The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of Christ

On September 14th we celebrate the feast of the Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Creating Cross of the Lord: The pagan Roman emperors tried to completely eradicate from human memory the holy places where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and was resurrected for mankind. The Emperor Hadrian (117-138) gave orders to cover over the ground of Golgotha and the Sepulchre of the Lord, and to build a temple of the pagan goddess Venus and a statue of Jupiter.

Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Constantinople

On Friday, September 14, 2012, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presided over the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at the Patriarchal Church of St. George with the participation of numerous clergy and faithful. At the conclusion of the service, he distributed the traditional branches of basil to the […]

The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross

  Saint Helen, the mother of Saint Constantine the Great, when she was already advanced in years, undertook, in her great piety, the hardships of a journey to Jerusalem in search of the cross, about the year 325. A temple to Aphrodite had been raised up by the Emperor Hadrian upon Golgotha, to defile and […]

The Orthodox Celebration of the Power of the Cross

  The Exaltation of the Cross celebrated of September 14 is one of the twelve great feasts in the yearly Church cycle. It commemorates two historical events: first, the finding of the Life-giving Cross in the year 326, and second, its recovery from Persia in 628. History of the Feast In the first centuries of […]