The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Feast Day: September 14
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrated on September 14th, is one of the oldest feasts in the Christian calendar, originating in Jerusalem to commemorate two events: the dedication of the basilicas built by Constantine over the sites of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection in 335, and the recovery of the True Cross from the Persians by the Emperor Heraclius in 628. Both events were associated with the solemn elevation and veneration of the wood on which Christ died, and the feast has united these two memories since the earliest centuries.
The Cross, which was the instrument of the most shameful death in the Roman world, has become in Christian theology the sign of the greatest victory in all of history: the victory of divine love over sin and death. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, declared that he would know nothing but Christ, and Him crucified. The Cross is not an object of grief alone but of triumph, for on it the redemption of the world was accomplished. The Exaltation of the Cross celebrates this paradox, the wisdom of God hidden in what the world considers foolishness, the power of God made perfect in weakness.
The ancient hymn Vexilla Regis, composed by Venantius Fortunatus in the sixth century to greet the arrival of a relic of the True Cross at Poitiers, is one of the great Latin hymns of the Western liturgy, sung at Vespers during the Paschal season and on this feast. Its opening line, The banners of the King advance, the mystery of the Cross shines bright, captures perfectly the spirit of the feast: the Cross is not a sign of defeat but a royal banner, an emblem of triumph.
On this day the faithful venerate the Cross as the tree of life, the wood that overcame the wood of the tree in the garden of Eden, the instrument of humanity's redemption, and the sign in which, as Constantine saw, we conquer. The feast invites Christians to contemplate the Crucified Lord not with despair but with the joy of those who know that death has been conquered.