What Does the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Celebrate?

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrates the finding, installation, and eventual recovery of the cross on which Christ was crucified. The year was AD 326, and Constantine the Great was the converted Catholic Emperor of the Roman Empire. His mother Helena (who would become our patron saint of archaeologists) embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she was attempting to find the True Cross.

Here’s the part I find nearly as remarkable as her (spoiler alert) actually recovering it: I couldn’t find record of anyone having looked for it before her. Again, the year was AD 326, nearly 300 years after the death of Christ. How had this symbol of an entire faith not been the most sought-after item in the empire?

Stepping outside of my paradigm, privileged with 2000 years of hindsight, I imagine that the cross was an eventual rather than an immediate symbol of victory. In fact, it was the 4th century before the cross seems to have been fully adopted by Christians as a symbol of faith, influenced by the son of the one who found it, Constantine himself. Partly because Christians (who thereby adopted the ichthys, or fish symbol as a more covert means of declaring their faith) were heavily persecuted if they flaunted their faith, and partly because death by crucifixion was still a very real method of punishment, the cross was something that many followers of Christ might understandably want to distance from themselves. But Constantine removed these barriers of connecting to the cross; first, by ending the persecution of Christians and second, by abolishing crucifixions so that the death of Jesus might be set apart and sacred.

This bold statement by the emperor was an exaltation of the cross in itself, elevating it to a symbol of truth, mystery, and fulfillment. Suddenly the cross was no longer the dreaded end to a criminal act; it was the ultimate goal of those who would follow the one who walked willingly toward it. 


It naturally follows that Constantine would have ambitions to recover and reinstate the True Cross in a place of reverence and honor. When Saint Helena, with the assistance of the bishop in Jerusalem and local lore, found three crosses buried on Calvary, the bishop’s investigations confirmed that they were indeed the crosses used by Jesus and the two thieves crucified alongside him. To determine which of these three held The Lord, Saint Helena called upon a sick woman, believing that the healing powers of the True Cross would reveal its authenticity. 


Much like the suffering woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak believing she would be healed was cured through her faith, when the woman with Saint Helena finally touched the third cross, she was healed. This cross was then determined to be the True Cross of Christ. 


Constantine had a church erected on the site where the cross was discovered, and it was dedicated on September 13-14, AD 335. The cross remained at this Church of the Holy Sepulchre until AD 614, when Persians invading Jerusalem stole it and retained it until AD 629 - September 14 of that year, in fact - when it was recovered and returned to the church.

The transformation of the cross - from execution to exaltation - remains one of the most stunning examples of Christ’s redeeming power.