinion, saying: “Although many writers and likewise many scholars wrote in 1855 (Ordo officii solesmense, II p. 552), I must confess that to this day I have not encountered any Christian monument, more or less authentic, that proves in a certain manner that the monograms existed engraved or painted before the revelation of Constantine the Great.” Constantine. This opinion of the learned writer, even if it is considered accurate, testifies that such symbols have not been preserved, not that such symbols did not exist, because many Latin and Greek Fathers who flourished during the first centuries, the second and third, speak about symbols.[1]

[1] Translator’s note: “Greek Fathers”: Ἕλληνες Πατέρες rendered as “Greek” in this context to denote language and cultural tradition, not “pagan”.

Concerning the Appearance of the Sign of the Precious Cross in the Sky to Constantine the Great

The historian Eusebius, in his Life of Constantine the Great, relates that Constantine, “having carefully considered that he needed help greater than military strength on account of the malicious and magical devices practiced by the tyrant (Maxentius), sought God as his helper. … He reasoned that those who had trusted in a multitude of gods had fallen into many disasters, … whereas his ancestral God had already given clear and abundant proofs of His power to Constantine’s own father, (while those who had trusted in a multitude of gods had suffered a shameful end).” Gathering all these things together in his mind, he judged that he ought to honor only the God of his father.

So he called upon Him in prayers, beseeching and imploring Him to reveal Himself—who He was—and to stretch out His right hand in the matters that lay before him. While the emperor was praying and earnestly entreating these things, a most extraordinary divine sign appeared—one that perhaps would not have been easy for anyone else to accept, but since the victorious emperor himself declared it to us who are recounting this account many years later, when we were deemed worthy of his acquaintance and conversation, and confirmed the account with oaths, who could doubt and not believe the narrative? especially since the time that followed bore true witness to the account.

Around the midday hours of the sun, when the day was already declining, he said that he saw with his own eyes in the very sky, above the sun, a trophy of the Cross composed of light, and an inscription was joined to it saying, “By this conquer.” Amazement at the vision seized both him and the entire army, which was accompanying him as he was setting out on a journey somewhere and became a witness of the wonder (I.31 and 32). And in Chapter 29: And indeed he said he was perplexed within himself as to what the vision might be. While he was pondering and reasoning about it for a long time, night came upon him. Then, while he was sleeping, the Christ of God appeared to him with the sign that had appeared in the sky, and commanded him to make a copy of the sign that had appeared in the sky and to use it as a protection against the assaults of his enemies.

And in Chapter 31, Section 1: The construction of the same sign of the Cross. At daybreak he rose and disclosed the mystery to his friends. Then, summoning craftsmen skilled in gold and precious stones, he sat down among them and described the appearance of the sign, commanding them to reproduce it in gold and precious stones. This we ourselves once had the privilege of seeing with our own eyes.

Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40

“He commanded them to erect a tall statue holding in its own hand a spear in the form of a cross in a public place in Rome, and to engrave on it this very inscription in the Roman language: By this saving sign, the true proof of courage, I have delivered and liberated our city from the yoke of tyranny; moreover, I have liberated the Senate and the Roman people and restored them to their ancient glory and splendor.”

Concerning the events after the defeat and overthrow of Maxentius, the same historian Eusebius recounts in his Ecclesiastical History 9.9 that “having hymned in deeds the all-sovereign God who was the cause of his victory, he entered Rome in triumph, while all together—infants and women alike, those from the senatorial council and the other most distinguished persons, along with the entire Roman populace—received him with joyful eyes and with their very souls, as a deliverer, Savior, and benefactor, with acclamations and insatiable joy. But he, as one possessing piety toward God by nature, in no way shaken by the shouts nor lifted up by the praises, being fully conscious of the help from God, immediately commanded that the saving trophy of the Passion be set up beneath the hand of his own statue. And so they set him up holding the saving sign of the Cross in his right hand in the most public place in Rome, and he commanded that this very inscription be set in these very words in the Roman tongue: ‘By this saving sign, the true proof of valor, I freed our city, delivered from the yoke of the tyrant; moreover, I also liberated the senate and the Roman people and restored them to their ancient glory and splendor.’” (Compare also Lactantius, book 9, chapter 9, concerning Constantine about to fight against Maxentius.) The historian Socrates, recounting the same miracle in his Ecclesiastical History 1.1, says: “About the midday hours of the sun, when the day was already declining, he saw in the heaven a pillar of light in the form of a cross, on which were letters saying, ‘In this, conquer’” (Compare Zosimus, Ecclesiastical History 1.1.3.4.8).

And the historian Cedrenus says: “The Precious Cross appeared to him at the sixth hour of the day, having an inscription fashioned from light through stars: ‘In this, conquer.’” Zonaras says: “A cross-shaped figure appeared to him in the sky at midday through stars, and an inscription around the Cross in Roman letters also formed by stars and reading, ‘In this conquer’” (vol. 3, 8. Cf. also “Life of the Holy Fathers Antros and Athanasios in Photios,” reading 256 = Pomponius Laetus on Constantine the Great, ser. 1408).

The historian Nikephoros, in his Ecclesiastical History, book 7, chapter 30, says: “And again a cross appeared, fixed by stars in the sky, and an inscription in a circle around it proclaimed these words: ‘By this sign you will conquer all your enemies.’” The historian Philostorgius, recounting the conversion of Constantine the Great to Christianity, says: “He records that the cause of Constantine’s change from the Hellenic religion to Christianity was the victory over Maxentius, during which the sign of the cross was seen extending for a very great length toward the east, with a dazzling radiance taking shape and stars running around it in a circle, like a rainbow, and arranging themselves into the form of letters, which in the Roman tongue said, ‘In this conquer.’” [Philostorgius. Eccl. Hist. I. 6. Cf. Niceph. Callist. Eccl. History VIII. 3.

Just as the sign of the Precious Cross once appeared resplendent in the sky to Constantine the Great, so also it will appear again with all glory at the second coming of the Lord to all the faithful and as a rebuke even to the lawless themselves, according to what is written: “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear, coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30). Interpreting this passage, Saint John Chrysostom says: “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven”; That is, the Cross, which is brighter than the sun. (Likewise in Homily 83, vol. 5, p. 161 of the Eton edition, and 160, a homily in the same volume, p. 767).

Theophylact, interpreting the same passage, says: “The Cross will then be seen in heaven, shining brighter than the sun, to convict the Jews. For as one who possesses the greatest vindication, the Lord comes against the Jews bearing the Cross, just as someone who has been struck with a stone might display the stone. He calls the Cross a sign, like a trophy and royal standard.”

Eusebius in his Life of Constantine the Great (Book 3, chapter 49) writes the following concerning the sign of the Precious Cross and the depiction of images of scenes taken from the Holy Scriptures.

“You would have seen, fashioned on the midst of flocks in relief, the symbols of the Good Shepherd, a contemplation for those who draw from the divine oracles. And Daniel with the lions, fashioned in bronze and gleaming with plates of gold. So great was the divine love that had taken hold of the Emperor’s soul that in the palace of the imperial residence, in the most excellent hall of all, in the very center of the gilded coffered ceiling of the roof, with a very large panel spread out, he had set the symbol of the saving Passion, composed of various and costly stones worked in much gold. This seemed to the God-beloved emperor to have been made as a safeguard of his own reign.”

The symbol of salvation, the Cross, called by Clement of Alexandria (Stromata 6.11) the Lord’s sign, was honored from ancient times among Christians in a certain pre-eminent manner. Forming the sign of the Cross with their hand, Christians signed themselves both in the morning and in the evening, and before every sacred rite and sacred action (Cf. Tertulliani Apologet. c. 16, and Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit §27). In the preceding chapters 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29, Eusebius speaks about the discovery of the holy tomb of the Savior Christ and about the order of Constantine the Great for the erection of a house of prayer worthy of God around the saving cave, at lavish and imperial expense.

Theodoret, after the letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius of Jerusalem, which Eusebius records in chapters 47 and 44 of the history of the life of Constantine the Great, records the discovery of the Precious Cross by Saint Helen and the text of the letters of Constantine the Great to both Macarius and Dracilianus.

The Second Appearance in Heaven of the Sign of the Cross

On the seventh of May we celebrate the commemoration of the sign of the Precious Cross that appeared in heaven during the reign of Emperor Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, and of Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem. In the Synaxarion for May 7 we read the following. “In the sacred days of holy Pentecost, on the seventh of May at the third hour of the day, the Precious and life-giving Cross, composed of brilliant light surpassing all brightness, stretched out above holy Golgotha as far as the holy Mount of Olives, and by the splendor of its radiance eclipsed the rays of the sun. Therefore every age, young and old, together with infants and nursing children, filled the Church and in ineffable joy and divine compunction offered up glory and thanksgiving to God for this wondrous sight.”

Concerning this sight the historian Philostorgius records the following: “Constantius then became master of the tyrant (Magnentius), and there the sign of the Cross appeared in the greatest magnitude and outshone the light of day with most astonishing brilliance. It was seen over Jerusalem at about the third hour of the day as the feast called Pentecost was beginning. That divinely inscribed figure, extending visibly from the place called the Skull all the way to the Mount of Olives, was encircled on all sides by a great rainbow like a crown. The rainbow clearly signified the favor of the One who was crucified and taken up, and the crown signified the emperor’s victory. That radiant and awe-inspiring spectacle was not invisible even to those in the army, but was clearly seen, and it threw Magnentius and his followers—who were devoted to the worship of demons—into helpless terror, while it raised Constantius and those with him to invincible courage.” (Philostorgius, Book III, § 26).

