Episcopal Church Calendar – Sept. 14th, Holy Cross Day
Early in the fourth century St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jersusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. She razed the second-century Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb, and her son built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher over the tomb. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman. The cross immediately became an object of veneration. At a Good Friday celebration in Jerusalem toward the end of the fourth century, according to an eyewitness, the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered placed above Jesus’ head: Then “all the people pass through one by one; all of them bow down, touching the cross and the inscription, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes; and, after kissing the cross, they move on.” To this day the Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox alike, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica’s dedication. The feast entered the Western calendar in the seventh centruy after Emperoro Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperoro intended to carry the cross ack into Jerusalem himself, but swas unable to move forward until he took off ihis imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.