𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐎F 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎F 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐎F 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎F 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒
https://saintmichaelusa.org/0914-holy-cross/
𝟏𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZsOAZhR80j0
Early in the fourth century, Saint Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem 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 on that spot. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. 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 century after Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross from the Persians, who had carried it off in 614, 15 years earlier. According to the story, the emperor intended to carry the cross back into Jerusalem himself, but was unable to move forward until he took off his imperial garb and became a barefoot pilgrim.