My dear friends,
14th September sees a very special day in the Christian calendar: Holy Cross Day. In 312 A.D. the Roman Emperor Constantine ended the persecution of Christians in the Empire and converted to Christianity. Many more Romans were converted to Christianity in the following years, including the Emperor’s mother, the Empress Helena.
In 326-328 A.D. Helena undertook a trip to Palestine and sought to identify the sites associated with the life of Jesus Christ. Although Palestine had changed in the three centuries since Christ’s time, persistent folk memory meant that the Empress and her helpers were able to identify many of the places mentioned in the Gospels. Whilst Helena was in Palestine, Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem began to excavate the site of Calvary, the place where Jesus was crucified and buried, and from whence he rose from the dead in the Resurrection on the third day. The Bishop found what most modern scholars confidently believe to be the empty tomb of Christ. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built over it. Bishop Macarius also discovered what he believed to be the Cross of Jesus Christ. Helena came to view the Cross and was initially uncertain about it, until a grievously sick woman touched it and started to be healed.
The Cross was divided into three sections: one remained at Jerusalem, a second was taken to Constantinople, and the third was taken by Helena to Rome, where the Empress built the church of Santa Cruce in Gerusalemme (‘the Holy Cross in Jerusalem’) to house it (a neglected ancient church in a slightly tatty part of Rome, but well worth a visit). Back in Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was consecrated on 13th September 335 A.D. and its portion of the Cross was first displayed to the faithful the following day, 14th September. Since 335 A.D., the discovery of the true Cross has been celebrated on 14th September.
In the years that followed Bishop Macarius’s discovery, the three portions of the Cross were gradually broken up and small fragments distributed to other churches, cathedrals, monasteries, etc. In the Middle Ages some unscrupulous forgers faked pieces of the ‘cross’ to make money. The 16th century Swiss Reformer John Calvin – no friend of the Catholic or Orthodox Churches – once claimed that there were enough so-called relics of the true Cross to make a ship, and one still occasionally hears this canard today. In the nineteenth century a Frenchman, Charles Rohault de Fleury, carefully catalogued all the known fragments of the Cross and published his findings in 1870 in his book ‘Mémoire sur les instruments de la Passion.’ De Fleury discovered that added together, all the pieces barely made up a third of the probable size of the Cross upon which Christ died.
Was the Cross uncovered by Bishop Macarius’s workmen in 326 A.D. the actual Cross upon which Jesus Christ died? My view is that it is certainly possible that the Cross of Christ survived, but we shall never know for certain. We also have to reckon with the fact that some Christian relics are forgeries, whilst others are genuine. Interestingly, the fragments of the Cross discovered by Helena which I have seen – at Oxford, Mirfield, and at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome – have all been the same colour: a sort-of very pale cigar box pink. De Fleury identified them as olive wood.
As one looks at these wooden fragments, one inevitably wonders “Could this have been part of the Cross upon which Jesus died for me and for everyone else?” Herein lies the real spiritual significance of Holy Cross Day: it reminds us of the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which led him to offer his life in sacrifice upon the Cross for the sins of the whole world. Humbly, faithfully, lovingly, we place our entire hope and confidence in that sacrifice.
This is beautifully summed up in the Church of England’s post-communion prayer for use on Holy Cross Day:
Faithful God,
whose Son bore our sins in his body on the tree
and gave us this sacrament to show forth his death until he comes:
give us grace to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for he is our salvation, our life and our hope,
who reigns as Lord,
now and for ever. Amen.
The new 2025-26 school year starts in September and we very much look forward to welcoming Mr Simon Page as the new head teacher at Crowhurst Church of England Primary School, assuring him of our prayers and wishing him every happiness and success at Crowhurst.
We shall also pray for all children who will be starting this term at our two Church of England Primary Schools at Catsfield and Crowhurst, as well as for those children who left last term and will shortly begin at their secondary schools. We hope that they will flourish and be very happy.