Concerning the Discovery of the Precious Cross by the Blessed Saint Helen

Certain modern scholars who seek to deny every truth handed down to the Church express doubts even about the discovery of the precious Cross by Saint Helen, inferring this from the supposed silence of the historian Eusebius, who allegedly says nothing about the discovery of the precious Cross in his Life of Constantine the Great, whereas other contemporary historians speak at length about the discovery of the precious Cross. But imperial decrees, preserved to this day in various sacred monasteries, confirm the authenticity of the precious wood of the precious Cross of the Savior, and the very fragments of the precious wood—distinguished by their miraculous power—refute the baseless hypotheses of the modernists. Thus, according to the unanimous testimony of the ancient historians, whose passages we cite below, the most pious mother of Constantine the Great, Saint Helen, desiring to visit the sacred places where the Savior had lived, arrived around A.D. 326 in Jerusalem. Her first concern was the search for the tomb of the Savior. But the pagans, moved by envy toward the Christians who honored the tomb of the Savior in a special way, had long since filled it in. And in order to completely erase its memory, they built a temple of Aphrodite on the hill thus formed, in which was the tomb of the Savior, and set up idols in it. When this became known to the empress mother, the temple of the idols was demolished at her command, and the idols were removed from there. When the earth had been removed, the life-giving tomb was uncovered, and three crosses were found within it. Since it was difficult to distinguish the Cross of the Savior from those of the thieves, Macarius, who was then bishop of Jerusalem, brought each of the three crosses that had been found to a woman who was suffering from a fatal illness. And when the first two were placed on her in vain, as soon as the third touched the body of the dying woman, she was immediately restored and became well. In this way, then, the Lord’s Cross was found and identified. The empress mother divided it into two parts: one she wrapped in a silver case and deposited in Jerusalem, and the other she sent to her son the emperor for the imperial capital.

The silence of one historian who confined himself to narrating only those things pertaining to the life of Constantine the Great, and who wrote in detail, cannot be regarded as negative testimony and sufficient. Eusebius not only passed over this in silence, but also reports the events of Saint Helen’s stay in Jerusalem in a very abbreviated and condensed manner, with many other details omitted by others as well. For this reason it is neither just nor reasonable for anyone to use these as a measure for gauging the truth and to pronounce against the correctness and truth of events so ancient and possessing such catholic authority from the beginning, attested by history through a series of notable historical events confirmed by the state and the Church and witnessed by countless miracles.

But apart from this rational argument, contemporary history refutes those who contradict it.

And (a) The discovery of the precious Cross is confirmed by the letters of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, and to the prefect Dracilianus (Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, ch. 6).

Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple

“Constantine the Conqueror, Most Great, Augustus, to Macarius.” So great is the grace of our Savior that no supply of words seems worthy of the present wonder. For the sign of the most holy Passion, long hidden beneath the earth and concealed for so many cycles of years until it was destined to shine forth upon his servants once they had been set free through the destruction of the common enemy of all, truly surpasses all astonishment. For if all those who seem to be wise throughout the whole world were to come together into one and the same place and wished to say something worthy of this event, they would not be able to do so even to the slightest degree. To such an extent does the faith of this wonder surpass every nature capable of human reasoning, inasmuch as heavenly things are established to be more powerful than human things. Therefore this is always both my first and only aim: that just as the faith of truth displays itself daily in ever more glorious wonders, so also the souls of all of us may become more earnest concerning the holy law in chastity and unanimous zeal. Since I consider this to be clear to everyone, I especially want you to be convinced that above all things I am concerned that we should adorn with the beauty of buildings that sacred place which, by God’s command, I relieved of the most shameful addition of an idol lying upon it like a burden—a place holy from the beginning by God’s decree, and shown to be even holier since it brought to light the faith of the saving Passion. It is fitting, therefore, that your shrewdness should so arrange and provide for each of the necessities that not only should a basilica be built superior to those everywhere else, but also that the other elements should be such that all the most beautiful things in every city are surpassed by this building. And concerning the raising and embellishment of the walls, know that the responsibility has been entrusted by us to Dracilianus, our friend who governs a portion of the most illustrious prefects, and to the governor of the province.

Theodoret copied this letter from chapters 30 and 31 of the history “On the Life of Constantine the Great” by Eusebius.

Cyril of Jerusalem, who was nearly contemporary with Eusebius (342–386), testifies explicitly both concerning the discovery of the Precious Cross in the time of Constantine the Great and concerning its existence in his own days in Jerusalem. In Catechesis 13 he says: “This Golgotha, near which we are all now present, convicts me; the wood of the Cross, which from here has been gradually distributed to the whole world, convicts me.”

And the historian Socrates, himself a contemporary (380), says in his Ecclesiastical History (book 1, ch. 17): “The emperor’s mother, Helen, … having been instructed as if by dreams, came to Jerusalem, and finding the city that had once been Jerusalem deserted like a watchman’s hut in an orchard, according to the prophet, she eagerly sought out the tomb of Christ, where He had been buried and rose again; and with difficulty, yet with God’s help, she found it. I will state briefly what was the cause of the difficulty. Those who held the mind of Christ honored the place after the time of the Passion; but those who hated the things of Christ, having learned of the place, built over it a temple of Aphrodite and set up a statue there, making no remembrance of the place. This had long been the state of affairs, but it was made known to the emperor’s mother. So she tore down the idol, filled in the place, and cleared it, and found three crosses in the tomb: one the blessed Cross on which Christ was stretched out, and the other two on which the two crucified thieves had died; and with them was also found the inscription of Pilate, in which he proclaimed the crucified Christ as King of the Jews, writing it in different languages. But since the Cross that was sought was uncertain, no small grief gripped the emperor’s mother. But before long the bishop of Jerusalem, whose name was Macarius, put an end to her grief; and he resolved the uncertainty by faith, for he asked God for a sign and received it. Now the sign was this. A certain woman of the local inhabitants, seized by a chronic illness, was now at the very point of death. The bishop therefore arranged for each of the crosses to be brought to the dying woman, believing that the woman would be restored to health by touching the Precious Cross. And his hope was not disappointed. For when the two crosses that were not the Lord’s were brought near, the woman remained no less at the point of death. But when the third, the Lord’s Cross, was brought near, the dying woman was immediately restored to health and was among the living. This, then, is how the wood of the Cross was found. The emperor’s mother built a magnificent house of prayer at the site of the tomb and named it the New Jerusalem, setting it over against that old and forsaken one. She enclosed part of the Cross in a silver case and left it there as a memorial for those who wished to view it; the other part she sent to the emperor, who received it and, believing that the city in which it was kept would be perfectly preserved, concealed it within his own statue.” [… Constantine also took the nails which had been driven through the hands of Christ on the Cross—for his mother had found these too in the tomb and sent them to him—and, making them into bridles and a helmet, he used them in his wars …]

The accuracy of this account, as we have said, some of the more recent writers have wished to call into question. Gelasius was the first to dispute it, for the sole reason that the historian Eusebius, who wrote the life of Constantine the Great, makes no mention of the

Cross, and Hermias Sozomenus in his Ecclesiastical History, book 2, chapter 1, writes concerning the finding of the life-giving Cross and the holy nails, saying: “The matters at Nicaea came to an end at this point. Each of the priests returned home. The emperor rejoiced exceedingly, seeing the universal Church in agreement concerning the doctrine. Offering thanksgiving to God for the harmony of the bishops, and for himself and his children and the kingdom, he thought it necessary to build a house of prayer to God in Jerusalem, at the place called Golgotha. Around the same time, his mother Helen came to Jerusalem both to pray and to visit the sacred places there. Being devoutly disposed toward the doctrine of the Christians, she made it her great concern to find the wood of the venerable Cross. But the discovery of neither this nor the divine tomb was easy. For the pagans who had formerly persecuted the Church, eager to cut off the religion by every device while it was still growing, had buried the place in the earth with much rubble and raised it to a height, though it was originally deeper, as now appears. Enclosing all around the entire area of the Anastasis and of the skull, they adorned it and paved the surface with stone. They built a temple of Aphrodite and set up a statue, so that those who came there to venerate Christ would seem to be worshiping Aphrodite, and that in time the true reason for the veneration of the place would fall into oblivion, with Christians no longer daring to visit it or to reveal it to others, and on the contrary the pagan temple and the statue being believed in. Yet the place became known and the error that had been contrived concerning it was discovered—according to some, through the disclosure of a Hebrew man, one of those dwelling in the East, from a paternal writing; but as it is more true to understand, through God revealing it by signs and dreams. For I do not think that divine things need disclosure from human beings, whenever they are to be made known by God. Then, at the command of the Emperor, when the place there had been cleared to a depth, the cave of the Resurrection appeared in one part. And elsewhere near the same place three crosses were found, and separately another piece of wood in the form of a tablet with letters in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, declaring Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And these things, as the sacred book of the Gospels records, happened thus: it was fastened above the head of Christ, Pilate having ordered this, who was then governor of Judea, but the identification of the divine Cross still remained uncertain; for the inscription itself had disintegrated and been torn apart, and because of the three crosses being scattered about indiscriminately, the order of the inscription had been confused in the placement of the crucified bodies. So while the divine wood was still uncertain and required a revelation more divine than human, something like this happened: there was a certain woman in Jerusalem, one of the prominent citizens, suffering from a most severe and incurable disease; Macarius, the bishop of Jerusalem, came to her as she lay there, bringing with him the emperor’s mother and her attendants, and having first prayed and appointed a sign for those watching—that the divine Cross would be the one which, when placed upon her, would free the woman from her disease—he brought each of the pieces of wood and applied them to her. But when the two were placed upon her there was nothing—indeed, what was happening seemed to be mockery and ridicule, since the woman was at death’s door; But when the third piece of wood was likewise brought near, she suddenly regained her sight, and gathering her strength, immediately leapt up from her bed in good health. It is also said that a dead person was brought back to life in the same way. Of the wondrous wood that was found, the greater part is kept in a silver reliquary in Jerusalem even to this day. But the Empress sent a portion to Constantine her son.[1] And also the nails with which the body of Christ had been pierced. From these nails, it is related, the emperor fashioned a helmet and a horse’s bridle according to the prophecy of Zechariah. And it is foretold concerning the present time: ‘What is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty’ (Zechariah 14:20); for the Prophet speaks in these very words. These things were known long ago and foretold by the holy prophets, but in later times they were confirmed through miraculous works, when at the time that seemed good to God they were made manifest. And this is nothing so wonderful, seeing that even the Greeks themselves acknowledge this to be from the Sibyl. O blessed wood, upon which God was stretched out! For even one who strives to be opposed to this could not deny it. The wood of the Cross, therefore, and the reverence surrounding it, were foretold.” (See also Nicephorus Callistus, Ecclesiastical History, books 8 and 9.)

