Post #5835

The Roman Breviary narrates the events concerning the discovery of the True Cross as follows: "After the distinguished victory, which the emperor Constantine won over Maxentius, when the banner of the Cross of the Lord was miraculously manifested to him, Helena, mother of Constantine, warned in a dream, she went to Jerusalem eager to find the Cross there; there she had a marble statue of Venus pulled down, placed there by the Gentiles, after about one hundred and eighty years right on the place of the Cross to make the memory of the Passion of Christ the Lord disappear. She also did the same at the Savior's crib and at the place of His resurrection, having the image of Adonis removed there and that of Jupiter here. Therefore, when the place of the Cross was cleared, three deeply buried crosses were discovered, and, separately, the title of the Cross of the Lord [Titulus Crucis]: not knowing which of the three had been affixed, a miracle put an end to the doubt. Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, after having raised prayers to God, subsequently approached the three crosses to a seriously ill woman; while two did not bring her any help, approached the third Cross she was immediately healed. Helena, having found the salutary Cross, built a truly magnificent church there, leaving a part of the Cross enclosed in a silver case, and another part she brought to her son Constantine, and was placed in Rome in the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, built in the Sessorian Palace. He also brought to his son the nails from which the most holy body of Jesus Christ was hung [and the Titulus Crucis and the cross of the good thief]. From that moment Constantine made a law that no one would be made to suffer the torture of the cross anymore. Thus the cross, which was previously the object of contempt and disgrace for men, began to be an object of veneration and glory ”.