In an attempt to eradicate from human memory the places
associated with Our Lord Jesus Christ, the pagan Roman Emperor Hadrian (117 AD -
138 AD) ordered a temple to the goddess Venus and a statue of Jupiter built on
the site of Our Lord's crucifixion and sepulcher.
In 313 AD, the Emperor Constantine (306 AD - 337 AD) issued the Edict of
Milan, which legalized the Christian religion and ended the persecution of
the Church. Constantine, having gained victory over his enemies in three
wars with God's assistance, had seen in the heavens the image of Cross,
together with the words "By this sign you shall conquer."
Ardently desiring to find the Cross on which Our Lord
was crucified, he sent his mother, the pious Empress Helena, to Jerusalem,
providing her with a letter to Patriarch Makarios of Jerusalem. Having
learned that the Cross had been buried on the site of the Temple of Venus, she
ordered that the temple be demolished and the site excavated. Soon Our
Lord's sepulcher was uncovered and, not far from it, three crosses, a board with
the inscription ordered by Pilate and four nails that had pierced the body of
Our Lord.
Emperor Constantine and Empress Helena
In order to discern on which of the three cross Our
Lord had been crucified, Patriarch Makarios alternately touched the crosses to a
corpse. When the Cross of the Lord touched the dead man, he came to life.
Having witnessed the raising of the dead man, everyone was convinced that the
life creating Cross indeed had been found.
Christians cam in large number to venerate the Holy
Cross, beseeching Patriarch Makarios to elevate it that everyone could see and
reverently contemplate it. In 326 AD, he raised up the Holy Cross while the
people exclaimed, "Lord, have mercy" and prostrated before it.
Shortly thereafter, Constantine ordered the erection on
the site of Golgotha and the sepulcher, of a majestic church in honor of the
Resurrection of Christ. The church which is still in use in our own time
and popularly called the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher, was consecrated on
September 13th, 335 AD. On the following day, September 14th, the festal
celebration of the Exaltation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross was
established.
from The Orthodox Church. Volume 40: Number 9
Page 3. September 2004
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