The Holy Church celebrate the Feast of Exaltation of the Cross, which is also known by other names 'Elevation of the Cross', 'Feast of the Triumph of the Cross', on September 14, as commemoration of the finding out, in A.D. 326, of the Wood of the Holy Cross on which our Savior Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and its recovery from the Persians in A.D. 628.

It will be very appropriate for us to think about the spiritual meaning of the cross and the importance of the cross in our life. What does the cross represent? The Cross is a synonym of every crisis or adversity which we face in view of love to God, or for the care for our neighbors, for the Kingdom of God in general. Our Lord urged us to bear this Cross or burden and said: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross and follow Me" [Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34] And He said to the rich young man: "Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, .... And come, take up the cross, and follow me." [Mark 10:21] So the Cross is a privilege and obligation of each Christian. Lord Jesus made the bearing of the Cross as a pre-condition for the discipleship to Him. St. Paul affirmed saying, "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Gal. 6:14)

Till when Lord Jesus sanctified it by His Blood, the Cross served as an instrument of shameful punishment, which arouse fear and disgust among people. Biblically, the history of crucifixion or hanging on the wood can be traced back to the Egyptians (Genesis 40:19) and the Persians (Esther 7:10). If we look back to the secular history of cross and crucifixion, the capital punishment by crucifixion was employed in ancient times in many countries like Persia, Egypt, Assyria, Greece etc. It is believed that the captured sea rovers were crucified in the port of Athens in the 7th century B.C. The first recorded crucifixion was about 519 BC when Darius I, king of Persia, crucified 3,000 political opponents in Babylon. Alexander the Great introduced the practice throughout his empire especially to kill the revolted generals of his army. After the conquest of Tyre, he had crucified two thousand Tyrians as punishment for their resistance.

Romans exercised the mode of crucifixion for slaves, rebels and most despised enemies and criminals. Therefore crucifixion was considered a most shameful and disgraceful way to die at the time of Jesus Christ. Condemned Roman citizens and feudal nobles were usually exempted from crucifixion and given more honorable modes like decapitation. The historian Josephus, contemporary of Jesus, tells a story of the Romans crucifying people along the walls of Jerusalem. Tertullian, an early Christian apologist, mentions a first-century A.D. case in which trees were used for crucifixion in Carthage. Mass crucifixions were recorded during the slave rebellion under Spartacus [Gladiator War], Roman Civil wars and Great Jewish Revolt, which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 A.D.

The intention of Roman crucifixion was not just to kill the criminal, but also to mutilate the body to rot on the cross and condemn it for grave dishonor by preventing its burial. The convict usually had to carry the heavy horizontal beam to the place of execution. It was considered an ignominious way to die. The condemned was usually stripped naked and all his personals were robbed. Emperor Constantine, the first Emperor to receive a Christian baptism, abolished crucifixion in the Roman Empire at the end of his reign.

Crucifixion was forbidden for capital punishment under ancient Jewish Law. It allowed four methods of execution: stoning, burning, strangulation, and decapitation. As per the Deuteronomy 21:22-23, those who are hanged on the tree are considered as 'cursed'. "You must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance" [Deuteronomy 21:23]. If the Jews used this manner for punishment, it was usually done after the death. The dead body or the head of the corpse was tied to a stake and placed on a pole for exhibition.

By His crucifixion on the Cross, Lord Jesus, confirmed that Christ was made a "Curse" for us. Becoming self a 'Curse', He redeemed us from the curse of sin. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Christians honor the Holy Cross by which Christ redeemed the world. This is a holy day of fasting and repentance. It is a time for our re-dedication to keep the constant witness to live with the cross as the very content of our life in this world. This is the supreme demand for the discipleship of Jesus Christ. If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Mark 8:34).

The early centuries of Christianity was under the dark cloud emerged out of persecutions and torments directed against the faithful by the then society and rulers. Their hard lives of agony and tortures in the catacombs and caves en-signed themselves with the real extensive burden of the cross. It was only during early fourth century the waves of persecutions directed against Christians died down and the believers could breath fearlessly and sense the power of the cross in the reign of Constantine the Great. Experiencing the marvelous power of the Cross for victory, the Emperor put his efforts to dig out the powerful real cross on Calvary. With the determination of his pious aged mother Helen, he could accomplish to search out the cross of salvation.

After the imperial collapse of the united Roman Empire due to the Military Anarchy, Emperor Diocletian divided the Empire into an eastern and western half. The Western Empire faced a gradual decline by barbarian invasions and the rule of Rome in the West came to an end in A.D. 476 with the abdication of the last Emperor Romulus Augustus. However, on May 11, 330, Emperor Constantine I firmly established old Greek town Byzantium as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and renamed it Constantinople as new Rome. His son, Emperor Saint Constantine the Great, ruled an ever-growing portion of the Roman Empire till his death.

Flavius Valerius Constantinus, who became the Emperor Constantine the Great, was born on Feb. 27, 280 A. D., in Naissus, in the province of Serbia, to Helena and a Roman military officer named Constantius who later became the Emperor Constantine I. After a defeat in the war he sought Divine assistance to rely for protection and victory. Constantine had experienced a vision of those words on a Christian cross in A.D. 312 before the battle Milvian Bridge. Being struck with amazement at the extraordinary vision he sent for those who were acquainted with the mysteries of His doctrines, and enquired who that God was, and what was intended by the sign of the vision he had seen. They affirmed that He was God, the only begotten Son of the one and only God: that the sign which had appeared was the symbol of immortality, and the trophy of that victory over death which He had gained in time past when sojourning on earth. The Emperor was impressed with wonder at the divine manifestation; he determined thenceforth to devote himself to the reading of the Inspired Writings. He became victorious in the battle with the sign of cross and pledged himself to become disciple of Christ. This led to his conversion to Christianity, ultimately. The Fourth Century Ecclesiastical Historian, Easabius of Nicea, reported in his book that the emperor constantly made use of this sign of salvation as a safeguard against every adverse and hostile power, and commanded that cross mark should be carried at the head of all his armies.