Theodoret recounts the following concerning the finding of the Precious Cross in chapter 17 of his Ecclesiastical History.

[1] Translator’s note: “her son”: παῖδα rendered in familial context; alt. “servant”.

Concerning Helen, the Emperor’s Mother, and Her Zeal for the Building of the Holy Temple

These letters were carried out by none other than the emperor’s own mother, that woman of noble children, hymned by all the pious, who bore this great luminary and provided him with the nourishment of piety. She endured the labors of the journey and did not reckon the sufferings of old age; For she made this journey shortly before her death, and reached the end of her life at the age of eighty. When she saw that place which had received the sufferings of our common salvation, she immediately ordered that foul temple to be demolished and the earth to be carried away. When the hidden tomb was revealed, three crosses were seen buried beside the Lord’s tomb. And that one of these was the Cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, while the other two belonged to the robbers crucified with Him, everyone believed without question. Yet they did not know which one had touched the Lord’s body and received the stream of His precious blood. But that most wise and truly divine Macarius, the bishop of the city, resolved the difficulty by the following means. For when a distinguished woman was held by a long illness, he eagerly brought each of those crosses to her with prayer, and he recognized the power of the saving Cross. For immediately, when he brought it near to the woman, he drove out that terrible illness and restored the woman to health. So when the emperor’s mother learned what she desired, she set some of the nails into the imperial helmet, providing for her son’s head, so that it might ward off the missiles of enemies. And she mixed the others into the horse’s bridle, both devising security for the emperor and fulfilling an ancient prophecy. For from afar the prophet Zechariah cried out, And what is on the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty. And she assigned a portion of the saving Cross to the imperial palace. As for the rest, she made a reliquary of silver and gave it to the bishop of the city, commanding him to preserve for future generations these memorials of salvation. Gathering together craftsmen of every kind of material from all quarters, she built those magnificent and most splendid churches. I have considered it quite superfluous to describe their beauty and size, since practically all who love God flock there and behold
the magnificence of the works. That most renowned and unforgettable empress also did another thing worthy of remembrance. For she gathered together all those who were reputed to have preserved their virginity throughout life and had them recline on many couches, while she herself fulfilled the role of a servant, waiting on them and setting out food and offering cups and drying a basin over a cauldron and pouring water over their hands. Having done these things and others like them, she returned to her son. With joy she departed to the other life, having given her son many instructions concerning the godly way of life and having poured out upon him her final blessings. “She, then, has received even after her death such honor as it is fitting for one who so diligently and fervently served the God of all to receive.”

Concerning the Miracle That Occurred in Apamea Through the Precious and Life-giving Wood of the Cross by Evagrius

Evagrius recounts in his ecclesiastical history as follows: “Since we have reached this point in the history, I will also relate the miracle that occurred here, which has proved worthy of the present history. When the servants learned that Antioch was being set on fire by the Apameans, they begged the bishop Thomas to bring forth and present the life-giving and saving wood of the Cross beyond the customary time, so that they might see it for the last time and kiss it—the only salvation of mankind—and might receive as provision for the other life the precious Cross escorting them to the better end. Thomas, having done this, brought forth the life-giving wood. So my parents came along with the others, bringing me as I attended an elementary teacher. When we were deemed worthy to venerate and kiss the Precious Cross, Thomas raised both hands and displayed the wood of the Cross, the means of erasing the ancient curse, moving all around the divine sanctuary, as was customary in the solemn processions of veneration. And as Thomas moved about, there followed a great mass of fire, flashing but not burning, so that the whole space where he stood and displayed the Precious Cross seemed to be ablaze. And this happened not once, not twice, but many times, as the priest went around the whole space there, and the assembled people entreated Thomas to do this, which also prophesied the salvation that came to the people of Apamea. An image was therefore set up on the ceiling of the sanctuary, proclaiming these things in painting to those who did not know, which was preserved until the invasion of Adaarmanes and the Persians.” (Vol. 4, Series 29).

Concerning the Divine Power Dwelling in the Precious Wood of the Cross

Concerning the precious wood of the Cross, the historian Procopius says the following, recounting the events of the campaign of Chosroes, king of the Persians, against Apamea: There is a piece of wood from the Cross about a cubit long in Apamea, on which Christ is acknowledged to have once endured His Passion in Jerusalem; it was brought here secretly in ancient times by a Syrian man.[1] The people of old, believing it would be a great protection for themselves and for the city, made a wooden casket for it and deposited it there. Every year they bring it out and venerate it publicly on a single day. So then the people of Apamea, when they learned that the army of the Medes was marching against them, fell into great fear. Hearing that Chosroes would show no mercy, they came to Thomas, the high priest of the city, and begged him to show them the wood of the Cross, so that they might venerate it one last time before they died. And he did so. Then a spectacle beyond word and faith came to pass there. For the priest carried the wood and displayed it, and above it a radiance of fire was borne along, and the part of the ceiling directly above it shone with much light beyond what was usual. And as the priest walked throughout the church, the radiance accompanied him everywhere, always keeping to the space of the ceiling above him. So the people of Apamea were amazed and rejoiced and wept at the delight of the miracle, and all now had confidence concerning their salvation.

Such, then, is the account of the miracle that occurred at the manifestation of the precious wood of the precious Cross, which gave the people of Apamea confidence concerning their salvation. Concerning the fulfillment of the expectation of the people of Apamea, he says the following: “I think he would not have hesitated to enslave and plunder the whole city as well, had not something divine manifestly prevented him.”

(Procopius, On the Persian War, Book 2, p. 390–1, Bonn edition).

Gelasius of Cyzicus calls the Cross the mighty grace of God, from which time it has flourished among mankind both in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in plants, in wood and in garments, in sickness and in health, in food and in drink, having become, becoming, and destined to become an antidote and a cure; and those who have experienced it know, and we ourselves shall learn in due time as the narrative proceeds. [de santa Cruce Jacobi Gretseri 363].

[1] Translator’s note: “His Passion” renders the Greek “τὴν πάλασιν” (a rare variant of πάλη, “struggle, contest”); used by Procopius as a metonym for Christ’s suffering on the Cross.

The Inscription Borne by the Cross of Shirin, Consort of Chosroes King of the Persians, Which She Wore (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 6, Chapter 21)

Christ bore you on His shoulders before the divine wood; you bore Him nailed fast, and I bear you in my longing for both. Guard me, you also, by the strength from both. (copied from the work of Jacobi Gretsiri p. 427).

John of Damascus in his work On the Orthodox Faith. Book 4 of Faith, chapter 12, pages 805–806, says: “The Precious Cross of Christ is more wonderful than all things; for through nothing else has death been abolished, the sin of the forefather been loosed, Hades been plundered, the Resurrection been granted, the power to despise present things and death itself been given to us, the return to our ancient blessedness been accomplished, the gates of paradise been opened, our nature seated at the right hand of God, and we become heirs of God, except through the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross

The feast of the finding of the Precious Cross, which was established in the Church from the time of Saint Helen, bears witness to the historical truth of the finding of the Precious Cross. The Church celebrated the feast of the finding of the Precious Cross on March 6, as appears written in the records. On the same day there was also a commemoration of the finding of the precious nails, and on that day (6 March) the feast of the Exaltation and veneration of the precious Cross was also celebrated, because the Exaltation followed immediately after its finding. This took place so that all the people might see the Cross of the Lord and venerate it, which Macarius, the bishop of Jerusalem, raised up and displayed, having ascended to a high place. Today the Church simply has this feast recorded in the commemorations and makes mention of it on that day, but without celebrating a feast and festival. The reason why the feast of the finding of the precious Cross on 6 March ceased to be celebrated as a festival today is, as we have ascertained, the following:

Because 6 March falls on the third Sunday of the Lenten season when Pascha falls on 3 April, the holy Fathers, who ordered all things well, deemed it good that the feast of the finding of the precious Cross should always be celebrated magnificently on that Sunday, so that it might strengthen those who are contending in the contest of virtue during the long course of the fast of Great Lent, according to the commentator of the Triodion; that is, there is, in a sense, a transfer of the feast even in those years when 6 March does not fall on the third Sunday of the Lenten season. Something similar happens in the feasts of Gregory Palamas, John of the Ladder, and Mary of Egypt for the same purpose, namely that each Lord’s day of the Fasts might display a brilliant example of virtue for the encouragement and strengthening of Christians who are struggling. For this reason I believe that the feast of the Veneration of the Cross is the feast of the Finding; and for this reason the feast of the Finding ceased to be celebrated any longer. But since the holy Fathers did nothing arbitrarily they neither did nor were able arbitrarily to transfer the feast of the Finding to another day, for this reason we believe that the feast of the Finding is the same as the feast of the Veneration of the Cross.

