September
14
This feast is a yearly commemoration of the erection, at Jerusalem, by Constantine the Great, and his mother, Saint Helena, of the cross on which Christ died. This took place under the Emperor Heraclius, by whom the holy cross, which Khosroo, King of Persia, had carried into his own conntry, was, after fourteen years, recovered, brought back to Jerusalem, and borne by the emperor himself to the hill of Calvary, whither it had been borne by the Saviour. Upon this occasion a miracle occurred. As Heraclins was about to carry the cross to the proper place on his shoulders, out of veneration for it, he found that while wearing the imperial dress he could not move it, until, by the advice of the patriarch Zachary, he laid aside his royal ornaments, dressed himself plainly, took off his shoes, and in such manner made himself like the humble Saviour. Introit of the Mass:
"But it behooves us to glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection."
Prayer:
O God, Who on this day givest us joy by the annual solemnity of the
exaltation of the holy cross, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may
deserve the reward of His redemption in heaven Whose mystery we have
known upon earth. through the same Lord Jesus Christ, etc. Amen.
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