The Invention of the Holy Cross

Today is the Feast of the Invention, or the Finding, of the True Cross by St Helena, Mother of Constantine the Great (St Constantin Equal-to-the-Apostles in the East).

St Helena, finding the True Cross

Today is the Feast of the Invention, or the Finding, of the True Cross by St Helena, Mother of Constantine the Great. Constantine is venerated in the East as isapóstolos, 'Equal to the Apostles' because he converted the Empire to Christianity.

Prior to the reforms of Pope John XXIII, today was kept as a Double of the Second Class. Most Second Class Doubles were reduced to Feasts of the Second Class, but the Invention was reduced to a Fourth Class Feast, I assume, in an attempt to eliminate duplication, since the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is kept on 14 September.

The heresiarch, John Calvin, said that 'if all the pieces (of the True Cross) that could be found were collected together, they would make a big ship-load'. He lied, of course, as he lied in so many things under the influence of his master, the Father of Lies. Most relics of the True Cross are mere slivers of wood. Given the size that the Cross of the Crucifixion must have been, it is obvious that much of it has been lost in the ensuing 1700 years since Its Finding.

In 1980, I was privileged to venerate one relic at the Shrine of the Holy Infant of Prague, in Prague, Oklahoma. It was a very moving experience, which I recall every Good Friday at the Veneration of the Cross.

I carry a Pardon Cross in my pocket, and I frequently venerate it saying, 'We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee, for by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.'

Here is the Hymn from Matins,

Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle
Sing the last, the dread affray;
O'er the cross, the victor's trophy,
Sound the high triumphal lay:
Tell how Christ, the world's Redeemer,
As a victim won the day.

God, his Maker, sorely grieving
That the first-made Adam fell,
When he ate the fruit of sorrow,
Whose reward was death and hell,
Noted then this wood, the ruin
Of the ancient wood to quell.

For the work of our salvation
Needs would have his order so,
And the multiform deceiver's
Art by art would overthrow,
And from thence would bring the med'cine
Whence the insult of the foe.

Wherefore, when the sacred fullness
Of the appointed time was come, 
This world's Maker left his Father,
Sent the heav'nly mansion from, 
And proceeded, God Incarnate, 
Of the Virgin's holy womb.

Weeps the infant in the manger
That in Bethlehem's stable stands;
And his limbs the Virgin Mother
Doth compose in swaddling bands,
Meetly thus in linen folding
Of her God the feet and hands.

To the Trinity be glory
Everlasting, as is meet;
Equal to the Father, equal
To the Son, and Paraclete:
Trinal Unity, whose praises
All created things repeat.
Amen.

Here is the Collect for the Feast,

O God, Who didst cause that the Cross of our salvation should in most honourable wise be found again, and Who didst manifest thereby the marvellous efficacy of thy sufferings, mercifully grant that by the Ransom which Thou didst pay upon that tree of life we may finally attain unto life eternal.
Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.
R. Amen

And here is the 'Legend', the fourth, fifth, and sixth readings from Matins for today in the older Breviary,

After that famous victory which the Emperor Constantine gained over Maxentius, on the eve of which the banner of the Cross of the Lord had been given to him from heaven, Helen, the mother of Constantine, being warned in a dream, came to Jerusalem, to seek for the Cross. There it was her care to cause to be overthrown the marble statue of Venus, which had stood on Calvary for about one hundred and eighty years, and which had originally been put there to desecrate and destroy the memorial of the sufferings of the Lord Christ. The like work Helen did at Bethlehem, by cleansing from an image of Adonis the stable where the Saviour was born, and from an idol of Jupiter, the place where He had arisen from the dead.

Then she had thus cleansed the place where the Cross had stood, Helen caused deep excavations to be made, which resulted in the discovery of three crosses, and, apart from them, the writing which had been nailed on that of the Lord. But which of the crosses had been His was unknown, and was only manifested by a miracle. Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, after offering solemn prayers to God, touched with each of the three a woman who was afflicted with a grievous disease. The two first had no effect, but at the touch of the third she was immediately healed.

Helen, after she had found the life-giving Cross, built over the site of the Passion a Church of extraordinary splendour, wherein she deposited part of the Cross, shut up in a silver case. Another part which she gave to her son, Constantine, was laid up in the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, which he built at Rome on the site of the Sessorian Palace. She also gave to her son the nails with which the Most Holy Body of Jesus Christ had been pierced. Constantine established a law abolishing the punishment of crucifixion for all time coming and thenceforth what had hitherto been a hissing and a curse among men, began to be esteemed worshipful and glorious.