This is supported also by the absence of troparia and canons in the feast of the Finding on March 6, and by the fact that the canons and troparia found in the feast of the Veneration of the Cross appear to go back to much earlier times and are adapted to the Finding of the Precious Cross.

An example, among other things, is the following: “Today there is joy in heaven and on earth, because the sign of the Cross is manifested to the world, this thrice-blessed Cross; for when it is set forth, it pours out eternal grace to those who venerate it.” The feast of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross, celebrated on 14 September, is a second Exaltation that took place under Patriarch Zacharias in the time of Heraclius. It was established for the following reason: Chosroes, the leader of the Persians, having conquered Palestine and Jerusalem, led many Christians captive to Persia, among whom was also Patriarch Zacharias, whom he had held captive for fourteen whole years. At the same time he seized and carried off with him the precious wood of the Precious Cross. Emperor Heraclius marched against Chosroes and defeated him. He freed the Patriarch and those taken captive with him from captivity, and the wood of the Cross. Now before the Emperor set out from Constantinople, he ordered that a supplication be made to God throughout the whole city, which the Patriarch celebrated with all the clergy, and at which the Emperor was present, attending all night long, along with the multitude of Christians; and they prayed for the victory of the emperor and his armies, and for the liberation of the precious wood and the captives. After the glorious victory over the Persians and the liberation of the Cross and the captives, the emperor, offering a tribute of thanksgiving to God, ordered that the commemoration of the second Exaltation of the Precious Cross in Jerusalem, which took place after their return from the war, be celebrated annually. This second Exaltation took place under Zacharias in Jerusalem, and from there it spread throughout the whole empire and is celebrated to this day. In the Calendarium utriusque ecclesiae of Nicolaus Nilles (Oeniponte, 1897), p. 228, we read the following.

“Even if perhaps from the year 320, when the life-giving Cross was found by Saint Helen, the saving wood was publicly set forth in festival by the bishop and, as the Imperial Menologion says, was established for Exaltation, nevertheless the present feast had its origin properly in Jerusalem on the 14th of September 335, which was the day after on which the consecration of the martyrium of the Resurrection took place, when, that is, the Holy Cross, with all the bishops present assisting, was solemnly raised up and shown to the people from the ambo, for the consecration of perpetual veneration. Hence the Paschal chronicle further calls the aforementioned consecration ‘the dedication of the church of the holy Cross of the manifestation’, which is today’s feast.”

The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, celebrated annually on this day, later acquired greater splendor because of the commemoration of the great victory of Heraclius over the Persians in the year 626 and the recovery of the Precious Cross and its deposition in Jerusalem.

The feast of the Finding and first Exaltation of the Precious Cross, that is, the feast of the Veneration of the Cross, was formerly known only among the Easterners and for about three centuries was celebrated only in the Eastern regions. From the time of Heraclius, however, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross became universal throughout all the churches of the East. At the same time it was embraced by Pope Honorius and spread throughout all the Churches of the West.

The Procession of the Precious Cross

The Church has received and celebrates on the first of August the procession of the Precious and life-giving Cross. The Jerusalem Typikon prescribes that on the same day, after the Doxology, the procession of the Precious Cross is to be performed according to the order of the third Sunday of the Fasts. Among the Byzantines this litany was called the “proexeleusis”.[1] Concerning the ceremony of the procession of the Precious and life-giving Cross, Constantine Porphyrogennetos, in his exposition of the imperial order, in the chapter “what must be observed on the first day of the month of August, when the Precious and life-giving Cross goes forth,” describes the order of this ceremony in full detail, and says that “seven days beforehand the Precious Cross must go forth from the treasury of the Great Palace” and “…anointed with balsam, it is set forth in the Church for the veneration of all.” And on the first of the month of July it begins to go about and sanctify every place and every house of this God-protected and imperial city. But indeed, so that the very walls—as indeed the city itself and everything around it—may be filled with grace and sanctification, this continues until the thirteenth of August. For on the thirteenth of the same month it enters the sacred Palace and is placed upon the cloth that stands in the golden hall.[2] And immediately the Cross is taken up again by the Papias and censed by the protopapas of Daphne and the diakonoi, and it goes around sanctifying both the bedchambers and the entire palace. And then in this way it is deposited in the oratory of Saint Theodore. And in the morning, when Orthros is being sung—at the third or even the sixth ode— after being wiped by both the protopapas and the keeper of the vessels, it is deposited in the sacred sacristy. This ceremony was called the Procession because, after the veneration of the Precious Cross, as Porphyrogennetos describes, a litany took place throughout the city in which the Precious Cross was carried in front. This feast was instituted under Manuel Palaiologos in 1174. That the Precious and Life-giving Cross was the very cross made of precious wood and kept in the treasury is clear from the entire preceding narrative.

[1] Translator’s note: “proexeleusis”: προεξέλευσις retained; a technical term for the solemn procession.

[2] Translator’s note: “cloth”: σέντζου rendered as a liturgical cloth or covering; alt. “veil”.

Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves

The size of the Precious Cross was in length 13 feet, and in width 8 feet (see p. 50 of the newly printed Trophy of the Orthodox Faith). Chrysostom says that the thickness of both the upright and the crossbeam of the precious Cross was one span. “Consider also the figure of the Cross: the figure of the wood had a perimeter of one span; the height of the Cross was the measure of a foot.” (“Discourse on ‘How He Saw Letters Without Having Learned Them’”. Vol. 5.)

Concerning the nails of the precious Cross, we know that Saint Helen brought with her the nails with which the Jews nailed Christ to the Cross to Constantinople, a most worthy gift to her son; of these, Constantine placed one in the bridle of his horse according to the oracle of the prophet Zechariah which says: “In that day what is on the bridles of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty” (Zech. 14:20). The second he carried on his helmet; The third, the divine Ambrose says, Saint Helen, while crossing the Adriatic Sea and being endangered by a violent storm, cast into the sea and there was a calm. Dositheos of Jerusalem, however, judges this to be unbelievable, because Saint Helen’s journey did not take place through the Adriatic Sea on her return from Jerusalem to Constantinople. It appears that there were three nails, two that fastened the hands of the Savior, and one that fastened his two feet together, one upon the other (p. 103 of the Twelve Books of Dositheos). But Paisios of Gaza says that the common tradition reports four nails; two that fastened the hands and two that fastened the feet of the Savior.

Finally, concerning the two crosses of the thieves, the historians report that these too were brought to Constantinople and placed beneath the porphyry column in the Forum, as was the alabaster jar of myrrh with which the Lord was anointed. Later, the nails of the Cross were placed in the column of Constantine (Bonn ed. p. 1152; Dositheos, Patriarch of Jerusalem).[1]

[1] Translator’s note: “Bonn ed.”: the abbreviation is reconstructed from the 1914 Greek source’s “Βοα σελ. 1152”, taken to refer to the Bonn corpus edition (Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae). The companion attribution to Dositheos of Jerusalem is given without a work title in the source; Dositheos wrote several relevant works (notably the Δωδεκάβιβλος, “Twelve Books”) and the specific work intended here has not been verified.

Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross

Concerning the power of the precious Cross, Gregory the Theologian says about Julian that he “descended into one of the inner sanctuaries, inaccessible and fearful to the many, and there accompanied him one deemed worthy of many inner sanctuaries, one who shared in such things—that is, the initiate in the magician’s art. For this too is a form of divination for them, to consort in some darkness and with subterranean demons concerning things to come—whether because they rejoice more in darkness [since they are also darkness, and creators of the darkness of vice], or because they flee the company of the godly on earth and are weaker because of them. But as the noble Julian advanced, terrors assailed him—ever more numerous and more fearful, they say: strange sounds and the smells of the sacrifices and fiery apparitions, and I know not what other disturbances and nonsense. Struck by the unexpected (for he was a late learner in such things), he fled to the cross and the ancient remedy, and with this he signed himself against the terrors, and made the persecuted Christ his helper—and what follows is even more dreadful. The seal has prevailed, the demons are defeated, fears are loosed. What then? the evil revives, grows bold again, once more an assault [of the demons] and the same terrors, and the seal again, and the demons fall quiet, and the initiate is perplexed, and the initiator nearby expounding the truth; we were disgusted,” he says, “we were not afraid. The worse is conquered. For he says these things, and having spoken he persuades, and having persuaded he leads the disciple to the pit of destruction…” [Gregory the Theologian, First Invective Against Julian the Emperor].

