Post #5834

FINDING OF THE HOLY CROSS OF THE LORD (Inventio sacrosanctae Crucis Dominicae) The 3rd of May, the Roman Church commemorates the Finding of the Holy Cross of the Lord at the time of Emperor Constantine (14th of September 329). In reality in origin such recurrence celebrated the recovery of the True Cross fallen into the hands of the Persians by the Emperor Heraclius in 692, but the Latins reversed the memory of the two events. The finding of the Cross by St. Helena was the originary occurrence the basis of the feast of the 14th of September - Exaltatio sanctæ Crucis - when the wood on which the Redeemer was stuck was shown to the Christian people by St. Macarius, then bishop of Jerusalem, an exhibition that was repeated annually.