The Vision of Cross and faith of Constantine in Jesus had significant far-reaching impact for the growth of Christianity and in its subsequent history. Emperor Constantine raised Christianity to the status of a 'permitted religion.' His unofficial sponsorship of Christianity was a major factor for the spread of faith. With the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313, Constantine and his co-Emperor Licinius Augustus washed away all blots from Christianity. They granted religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire and ordered the restitution of property confiscated from Christians. He took a personal interest in matters of Christian doctrine, setting a precedent for future emperors, and organized the first Ecumenical Council of the Church at Nicaea in A.D. 325. Accepted Christian historians, Lactantius and Eusebius promulgated the reputation of Constantine as, the first Christian Emperor and it paved the ground for ecclesiastical education for the succeeding generations. Constantine died in 22 May, 337 A.D. at Nicomedia, shortly after his baptism by Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia.

Helena (Flavia Iulia Helena), mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, was born in the Roman province of Bithynia. She was married to Flavius Valerius Constantius, father of Constantine. Her son Emperor Constantine honored her by giving the surname "Augusta", meaning queen. Helen took upon herself the sacred task of finding the Cross of Calvary at her age of eighty years. She traveled all the way to Jerusalem to discover exactly where the Cross of the Lord was hidden. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ the tomb of Jesus was covered with rocks and all sorts of refuse. A temple to Aphrodite had been raised up and idols of Venus was placed by the Emperor Hadrian upon Golgotha, to defile and cover with oblivion the place in order to weaken the respect of the early Christians towards the holy places. The traditions say that a certain old Jew, Judas by name, on the basis of written family traditions, knew exactly where the Cross of Christ was hidden. He led the Empress Helen and Patriarch Macarius to Golgotha and pointed out the spot of the crosses. The cross was found out on September 14, probably in the year of 326 A.D. It was a difficult task for Helen to identify the real cross of Jesus out of the three crosses excavated. At the inspiration of Saint Macarius, Archbishop of Jerusalem, a lady of Jerusalem, who was already at the point of death from a certain disease, was brought to touch the crosses, and as soon as she came near to the Cross of our Lord, she was made perfectly whole.

The next day, in a solemn ceremony, the precious Cross was lifted on high by Archbishop Macarius of Jerusalem and the faithful were shown the cross that the Empress Helen had discovered. Archbishop Macarius stood on the ambo, and when the people beheld it, they cried out, "Lord have mercy." [Kyrie eleison] A portion of the cross and nails were carried to Constantinople to his son as a blessing. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was then built at the site of the discovery, by order of Helena and Constantine. The church was dedicated nine years later, with a portion of the cross placed inside it. She built another Church on the Mount of Olives at the place of the Ascension of the Savior. She also commenced the construction of the Church of Resurrection. She built a church on the name of the martyr Saint Lucianos in the town Drepanum where she was born which his son called Helenpolis in her honor.

Helen died probably in 330 A.D. at the age of 84 years. She wrote her testament to her son the Emperor and to her grandsons the Caesars advocating them firm in the life of faith in Jesus. Later she is canonized as a Saint and she is known as Saint Helena Augusta.

The Holy Cross was preserved in Jerusalem in the magnificent church built by Saint Helen, until the year 614. In the year 614 A.D. the Persian King Khosroes Shah captured Jerusalem and took away the Holy Cross along with other treasures of Jerusalem. After 15 years when the Persians were defeated, the Cross was returned. In A.D. 628, Emperor Heraclius set out on a military campaign and retrieved the Cross. He brought the Holy Cross to Constantinople; himself escorted it back to Jerusalem, where he restored it in its original place. An old tradition describe that Emperor Heraclius decided to carry the Cross himself from the Mount of Olives to the Church of the Resurrection. At the gates of Golgotha, some invisible force stopped him and the more he tried the stronger was the power that held him back. It was then revealed to the Patriarch in a vision that it was not right for the Emperor to go in such majesty and brilliance where the Savior Himself, carried His own Cross and went in such poverty and humiliation. Further the Emperor divested himself of his footwear and extravagant raiment, dressed in simple clothing and took the Cross upon his own back without any hindrance. This event is believed to happen on 14 September of the year 629 A.D. Later this Cross was taken apart in particles to Churches and individuals around the world.

Cross is the symbol of victory for the modern world. Though the cross is scarred with pain and suffering, it is solid in its strength. Though it is soaked with the tears of mourners, it is defiant in its’ power. Cross is joy of salvation and freedom of liberation. Cross is the life of Christian everywhere and always.

Testimony of St. Paul about the Holy Cross:
I have been crucified with Crist; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. [Galatians 2:20]

Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [Galatians 5:24]

But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Chrsit by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. [Galatians 6:14]

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are persihing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of the God. [1 Corintians 1:18]

Our old man was crucified with Jesus. [Roman 6:6]