The historian Theodoret of Cyrus says in his Ecclesiastical History, book III, chapter 1: “Julian, as he ought not to have done, desired the imperial sceptres. For this reason he travelled throughout Greece seeking diviners and oracle-mongers, longing to learn whether he would obtain what he desired. He encountered a man who promised to foretell these things, and this man led him into one of the idolatrous shrines, brought him inside the inner sanctum, and summoned the deceitful demons. When they appeared with their customary phantasm, fear compelled Julian to place the sign of the Cross on his forehead. But when the demons saw the figure of the Lord’s trophy and were reminded of their own defeat, they immediately vanished. That sorcerer, understanding the cause of their flight, reproached Julian. Julian both revealed his fear and declared that he marveled at the power of the Cross; for the demons fled, unable to bear the sight of this figure. ‘Do not suppose this, good sir,’ the sorcerer said; ‘for they did not flee, but rather, loathing what came from you, they departed because of what you did’; thus deceiving the wretched man, he initiated him and filled him with hatred; and the desire for the kingdom stripped the thrice-wretched man of piety.”

The power of the precious Cross is likewise attested by the most ancient holy Fathers of the Church. Thus the divine and holy Chrysostom says: “The Cross is the trophy over the demons, the sword against sin; the sword with which Christ pierced the serpent. The Cross is the will of the Father, the glory of the Only-begotten, the joy of the Spirit; the adornment of the angels, the security of the Church, the boast of Paul, the wall of the saints, the light of the whole world” [Chrysostom, Homily 81, vol. 5; cf. also Suidas λδ΄, vol. 5, 818, 211, Eton edition 1612]. “The Cross is the sum of our salvation; the Cross is the foundation of countless blessings. Through this we who were formerly dishonored and cast out have now been received into the rank of sons; through this we are no longer led astray, but have come to know the truth; through this we who formerly venerated wood and stones have now come to know the Creator of all things; through this we who were servants of sin have been brought up into the freedom of righteousness; Through this the earth has now become heaven. This freed us from error, this led us by the hand to the truth, this brought about the reconciliation of God with humanity, this drew us up from the abyss of vice and raised us to the very summit of virtue, this extinguished the error of demons, this overthrew deceit.” [Chrysostom, Homily 83, vol. 5, p. 671].

Saint Athanasius, recounting the life of the great Antony, says the following concerning the power of the precious Cross: “Indeed, after these things, when certain people came again (these were among those considered wise by the pagans) and demanded from him an account of our faith in Christ, and when they attempted to reason about the proclamation of the divine Cross and wished to mock it— Antony waited a little and first pitied them for their ignorance, and spoke through an interpreter who translated his words well. … Behold, there are present here those who are suffering under demons. Now some people who were troubled by demons came to him, and bringing them into the midst, he said: Either you cleanse them by your reasonings and whatever art you wish, or by magic, calling upon your idols, or, if you cannot, lay down your battle against us and you will see the power of the Cross of Christ. And having said these things, he called upon Christ, and sealed those who were suffering with the sign of the Cross a second and third time; and immediately the people stood whole and in their right mind, and they gave thanks to the Lord.

“And the so-called philosophers marveled, and were truly astonished at the man’s understanding and at the sign that had taken place. But Antony said: Why do you marvel at these things? We are not the ones doing these things, but it is Christ who does such things through those who believe in Him.” [Vol. II, p. 496, Paris edition].

Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross

The Cross of Christ is to be honored for two reasons.

First: because on it Christ the Lord shed His precious blood and died, and saved us, according to the divine Apostle who says: “For the word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”. Gregory of Nyssa likewise says, in Volume 2, Against Eunomius, Discourse 13: “God forbid that I should boast of anything else, except in the Cross of Christ.” And to the Corinthians he says: that the word of the Cross is the power of God to those who are being saved, and to the Ephesians he describes the power that governs and holds all things together by the figure of the Cross: in which he wishes them, having been exalted, to know the surpassing glory of this power, height, and depth, and breadth and length, naming each beam of those contemplated in the figure of the cross by its own proper name, so as to call the upper part “height,” and the part lying beneath at the intersection “depth,” and the transverse beam on either side he designated by the name of “length and breadth”; so that through this the great mystery might be made manifest. For the heavenly and the subterranean, and all the ends of existing things, are held together and sustained by the one who has manifested this ineffable and great power in the figure of the Cross.

Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second

That it has been given to us as a weapon against the devil, and has received power to drive away evil spirits. As Cyril of Jerusalem says in Catechesis 13: “Let us not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ, but even if another hides it, you openly seal yourself on your forehead, so that the demons, seeing the royal sign, may flee far away trembling. Make this sign when eating, drinking, sitting, lying down, rising up, speaking, walking—in short, in every action. For the one crucified here is above in the heavens. For if, having been crucified and buried, He had remained in the tomb, we would have had reason to be ashamed; but now He who was crucified on this Golgotha has ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives to the east; the Father addressing Him and saying, ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’” And in Catechesis 13: “Let us not be ashamed, then, to confess the Crucified One. Let the seal be made boldly with our fingers on our forehead, and let the Cross be made over all things; over bread being eaten and over cups being drunk; in comings in and goings out, before sleep when lying down and when rising, when traveling and when at rest. Great is this protection, a gift for the poor, without labor for the weak; for the grace is from God. A sign of the faithful, and the fear of demons. For He triumphed over them in it, making a public spectacle of them. For when they see the Cross, they are reminded of the Crucified One; they fear the one who crushed the heads of the Dragon.” And John Chrysostom: Volume 9, On the Statues;[1] Homily 11: When you are about to cross the threshold of the gate, speak this word first. I renounce you, satan, and your pomp, and your worship, and I pledge myself to you, Christ. And never go out without this declaration. This will be your staff, this your weapon, this your unconquerable wall. And together with this declaration, trace the Cross on your forehead. For in this way not only will no human being who meets you be able to harm you, but not even the devil himself will be able to harm you when he sees you appearing everywhere with these weapons.

And Isidore of Pelusium, Book 4, Letter 2, to Dorotheus. It is right to call the glorious Cross the support and glory not only of earth but also of heaven. For it upheld all creation, bestowing joy upon the heavenly beings and freedom upon those on earth, and joining together what had been separated.

One must form the Precious and life-giving Cross for oneself with the three large and first fingers of the right hand placed together in sequence. These must be placed first upon the forehead (joined together) and one says, In the name of the Father, then bring the hand down (with the fingers still joined together) to the navel, and say, “and of the Son,” then bring it a little above the right breast, and say, “and of the Holy Spirit.” Then likewise to the left; and say the Amen. Or when making the sign of the Cross, each of us can say: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

We should form the Cross upon ourselves in this way: when we place our hand on our forehead, we show that the Word of God the Father, who is in heaven, came down into the womb of the ever-virgin Mary, and became flesh and became a human being for our sake, and was crucified and buried and rose again (the descent of the hand to the navel signifies this), and was taken up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father, and will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead (the raising of the hand likewise to the left signifies this). The seal of the Cross is the symbol of the confession of faith in Christ.

[1] Translator’s note: “Volume 9, On the Statues”: τόμῳ θ΄ εἰς τοὺς ἀνδριάντας refers to a work division in the corpus of Chrysostom.

From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas

Not only the word of the Cross and the mystery, but also the figure itself is divine and worthy of veneration, being a sacred and revered seal, sanctifying and perfecting the supernatural and ineffable blessings promised to the human race in God, destroying curse and condemnation, overthrowing corruption and death, bestowing eternal life and blessing, a saving tree, a royal sceptre, a divine trophy against visible and invisible enemies—even if the children of heretics rave senselessly. For they did not attain the apostolic prayer, that they might be strong to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth. For the Cross of the Lord reveals the entire oikonomia of his parousia in the flesh, and contains within it every mystery according to it, and extends to all the ends, and encompasses all things—the things above, the things below, the things around, the things in between. But putting forward some pretext by which they too ought to venerate it with us, if they had any sense, they reject the symbol of the King of glory, which the Lord himself clearly calls both his reproach and his glory when he is about to ascend upon it. And concerning his coming parousia and manifestation, he proclaims beforehand that this sign of the Son of Man will come with power and great glory. But they say that Christ was nailed to it and died, and for this reason we cannot even bear to look at the form and the wood on which he was put to death. But the handwriting against us, which came upon us through disobedience at the tree, when the forefather’s hand was stretched out—to what was it nailed? And through what was it removed from our midst and destroyed, so that we returned to the blessing from God? And by what did Christ strip off the principalities and authorities of the spirits of evil, which gained a foothold against our nature from the tree of disobedience, and utterly cast them away, and triumphing over them put them to shame, so that we received our freedom? By what has the dividing wall of the barrier been destroyed, and the enmity against our God been abolished and put to death? And through what were we reconciled to God and received the good news of peace with him? Was it not on the Cross and through the Cross? Let them hear the words of the Apostle, who writes to the Ephesians: Christ is our peace, who has broken down the dividing wall of the barrier, so that He might create the two in Himself into one new human being, making peace, and reconcile both in one body to God through the Cross, having put to death the enmity in it. And to the Colossians: “When we were dead in our trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh, He made us alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting against us in the decrees, which was opposed to us, and He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the Cross, and having disarmed the principalities and the authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

Let us therefore honor it. Shall we not make use of this divine trophy of the common freedom of our race, which by its mere appearance puts to flight and triumphs over and shames the Evil-Plotting Serpent, proclaiming his defeat and ruin, while it glorifies and magnifies Christ, revealing His victory to the world? And yet if the Cross is to be despised because Christ endured death on it, then death itself will not be venerable and salvific. How then, according to the Apostle, were we baptized into His death? And how shall we share in His Resurrection, if we have not been united with Him in the likeness of His death? Otherwise, if someone were to venerate the form of a Cross that did not bear the Lord’s name inscribed upon it, he would justly be accused of acting improperly. And since at the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and since the Cross bears this venerable name, would it not be the height of madness to refuse to bend the knee to the Cross of Christ?[1] But let us bow our hearts together with our knees, and come, let us worship along with the psalmist and Prophet David at the place where His feet stood, where the hands that hold all things together were stretched out, and where for our sake the life-giving body was extended. And as we venerate it in faith and embrace it, let us draw and preserve in abundance the sanctification that flows from it, so that at the most glorious coming of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, when we behold it going before Him, we may rejoice and leap for joy in glory, unassailably,[2] attaining the standing at the right hand, and the promised blessed voice and blessing, to the glory of the Son of God who was crucified in the flesh for us. For to Him belongs glory, together with His Father without beginning, and the all-holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

[1] Translator’s note: v7–v8: the Greek “ἐπιφέρει πάσης παραφροσύνης… κάμπτειν γόνυ τῷ Σταυρῷ τοῦ Χριστοῦ;” is syntactically elliptical (a predicate of refusal is implied between the noun “παραφροσύνης” and the infinitive “κάμπτειν”); rendered here as a continuous rhetorical question.

