Hail the sign, the
sign of Jesus,
Bright and royal Tree!
Standard of the
Monarch, planted
First on Calvary!
Hail the sign all
signs excelling,
Hail the sign all ills
dispelling,
Hail the sign hell's
power quelling,
Cross of Christ, all
hail!
Hail the sign, the
King preceding,
Key to hell's domain!
Lo, the brazen gates
it shatters.
Bars it snaps in
twain!
Hail the sign, on
Easter morning
Breaking from the
tomb;
In the hand of Christ
dispelling
Sorrow, death, and
gloom.
Sign to martyrs
strength and refuge.
Sign to saints so
dear!
Sign of evil men
abhorred.
Sign which devils
fear.
Sign which, on the day
of vengeance,
Meteor-like shall
flare;
Shuddering flesh shall
then behold it
Steeped in blood-red
glare.
Men shall shriek for
very anguish,
Evil hearts will
quail;
But the saints in
fullest rapture
Will that vision hail.
Lo, the Cross of
Christ my Master
On my brow I trace;
May it keep my mind
unsullied,
Doubt and fear
displace.
Lo, upon my lips I
mark it.
Sign of Jesus slain;
Christian lips should
never utter
Words impure or vain.
Lo, I sign the Cross
of Jesus
Meekly on my breast;
May it guard my heart
when living
Dying, be its rest.
At about the end of the reign of the emperor
Phocas, King Chosroes of the Persians invaded Egypt and Africa. He
then took possession of Jerusalem and after massacring there many
thousands of Christians, he carried away into Persia the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which Helena had placed upon Mount Calvary. Phocas
was succeeded in the empire by Heraclius who, after enduring many
losses and misfortunes in the course of the war, sued for peace but
was unable to obtain it even upon disadvantageous terms, so elated
was Chosroes by his victories. In this perilous situation he applied
himself to prayer and fasting, and earnestly implored God’s
assistance. Then, admonished from Heaven, he raised an army, marched
against the enemy, and defeated three of Chosroes’ generals with
their armies. Subdued by these disasters Chosroes took to flight, and
when about to cross the river Tigris, named his son Medarses his
associate in the kingdom. But his eldest son Siroes, bitterly
resenting this insult, plotted the murder of his father and brother.
He soon afterwards overtook them in flight, and put them both to
death. Siroes then had him self recognised as king by Heraclius on
certain conditions, the first of which was to restore the cross of
our Lord. Thus, fourteen years after it had fallen into the hands of
the Persians, the cross was recovered. And on his return to
Jerusalem, Heraclius, with great pomp, bore it back on his own
shoulders to the mountain to which our Saviour had carried it. This
event was signalised by a remarkable miracle. Heraclius, attired as
he was in robes adorned with gold and precious stones was forced to
stand still at the gate which led to Mount Calvary. The more he
endeavoured to advance, the more he seemed fixed to the spot.
Heraclius himself and all the people were astounded, but Zacharias,
the bishop of Jerusalem, said: “Consider, O emperor, how little you
imitate the poverty and humility of Jesus Christ, by carrying the
cross clad in triumphal robes. Heraclius thereupon laid aside his
magnificent apparel and barefoot, clothed in mean attire, he easily
completed the rest of the way and replaced the cross in the same
place on Mount Calvary, from which it had been carried off by the
Persians. From this event, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy
Cross, which was celebrated yearly on this day, gained fresh lustre
in memory of the cross being replaced by Heraclius on the spot where
it had first been set up for our Saviour.
Dom Prosper Gueranger:
“Through you the precious cross is honoured and worshipped throughout the world.” Thus did Saint Cyril of Alexandria apostrophise our Lady on the morrow of that great day which saw her divine maternity vindicated at Ephesus. Eternal Wisdom has willed that the octave of Mary’s birth should be honoured by the celebration of this feast of the triumph of the holy cross. The cross indeed is the standard of God’s armies, of which Mary is the Queen. It is by the cross that she crushes the serpent’s head and wins so many victories over error, and over the enemies of the Christian name.
“By this sign you will conquer.” Satan had been suffered to try his strength against the Church by persecution and tortures, but his time was drawing to an end. By the edict of Sardica which emancipated the Christians, Galerius, when about to die, acknowledged the powerlessness of Hell. Now was the time for Christ to take the offensive, and for His cross to prevail. Towards the close of the year 311 a Roman army lay at the foot of the Alps preparing to pass from Gaul into Italy. Constantine, its commander, thought only of revenging himself for an injury received from Maxentius, his political rival. But his soldiers, as unsuspecting as their chief, already belonged henceforward to the Lord of hosts. The Son of the Most High, having become, as Son of Mary, king of this world, was about to reveal Himself to His first lieutenant and at the same time to discover to His first army the standard that was to go before it. Above the legions, in a cloudless sky, the cross, proscribed for three long centuries, suddenly shone forth. All eyes beheld it, making the western sun, as it were, its footstool, and surrounded with these words in characters of fire: IN HOC VINCE: by this be you conqueror! A few months later, October 27, 312, all the idols of Rome stood aghast to behold, approaching along the Via Flaminia, beyond the Pons Milvius, the Labarum with its sacred monogram, now become the standard of the imperial armies. On the morrow was fought the decisive battle which opened the gates of the Eternal City to Christ, the only God, the everlasting King.
