O Cross, sole hope!

‘O Crux, Ave, spes unica! O Cross! all hail! sole hope.’ These words from the Vexilla Regis, our great hymn in honour of the Holy Cross of Christ, express our sentiments toward this most precious relic of our Faith.

Crucifixion with St Dominic, Fra Angelico.

The Holy Cross is, indeed, one of our greatest physical treasures and is a relic of special importance for the Christian Faith. We are made for heaven, and it is there that we look as our final home.  Nevertheless, we are not merely spirits trapped in fleshly prisons. God made us body and soul, and He Himself became man. This is a single event, but it continues to have extraordinary effects on the rest of salvation history. By His life and ministry, Jesus Christ hallowed even the most mundane things: water, oil, bread and wine. As Catholics we are no strangers to this sacramental reality, Christ’s using earthly objects to impart grace.

Pope Benedict XVI venerates the Cross during the Good Friday liturgy.

Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross is the source of our redemption, the source of the grace He communicates in the sacramental life of the Church. Now the Cross is the real, physical instrument He used to accomplish our salvation. It is, if you will, the fulcrum, with which He leveraged us from death, and the Devil, and the battering-ram of heaven. ‘O death, where is thy sting?’ It is no wonder that the Cross is our symbol, we wear it and mark ourselves with its form, but it is perhaps such a common sight that we lose sight of the reality it expresses. Crucifixion was a terrible means of torture and an ugly source of shame for the ancients. But the earliest Christians clung to this physical wood, not because of some magical power it inherently had, but because it was the very means chosen by our Saviour Himself to redeem us. His death sanctified it and from it He communicates His grace. The Cross, therefore, is still implicated in a very real way in our individual salvation.

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Christianity was legally tolerated after the Edict of Milan (313) promulgated by Constantine, the Empire’s first Christian Emperor. Later, the Catholic Faith became the state religion, and Constantine had basilicas built on significant Christian sites. The emperor Constantine’s mother, Saint Helena, took up an expedition to find relics that had been hidden in the Holy Land.

Constantine, regarded as a saint in the Christian East, and his mother, St Helena, with the Cross.

After recovering the Cross, often called the ‘True Cross,’ and other important relics, she brought them back to Rome where she converted her own personal palace into a basilica dedicated to the Cross. This church today is called the ‘Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem,’ Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Because of its early association with the Church, it is one of a surprisingly small handful of ancient Roman buildings that has never fallen into ruin. 

Relics recovered by St Helena in the Holy Land.  The ornate reliquaries are later workmanship.

Because not everyone is able to visit the Holy Land or Rome (much less before modern means of transportation), Holy Mother Church provides pieces or fragments of significant relics for the faithful to venerate in other places of pilgrimage and devotion. Today the faithful can venerate small fragments of this Cross in many churches and shrines throughout the world.  Despite criticism from Protestant reformers like John Calvin, the known fragments of the Cross have been studied considerably and must come with documentation ensuring their authenticity.  (Also see the fascinating story of Charles Rohault de Fleury.) These relics must have a carefully-documented provenance, or ‘geneology,’ and trace to the original relics to ensure their authenticity.

A silver reliquary containing a small piece of the True Cross.

Relics of the True Cross, and other relics related to the Passion of Christ (the Crown of Thorns, the Holy Nails, etc.) occupy a class of their own, and are treated with special attention.  Relics of the Passion are usually placed in more dignified reliquaries, often with precious metals and ornaments, and they very frequently are cross-shaped. It is desirable that the relic of the Cross stand alone, and only contain this one relic. Unlike other relics, a Relic of the Cross is normally covered with a red veil unless it is specially exposed for veneration. Two nice examples can be seen here:

When it is exposed for prayer and veneration, it is flanked by candles. Whereas a bow is customary for other relics, we genuflect (with the right knee) to the Cross, just as at the Good Friday liturgy, to show our adoration for Christ whose Cross it is.

A stunning, reverent display of the True Cross at St Stanislaus Kostka, Michigan City.  Photo:  Bob Wellinski, NWIC Correspondent

We kiss the Cross to show profound reverence for the Passion of the Lord. The ornate, gold reliquary containing the True Cross at the Shrine can be venerated after Mass at the altar rail on September 14.

Holy Mother Church commemorates the Cross at several points during the liturgical year.  May 3 marks St Helena’s finding of the Cross. This feast is sometimes confusingly called the ‘invention’ of the Cross, since the Latin word inventio means finding. The other annual high point for the Cross, September 14, is called the ‘Exaltation of the Holy Cross,’ ‘Holy Cross Day,’ or ‘Roodmas.’ It commemorates two separate events related to that date. The first is the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also built by Constantine, in Jerusalem, the site of Christ’s death and Resurrection, as well as the grotto where Saint Helena recovered the Cross. The second event is the return of a significant portion of the Cross to Emperor Heraclius in 629 which had been previously captured by the invading Persians.

The Cross also has special commemoration during the Fridays throughout the year, and especially during Lent and Ember Days. Because of its association with penitential days and seasons, the Cross is often carried in procession on these days.

A priest blesses the faithful with a relic of the True Cross.

We can see our physical act of making reverence as an occasion of preparing ourselves also in an interior way, and of cultivating a sense of humility and devotion before this holy object. We can approach the altar rail with confidence in the grace that God will impart, and thanksgiving for the saving work of His Cross.

If you would like to learn more about how to use relics liturgically in your parish, including special norms for the True Cross, check out our forth-coming vademecum on Liturgical Use of Relics here [-LINK-}.