[2] Translator’s note: “unassailably” renders ἄληπτα: chosen for the adverbial sense “beyond reach of harm”; alt. “untouched by evil”.

Scripture Index

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Genesis

Genesis 2:93. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.3.3, 3.13.1)

Genesis 3:63. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.13.2)

Genesis 17:10–113. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.8.1)

Genesis 47:313. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.13.3)

Genesis 48:13–143. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.13.3)

Exodus

Exodus 12:233. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.8.4)

Exodus 14:16–283. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.13.4)

Exodus 15:253. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.13.6)

Exodus 17:63. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.13.6)

Exodus 17:113. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.13.5)

Exodus 25:103. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.5.4)

Exodus 34:13. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.5.4)

Numbers

Numbers 21:8–93. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.13.8)

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 6:82. Concerning the Veneration of the Faithful for the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and That it is an Apostolic Tradition to Mark Oneself With the Sign of the Cross and to Depict and Inscribe it Everywhere (2.2.11)

Deuteronomy 28:663. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.13.9)

Judges

Judges 6:36–409. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.4.12)

Psalms

Psalms 24:720. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.1.4)

Psalms 74:1419. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.1.18)

Psalms 95:620. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.2.9)

Psalms 110:119. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.1.8)

Psalms 132:73. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.9.4); 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.2.9)

Psalms 132:83. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.9.6)

Psalms 148:12–137. The Second Appearance in Heaven of the Sign of the Cross (7.1.4)

Isaiah

Isaiah 1:89. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.4.1)

Isaiah 65:23. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.14.1)

Jonah

Jonah 1:1516. Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves (16.2.4)

Zechariah

Zechariah 14:209. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.6.29, 9.6.30); 10. Concerning Helen, the Emperor’s Mother, and Her Zeal for the Building of the Holy Temple (10.1.13); 16. Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves (16.2.2)

Matthew

Matthew 9:20–229. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.4.15)

Matthew 24:283. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.11.2)

Matthew 24:303. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.10.2); 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.5.1, 6.5.2); 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.1.5)

Matthew 26:716. Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves (16.3.1)

Matthew 27:337. The Second Appearance in Heaven of the Sign of the Cross (7.2.3)

Matthew 27:3810. Concerning Helen, the Emperor’s Mother, and Her Zeal for the Building of the Holy Temple (10.1.6); 16. Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves (16.3.1)

Matthew 28:1919. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.3.2)

Mark

Mark 5:1517. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.4.7)

Mark 5:298. Concerning the Discovery of the Precious Cross by the Blessed Saint Helen (8.1.11)

Mark 16:63. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.10.3)

Mark 16:1919. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.4.1)

Luke

Luke 2:4717. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.5.1)

Luke 6:2320. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.2.10)

Luke 15:513. The Inscription Borne by the Cross of Shirin, Consort of Chosroes King of the Persians, Which She Wore (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 6, Chapter 21) (13.1.1)

Luke 18:1319. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.3.8)

Luke 22:2710. Concerning Helen, the Emperor’s Mother, and Her Zeal for the Building of the Holy Temple (10.2.3)

John

John 1:1419. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.4.1)

John 10:116. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.8.1)

John 12:312. Concerning the Veneration of the Faithful for the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and That it is an Apostolic Tradition to Mark Oneself With the Sign of the Cross and to Depict and Inscribe it Everywhere (2.2.5)

John 19:199. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.6.16)

John 19:209. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.6.16)

Acts

Acts 1:9–1219. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.1.6)

Acts 2:17. The Second Appearance in Heaven of the Sign of the Cross (7.2.2)

Acts 2:157. The Second Appearance in Heaven of the Sign of the Cross (7.2.2)

Acts 10:175. Concerning the Appearance of the Sign of the Precious Cross in the Sky to Constantine the Great (5.3.4)

Acts 11:264. Testimonies From Sacred Tradition (4.5.2)

Romans

Romans 1:1619. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.1.9)

Romans 6:33. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.7.5); 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.2.4)

Romans 6:520. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.2.5)

Romans 6:1817. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.3.12)

Romans 8:1713. The Inscription Borne by the Cross of Shirin, Consort of Chosroes King of the Persians, Which She Wore (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 6, Chapter 21) (13.2.4)

Romans 10:94. Testimonies From Sacred Tradition (4.3.2)

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1:182. Concerning the Veneration of the Faithful for the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and That it is an Apostolic Tradition to Mark Oneself With the Sign of the Cross and to Depict and Inscribe it Everywhere (2.1.2, 2.1.3); 3. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.7.1, 3.7.7); 18. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (18.2.3, 18.2.6); 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.1.1)

1 Corinthians 1:233. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.10.4)

1 Corinthians 1:243. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.7.5, 3.7.6)

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 5:18–1917. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.3.14)

2 Corinthians 5:213. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.13.8)

Galatians

Galatians 3:273. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.7.5)

Galatians 4:517. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.3.9)

Galatians 6:1418. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (18.2.4)

Ephesians

Ephesians 1:134. Testimonies From Sacred Tradition (4.2.5)

Ephesians 2:613. The Inscription Borne by the Cross of Shirin, Consort of Chosroes King of the Persians, Which She Wore (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 6, Chapter 21) (13.2.4)

Ephesians 2:14–1620. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.1.12)

Ephesians 2:1720. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.1.10)

Ephesians 3:183. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.7.7); 18. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (18.2.7); 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.1.2)

Ephesians 5:23. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.9.1)

Ephesians 5:817. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.1.2)

Philippians

Philippians 2:59. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.4.4)

Philippians 2:1018. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (18.2.9); 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.2.7)

Colossians

Colossians 1:2020. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.1.10)

Colossians 2:1420. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.1.7)

Colossians 2:1519. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.1.16); 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.2.2)

1 Timothy

1 Timothy 6:1214. Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14.2.1)

2 Timothy

2 Timothy 4:119. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.4.1)

Revelation

Revelation 4:37. The Second Appearance in Heaven of the Sign of the Cross (7.2.3)

Revelation 7:3–44. Testimonies From Sacred Tradition (4.2.6)

Persons and Places

Persons and places mentioned in this book, with short notes and back-links to every occurrence.

Persons

St Ambrose of Milan

Bishop of Milan (c. 339–397), one of the four traditional Latin Doctors of the Church. Wrote the De Obitu Theodosii. Mentor of St Augustine of Hippo. Feast day 7 December.

Mentioned in: 4. Testimonies From Sacred Tradition (4.3.1, 4.4.1, 4.4.3); 16. Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves (16.2.4).

St Antony the Great

Egyptian desert father (c. 251–356), founder of monastic eremitism. Feast day 17 January.

Mentioned in: 17. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.4.1, 17.4.2, 17.5.2).

St Athanasius the Great

Patriarch of Alexandria (c. 296–373), the leading defender of Nicene orthodoxy against Arianism, exiled five times. Author of the Life of Antony and On the Incarnation. Feast day 18 January and 2 May.

Mentioned in: 17. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.4.1).

St Basil the Great

Cappadocian Father (c. 330–379), Archbishop of Caesarea, monastic legislator and theologian; one of the Three Hierarchs. Author of the Longer and Shorter Rules and the Liturgy bearing his name. Feast day 1 January.

Mentioned in: 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.9.2).

Chosroes II

Sasanian king of Persia (r. 590–628), captured Jerusalem in 614 and carried off the True Cross. Defeated by Heraclius and overthrown by his son in 628.

Mentioned in: 12. Concerning the Divine Power Dwelling in the Precious Wood of the Cross (12.1.1, 12.1.5); 14. Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14.6.6, 14.6.9).

Christians

The collective designation for followers of Jesus Christ, used in early patristic literature to refer to the Christian community as distinct from pagan worshippers and Jews.

Mentioned in: 2. Concerning the Veneration of the Faithful for the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and That it is an Apostolic Tradition to Mark Oneself With the Sign of the Cross and to Depict and Inscribe it Everywhere (2.1.3, 2.5.1); 3. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.5.3, 3.5.5); 4. Testimonies From Sacred Tradition (4.4.1, 4.5.1, 4.5.3); 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.9.1, 6.9.2); 8. Concerning the Discovery of the Precious Cross by the Blessed Saint Helen (8.1.6); 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.6.6, 9.6.12); 14. Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14.2.3, 14.6.6, 14.6.11).

