THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS September 14, 2025

It is easy, when you live in a country which is at least Christian in its cultural roots, to take the sign of the Cross for granted.

     Most of us see several crosses per day, on the top of or outside churches, in our homes, in a school or even an office. If we visit a non-Christian country, or a place with no religious symbolism to be seen, then the absence can become disconcerting and even alarming.

     The liturgical celebration of today’s feast goes back, in essence to the Empress Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine. She set off in the year 326 on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and where the Empress went on pilgrimage, no relics were likely to remain undiscovered for long.

     In Jerusalem, according to tradition, she found the True Cross in a cave deep beneath the hill of Calvary, together with three nails and the superscription, Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Judaeorum – Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews – in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. The basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, raised by order of Constantine, was built above this cave.

     Helena returned to Rome with the nails and with the title or superscription and installed them in the chapel of her palace. If you visit the Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome, a little way from Saint John Lateran, you can venerate these relics, together with a relic of the true Cross. Recent scholarly investigation of the title has actually confirmed its authenticity as a first century item and made the tradition seem firmer.                                                           ~ Fr. Paul Dobson.