“Hail, O cross, formidable to all enemies, bulwark of the Church, strength of princes. Hail in your triumph! The sacred Wood still lay hidden in the Earth, yet it appeared in the heavens announcing victory. And an emperor, become Christian, raised it up from the bowels of the Earth.” Thus sang the Greek Church yesterday in preparation for the joys of today, for the East, which has not our peculiar feast of May 3, celebrates on this one solemnity both the overthrow of idolatry by the sign of salvation revealed to Constantine and his army, and the discovery of the holy cross a few years later in the cistern of Golgotha.
But another celebration, the memory of which is fixed by the Menology on September 13, was added in the year 335 to the happy recollections of this day: namely, the dedication of the basilicas raised by Constantine on Mount Calvary and over the holy sepulchre, after the precious discoveries made by his mother Saint Helena. In the very same century that witnessed all these events, a pious pilgrim, thought to be Saint Silvia, sister of Rufinus the minister of Theodosius and Arcadius, attested that the anniversary of this dedication was celebrated with the same solemnity as Easter and the Epiphany. There was an immense concourse of bishops, clerics, monks and seculars of both sexes, from every province. And the reason, she says, is that the “cross was found on this day,” which motive had led to the choice of the same day for the primitive consecration, so that the two joys might be united into one.
Through not being aware of the nearness of the dedication of the Anastasia, or church of the Resurrection, to the feast of the holy cross, many have misunderstood the discourse pronounced on this feast by Sophronius the holy patriarch of Jerusalem. “It is the feast of the cross. Who would not exult? It is the triumph of the Resurrection. Who would not be full of joy? Formerly, the cross led to the Resurrection. Now it is the Resurrection that introduces us to the cross. Resurrection and Cross: trophies of our salvation!” And the pontiff then developed the instructions resulting from this connection.
It appears to have been about the same time that the West also began to unite in a certain manner these two great mysteries. Leaving to September 14th the other memories of the holy cross, the Latin Churches introduced into Paschal Time a special feast of the Finding of the Wood of Redemption. In compensation, the present solemnity acquired a new lustre to its character of triumph by the contemporaneous events which, as we will see, form the principal subject of the historical legend in the Roman liturgy.
A century earlier, Saint Benedict had appointed this day for the commencement of the period of penance known as the monastic Lent, which continues till the opening of Lent proper, when the whole Christian army joins the ranks of the cloister in the campaign of fasting and abstinence. “The cross” says Saint Sophronius, “is brought before our minds. Who will not crucify himself? The true worshipper of the sacred Wood is he who carries out his worship in his deeds.”
The victory thus chronicled in the sacred books of the Church, was not, O Cross, your last triumph. Nor were the Persians thy latest enemies. At the very time of the defeat of these fire-worshippers, the prince of darkness was raising up a new standard, the crescent. By the permission of God, whose ensign you are, and who, having come on Earth to struggle like us, flees not before any fee, Islam also was about to try its strength against you: a twofold power, the sword and the seduction of the passions. But here again, alike in the secret combats between the soul and Satan, as in the great battles recorded in history, the final success was due to the weakness and folly of Calvary.
Then, O cross, were the rallying-standard of all Europe in those sacred expeditions which borrowed from you their beautiful title of crusades, and which exalted the Christian name in the East. While on the one hand you were thus warding off degradation and ruin, on the other then were preparing the conquest of new continents: so that it is by you that our West remains at the head of nations. Through you, the warriors in those glorious campaigns are inscribed on the first pages of the golden book of nobility. And now the new orders of chivalry, which claim to hold among their ranks the élite of the human race, look upon you as the highest mark of merit and honour. It is the continuation of today’s mystery, the exaltation, even in our times of decadence, of the holy cross, which in past ages was the standard of the legions, and glittered on the diadems of emperors and kings.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Rome, on the Via Appia, during the persecution of Decius, blessed Cornelius, pope and martyr, who, after being banished, was scourged with leaded whips and then beheaded with twenty-one others of both sexes.
On the same day, were condemned to capital punishment Caerealis, a soldier, and his wife Sallustia, who had been instructed in the faith by the same Cornelius.
In Africa, in the time of the emperors Valerian and Gallienus, St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, most renowned for holiness and learning. It was near the seashore, six miles from the city, that he consummated his martyrdom by decapitation after enduring a most painful exile. The festival of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian is kept on the sixteenth of this month.
There suffered also in the same place the holy martyrs Crescentian, Victor, Rosula and Generalis.
At Rome, on the Via Salaria, during the persecution of Diocletian, St. Crescentius, the young son of St. Euthymius, who ended his life by the sword under the judge Turpilius.
At Treves, the holy bishop Maternus, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Peter, who brought the faith of Christ to the inhabitants of Tongres, Cologne, Treves and the neighbouring country.
The same day, the birthday of St. John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, who was sent into exile through the conspiracy of his enemies, but was recalled by a decree of Pope Innocent I. He died on the way from the ill-treatment he received at the hands of the soldiers who guarded him. His feast is celebrated on the twenty-seventh of January, the day on which his sacred body was taken to Constantinople by Theodosius the Younger.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