St Constantine the Great

Roman emperor (c. 272–337), the first Christian emperor; legalised Christianity by the Edict of Milan (313) and convoked the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea (325). Feast day 21 May (jointly with his mother Helena).

Mentioned in: 2. Concerning the Veneration of the Faithful for the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and That it is an Apostolic Tradition to Mark Oneself With the Sign of the Cross and to Depict and Inscribe it Everywhere (2.3.2, 2.4.1, 2.5.1); 4. Testimonies From Sacred Tradition (4.4.3, 4.5.2, 4.5.3, 4.5.4); 5. Concerning the Appearance of the Sign of the Precious Cross in the Sky to Constantine the Great (5.1.1); 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.4.2, 6.5.1, 6.7.1, 6.9.3, 6.10.1); 7. The Second Appearance in Heaven of the Sign of the Cross (7.1.1); 8. Concerning the Discovery of the Precious Cross by the Blessed Saint Helen (8.1.1, 8.1.3, 8.2.2, 8.4.1); 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.1.1, 9.2.1, 9.3.1, 9.4.23, 9.5.2, 9.6.27); 16. Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves (16.2.2, 16.3.2).

Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus

Byzantine emperor (905–959), author of the De Ceremoniis aulae byzantinae (Ἔκθεσις τῆς βασιλείου τάξεως), the principal source for Byzantine court ceremonial including the August procession of the True Cross.

Mentioned in: 15. The Procession of the Precious Cross (15.1.3, 15.1.11).

St Cyril of Jerusalem

Bishop of Jerusalem (c. 313–386), author of the Catechetical Lectures, a foundational text of Christian catechesis. Witness to the May 7, 351 appearance of the Cross over Jerusalem. Feast day 18 March.

Mentioned in: 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.3.1); 19. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.1.2).

Eusebius of Caesarea

Bishop of Caesarea (c. 260–339), often called the father of Church history. Author of the Ecclesiastical History (HE) and the Life of Constantine (Vita Constantini), the principal sources for the conversion of Constantine.

Mentioned in: 5. Concerning the Appearance of the Sign of the Precious Cross in the Sky to Constantine the Great (5.1.1); 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.2.1, 6.7.1, 6.9.3, 6.10.1); 8. Concerning the Discovery of the Precious Cross by the Blessed Saint Helen (8.1.1, 8.2.3); 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.2.1, 9.3.1, 9.5.2).

Evagrius Scholasticus

Sixth-century Antiochene ecclesiastical historian (c. 536–c. 600). His Ecclesiastical History covers 431–593 and is a principal source for the late patristic and early Byzantine East.

Mentioned in: 11. Concerning the Miracle That Occurred in Apamea Through the Precious and Life-giving Wood of the Cross by Evagrius (11.1.1).

Gelasius of Cyzicus

Fifth-century ecclesiastical historian, author of an Ecclesiastical History centred on the Council of Nicaea, partly extant.

Mentioned in: 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.5.2); 12. Concerning the Divine Power Dwelling in the Precious Wood of the Cross (12.4.1).

God the Father

The First Person of the Holy Trinity, unbegotten and the source (μοναρχία) of the Son and the Spirit; addressed in the Lord’s Prayer and confessed in the opening clause of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.

Mentioned in: 19. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.4.1).

Greeks / Hellenes

The Greek-speaking pagan world, often used in early Christian literature to denote Gentiles or non-Christians. The term encompasses both ethnic Greeks and the broader Hellenistic culture that dominated the Roman Empire.

Mentioned in: 3. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.5.2); 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.6.33).

St Gregory the Theologian

One of the Three Hierarchs (c. 329–390), Archbishop of Constantinople, author of the Five Theological Orations and the Invectives Against Julian. Feast day 25 January.

Mentioned in: 17. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.1.1, 17.1.9).

St Gregory Palamas

Archbishop of Thessalonica (c. 1296–1359), the chief defender of hesychasm; his theology of the divine energies was endorsed by the Constantinopolitan synods of 1341, 1347, and 1351. Feast day 14 November and the Second Sunday of Great Lent.

Mentioned in: 14. Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14.2.3).

St Helena

Empress (c. 246–c. 330), mother of Constantine the Great. Traditionally credited with the discovery of the True Cross during her pilgrimage to Jerusalem c. 326. Feast day 21 May (jointly with her son).

Mentioned in: 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.10.1); 8. Concerning the Discovery of the Precious Cross by the Blessed Saint Helen (8.1.1, 8.1.3, 8.2.3); 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.4.1, 9.6.5); 14. Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14.1.1, 14.7.1); 16. Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves (16.2.1, 16.2.4, 16.2.5).

Emperor Heraclius

Byzantine emperor (c. 575–641, r. 610–641), recovered the True Cross from the Persians at Ctesiphon in 628 and restored it to Jerusalem; the second Exaltation of the Cross commemorates this restoration.

Mentioned in: 14. Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14.6.5, 14.6.9, 14.8.1, 14.9.2).

the Holy Spirit

The Third Person of the Holy Trinity, proceeding from the Father (John 15:26); confessed in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed as ‘the Lord, the Giver of Life’. The Holy Spirit anoints with chrism in baptism, indwells the Church, and is invoked at every Eucharist (the epiclesis).

Mentioned in: 4. Testimonies From Sacred Tradition (4.1.1); 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.9.2); 17. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.3.4); 19. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.3.4).

St Ignatius of Antioch

Bishop of Antioch and Apostolic Father (c. 35–c. 108), martyred in Rome; author of seven letters written en route to martyrdom, foundational texts on the Eucharist, episcopacy, and Christian unity. Also known as Theophoros (the God-bearer). Feast day 17 October (West) / 29 January (East).

Mentioned in: 2. Concerning the Veneration of the Faithful for the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and That it is an Apostolic Tradition to Mark Oneself With the Sign of the Cross and to Depict and Inscribe it Everywhere (2.2.4).

Jesus Christ

The incarnate Son of God, second Person of the Holy Trinity; his name forms the centre of the Jesus Prayer and of all Orthodox spiritual life.

Mentioned in: 3. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.7.3); 10. Concerning Helen, the Emperor’s Mother, and Her Zeal for the Building of the Holy Temple (10.1.6); 13. The Inscription Borne by the Cross of Shirin, Consort of Chosroes King of the Persians, Which She Wore (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 6, Chapter 21) (13.2.4); 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.2.10).

Jews

The Jewish people. In early Christian and patristic literature ‘οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι’ often denotes specifically the religious authorities who opposed Christ and the apostolic preaching (cf. the polemical use in the Gospel of John); the term is occasionally extended to the Jewish nation more broadly.

Mentioned in: 3. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.5.2); 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.6.1, 6.6.2); 16. Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves (16.2.1).

St John Chrysostom

Archbishop of Constantinople (c. 347–407), one of the most prolific homilists of the early Church; one of the Three Hierarchs. Exiled twice for challenging imperial corruption; died in exile. Feast day 13 November.

Mentioned in: 2. Concerning the Veneration of the Faithful for the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and That it is an Apostolic Tradition to Mark Oneself With the Sign of the Cross and to Depict and Inscribe it Everywhere (2.2.8, 2.2.17, 2.2.19); 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.5.2); 16. Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves (16.1.3); 17. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.3.2, 17.3.5, 17.3.15); 19. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.1.19).

St John of Damascus

Eighth-century Syrian theologian (c. 675–749), monk of Mar Saba. Author of the Exposition of the Orthodox Faith and the chief Iconodule theologian of the iconoclast controversy. Feast day 4 December.

Mentioned in: 3. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.6.1, 3.14.3); 13. The Inscription Borne by the Cross of Shirin, Consort of Chosroes King of the Persians, Which She Wore (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 6, Chapter 21) (13.2.1).

Julian the Apostate

Roman emperor (c. 331–363, r. 361–363), nephew of Constantine the Great. Renounced Christianity and attempted to restore Greco-Roman paganism. Killed in his Persian campaign. The principal target of Saint Gregory the Theologian’s two Invectives.

Mentioned in: 17. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.1.1, 17.1.3, 17.1.9, 17.2.1, 17.2.4, 17.2.6, 17.2.7).

St Macarius of Jerusalem

Bishop of Jerusalem (c. 312–334) at the time of the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Saint Helena’s discovery of the True Cross. Recipient of Constantine’s letter on the temple’s construction. Feast day 16 March.

Mentioned in: 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.10.1); 8. Concerning the Discovery of the Precious Cross by the Blessed Saint Helen (8.1.10, 8.4.1); 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.1.1, 9.4.11, 9.6.22); 10. Concerning Helen, the Emperor’s Mother, and Her Zeal for the Building of the Holy Temple (10.1.8); 14. Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14.1.4).

Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos

Fourteenth-century Byzantine historian (c. 1256–c. 1335), author of an 18-book Ecclesiastical History extending from the Apostles to 911.

Mentioned in: 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.6.37).

St Photios the Great

Patriarch of Constantinople (c. 810–893), one of the foremost Byzantine theologians and the central figure in the Photian schism with Rome. Feast day 6 February.

Mentioned in: 3. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.3.1, 3.3.4); 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.3.2).

Procopius of Caesarea

Sixth-century Greek historian of Justinian’s reign (c. 500–c. 565), author of the History of the Wars (cited here for the Persian War book treating Apamea and the True Cross relic).

Mentioned in: 12. Concerning the Divine Power Dwelling in the Precious Wood of the Cross (12.1.1, 12.3.1).

Socrates Scholasticus

Fifth-century Constantinopolitan ecclesiastical historian (c. 380–c. 439), author of an Ecclesiastical History continuing Eusebius down to 439.

Mentioned in: 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.2.5); 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.4.1).

Son of God

The Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, who became incarnate to unite humanity with divinity. A central christological title in Orthodox theology referring to Christ’s divine nature and eternal relationship with the Father.

Mentioned in: 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.2.12).

Theodoret of Cyrus

Bishop of Cyrus in Syria (c. 393–c. 458), Antiochene theologian and ecclesiastical historian. Wrote a continuation of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History.

Mentioned in: 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.10.1); 8. Concerning the Discovery of the Precious Cross by the Blessed Saint Helen (8.4.1); 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.2.1, 9.7.1); 17. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.2.1).

Theokletos I of Athens

Theokletos I Vimpos (1833–1916), Metropolitan of Athens 1902–1917 and President of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. Commissioned this study of the Precious Cross from Saint Nektarios.

Mentioned in: 1. To the Reader (1.1.1).

Theophylact of Ohrid

Byzantine archbishop of Ohrid (c. 1055–c. 1107), prolific commentator on the Bible and one of the most cited medieval Greek exegetes.

Mentioned in: 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.6.1).

Places

Antioch

Ancient city on the Orontes in Syria (modern Antakya, Turkey); seat of one of the five ancient patriarchates and the city where followers of Christ were first called ‘Christians’ (Acts 11:26).

Mentioned in: 11. Concerning the Miracle That Occurred in Apamea Through the Precious and Life-giving Wood of the Cross by Evagrius (11.1.2).

Jerusalem

The holy city of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim tradition; the place of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection; seat of one of the five ancient patriarchates.

Mentioned in: 3. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.4.1); 7. The Second Appearance in Heaven of the Sign of the Cross (7.1.1, 7.2.2); 8. Concerning the Discovery of the Precious Cross by the Blessed Saint Helen (8.1.3, 8.1.10, 8.1.12, 8.2.3, 8.4.1); 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.3.1, 9.4.1, 9.4.11, 9.4.20, 9.6.4, 9.6.5, 9.6.21, 9.6.22, 9.6.26); 12. Concerning the Divine Power Dwelling in the Precious Wood of the Cross (12.1.2); 14. Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14.1.4, 14.6.6, 14.6.11, 14.6.12, 14.7.3, 14.8.1); 15. The Procession of the Precious Cross (15.1.2); 16. Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves (16.2.5, 16.3.2).

Paradise

The Garden of Eden where God placed Adam and Eve before the Fall; in patristic theology also refers to the state of blessedness and communion with God, both original and eschatological.

Mentioned in: 3. Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers (3.7.3); 13. The Inscription Borne by the Cross of Shirin, Consort of Chosroes King of the Persians, Which She Wore (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 6, Chapter 21) (13.2.4).

Rome

Capital of the Roman Empire and seat of the ancient western patriarchate; site of the martyrdoms of Sts Peter and Paul and of Ignatius of Antioch.

Mentioned in: 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.1.1, 6.2.1, 6.2.3).

Glossary

Theological and spiritual terms used in this book, with short definitions and back-links to every occurrence.

apostolic tradition

The teaching and practice handed down from the apostles, preserved and transmitted in the Church. This concept is foundational to Orthodox ecclesiology, emphasizing continuity with apostolic faith and practice.

Occurs in: 2. Concerning the Veneration of the Faithful for the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and That it is an Apostolic Tradition to Mark Oneself With the Sign of the Cross and to Depict and Inscribe it Everywhere (2.2.1).

bishops and deacons

Greek ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos, ‘overseer’) and διάκονος (diakonos, ‘minister, servant’). The two settled, local offices of the early Church, attested already in the Pauline epistles (Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3) and in the Apostolic Fathers (Didache 15; Ignatius, To the Smyrnaeans 8); the bishop presides over the eucharistic assembly while the deacons assist in its celebration and in service to the community. In Orthodox ecclesiology these offices, together with the presbyterate, constitute the threefold apostolic ministry transmitted by the laying-on of hands.

Occurs in: 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.6.4); 14. Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14.7.6).

confession of sins

The act of acknowledging and confessing one’s transgressions before God and the community, required as preparation for worthy participation in the Eucharist so that the sacrifice may be pure.

Occurs in: 19. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.4.2).

disobedience

The act of disobedience to God’s command, particularly referring to the Fall of Adam and Eve; contrasted with obedience (ὑπακοή) and central to patristic discussions of sin and redemption.

Occurs in: 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.1.7, 20.1.9).

doxology

A short formula of praise glorifying God, typically appended to a prayer. The early Christian doxological formula ‘for yours is the power and the glory forever’ is attached to the Lord’s Prayer in the Didache (8:2) and to the post-Eucharistic thanksgiving (10:5); the trinitarian doxology ‘Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit’ became the standard ending of psalmody and prayer in the Byzantine liturgical tradition.

Occurs in: 15. The Procession of the Precious Cross (15.1.2).

Eucharist

Greek εὐχαριστία (eucharistia), ‘thanksgiving’. The central sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ; the apostolic-era extra-biblical writings (Didache 9–10; Ignatius, Eph. 20:2—‘medicine of immortality’) already use the word both for the rite itself and for the consecrated elements. In patristic and Orthodox theology the Eucharist is the fullest participation in Christ, in which the Church becomes what she is.

Occurs in: 4. Testimonies From Sacred Tradition (4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3).

Gospels

The four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) that proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. The ‘faith of the Gospels’ refers to the apostolic witness to Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

Occurs in: 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.6.17).

Lord’s Day

Greek Κυριακή (kyriakē), short for Κυριακὴ ἡμέρα (‘the Lord’s day’). Sunday, the weekly memorial of Christ’s resurrection and the day on which Christians gather for the Eucharist (Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10; Didache 14:1). The Lord’s Day is the earliest organising rhythm of Christian time, displacing the Jewish sabbath as the day of the assembly already in the apostolic period.

Occurs in: 14. Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (14.2.3).

mysteries

The hidden divine realities or secrets of creation and salvation. In this context, refers to the cosmic mysteries faithfully kept by the elements of creation under God’s governance.

Occurs in: 4. Testimonies From Sacred Tradition (4.2.4).

parousia

Greek παρουσία (parousia), ‘arrival, presence’. In secular Greek the word for the official arrival of a king or magistrate; in the New Testament and patristic literature it is the technical term for the Second Coming of Christ in glory at the end of the age (Matt. 24:3, 27, 37, 39; 1 Thess. 4:15; 2 Pet. 3:4).

Occurs in: 6. Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40 (6.5.1); 20. From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas (20.1.3, 20.1.5).

Prophets

The Old Testament prophets who spoke God’s word and foretold the coming of Christ. In patristic theology, the ‘grace of the prophets’ refers to their divinely inspired proclamation and their role in salvation history.

Occurs in: 9. Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple (9.6.31).

saints

The holy ones, the sanctified members of the Church. In early Christian usage, refers to all baptized believers who are set apart for God and participate in His holiness.

Occurs in: 17. Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross (17.3.5).

virgin

In patristic literature, often refers to the Virgin Mary or to the state of virginity as a spiritual ideal. In this context, contrasted with Eve’s corruption, likely alluding to Mary as the New Eve who is ‘believed’ or ‘trusted.’

Occurs in: 19. Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second (19.4.1).

Colophon

Historical Study Concerning the Precious Cross
by Saint Nektarios of Aegina.

This edition was produced by
Royal Archives.

The cover features
Cross in the Mountains (Tetschen Altar)
by Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774–1840), Wikimedia Commons, which is in the public domain.

The text is set in Palatino and Georgia. Polytonic Greek is set in SIL Gentium.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
August 16, 2026.

Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Copyright
- Introduction
- To the Reader

- Concerning the Veneration of the Faithful for the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, and That it is an Apostolic Tradition to Mark Oneself With the Sign of the Cross and to Depict and Inscribe it Everywhere

- Concerning the Precious Cross From the Sacred Canons and From the Holy Fathers

- Testimonies From Sacred Tradition

- Concerning the Appearance of the Sign of the Precious Cross in the Sky to Constantine the Great

- Concerning the Statue of Constantine Holding a Cross and the Inscription, Chapter 40

- The Second Appearance in Heaven of the Sign of the Cross

- Concerning the Discovery of the Precious Cross by the Blessed Saint Helen

- Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple

- Concerning Helen, the Emperor's Mother, and Her Zeal for the Building of the Holy Temple

- Concerning the Miracle That Occurred in Apamea Through the Precious and Life-giving Wood of the Cross by Evagrius

- Concerning the Divine Power Dwelling in the Precious Wood of the Cross

- The Inscription Borne by the Cross of Shirin, Consort of Chosroes King of the Persians, Which She Wore (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 6, Chapter 21)

- Concerning the Feast of the Finding and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross

- The Procession of the Precious Cross

- Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves

- Concerning the Power of the Precious Cross

- Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross

- Why We Should Honor the Precious Cross (Continued): Second

- From the Homilies of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, Palamas

- Scripture Index
- Persons and Places
- Glossary
- Colophon