Editing True Cross (section)

==Empress Helena and the Cross==
[[File:Agnolo Gaddi True Cross Detail 1380.jpg|left|thumb|''The Finding of the True Cross'', [[Agnolo Gaddi]], Florence, 1380]]
The rediscovery of the True Cross, called the "Invention of the True Cross" (from the Latin ''inventio,'' "finding," a meaning obsolete in English except in this phrase), was traditionally attributed to Saint [[Helena, mother of Constantine I]], an account that emerged over time.

===Eusebius===
The ''[[Life of Constantine]]'' by [[Eusebius of Caesarea]] (died 339) is the earliest and main historical source on the rediscovery of the [[Tomb of Jesus]] and the construction of the first church at the site, but does not mention anything concerning the True Cross.{{sfnp|Richardson|1890}} Eusebius describes how the site of the [[Holy Sepulchre]], once a site of veneration for the early Christian Church in [[Jerusalem]], had been covered over with earth and a [[temple]] of [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] had been built on top. Although Eusebius does not say as much, this would probably have been done as part of [[Hadrian]]'s 130 reconstruction of Jerusalem into the Roman city of [[Aelia Capitolina]], following Jerusalem's destruction at the end of the [[First Jewish–Roman War|Jewish Revolt]] in the year 70, and in connection with [[Bar Kokhba's revolt]] of 132–135. Following his conversion to Christianity, Emperor [[Constantine I of the Roman Empire|Constantine]] ordered in about 325–326 that the site be uncovered and instructed [[Macarius of Jerusalem|Macarius]], [[early bishops of Jerusalem|Bishop of Jerusalem]], to build a church on the site. Eusebius' work contains details about the demolition of the pagan temple and the erection of the church, but does not mention anywhere the finding of the True Cross.{{sfnp|Richardson|1890}}

=== Cyril of Jerusalem ===
Perhaps the earliest witness to the tradition of the True Cross was [[Cyril of Jerusalem|Cyril]], Bishop of Jerusalem (c. 350-386). In the fourth of his Catechetical Lectures, which are dated to around the year 350, he says that "the whole world has since been filled with pieces of the wood of the Cross."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cyrillus |title=The catechetical lectures of S. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem |last2=Gifford |first2=Edwin Hamilton |last3=Schaff |first3=Philip |last4=Wace |first4=Henry |date=2004 |publisher=Hendrickson |isbn=978-1-56563-123-6 |edition=Reprint edition of the American edition of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, 4. print... originally published in the United States by the Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1894. |series=Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers : a select library of the Christian church; second series / ed. by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace |location=Peabody, Mass}}</ref> This text relates that pieces of the cross were dispersed as relics, but offers no information about the discovery of the cross itself. Elsewhere, in a letter to Emperor [[Constantius II|Constantius]], Cyril only relates that the cross was found during the reign of [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]].<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Drijvers |first=Jan Willem |title=PROMOTING JERUSALEM: CYRIL AND THE TRUE CROSS |date=1999-01-01 |work=Portraits of Spiritual Authority |pages=79–95 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004295919/B9789004295919-s006.xml |access-date=2024-08-23 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-29591-9}}.</ref>

=== Gelasius and Rufinus ===
About forty years after Cyril, there was a fully developed story about how the True Cross was discovered. Cyril's nephew [[Gelasius of Caesarea]] recorded the account in a now lost Greek Ecclesiastical History prior to his death in 395. This version was adapted circa 402 in [[Tyrannius Rufinus|Rufinus of Aquileia's]] Latin additions to Eusebius' Church History. In this narrative, [[Helena, mother of Constantine I|Helena]] went to Jerusalem in search of the relic and was made aware of its location by a heavenly sign. She tore down the temple of [[Aphrodite]] that had been built there, and beneath the rubble found three crosses. The cross of Jesus was identified, with the aid of Bishop [[Macarius of Jerusalem]], by its miraculous affecting of a cure for a mortally ill woman. A Church was then built on the spot and the relic was divided, with part staying in Jerusalem and part given to Constantine along with the nails.<ref name=":0" />

===Socrates Scholasticus===
[[File:Piero della Francesca 003.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The three crosses are discovered. An injured young man is healed by the True Cross. Fifteenth-century frescoes at the Church of [[Basilica of San Francesco, Arezzo|San Francesco, Arezzo]] by [[Piero della Francesca]].]]
In his ''Ecclesiastical History'', nearly a century after Eusebius and forty years after Rufinus, [[Socrates of Constantinople|Socrates Scholasticus]] (died c. 440) gives a description of the discovery later repeated by [[#Sozomen|Sozomen]] and [[#Theodoret|Theodoret]]. Socrates' account is very similar to Rufinus'. In it he describes how [[Helena, mother of Constantine the Great|Helena Augusta]], Constantine's aged mother, had the pagan temple destroyed and the Sepulchre uncovered, whereupon three crosses, the [[Titulus Crucis|titulus]], and the [[Holy Nails|nails]] from Jesus's crucifixion were uncovered as well. In Socrates's version of the story, Macarius had the three crosses placed in turn on a deathly ill woman. This woman recovered at the touch of the third cross, which was taken as a sign that this was the cross of Christ, the new Christian symbol. Socrates also reports that, having also found the cross's nails, Helena sent these to [[Constantinople]], where they were incorporated into the emperor's helmet and the bridle of his horse.{{sfnp|Zenos|1890|loc=[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf202.ii.iv.xvii.html Ch. xvii]}}

===Sozomen===
In his ''Ecclesiastical History'', [[Sozomen]] (died {{Circa|450|lk=no}}) gives essentially the same version as Socrates. Without further attribution, he also adds that it was said that the location of the Sepulchre was "disclosed by a Hebrew who dwelt in the East and who derived his information from some documents which had come to him by paternal inheritance"{{mdash}}although Sozomen himself disputes this account{{mdash}}so that a dead person was also revived by the touch of the Cross.{{sfnp|Hartranft|1890}} Later popular versions of this story state that the Jew who assisted Helena was named Jude or Judas but later converted to Christianity and took the name [[Judas Kyriakos|Kyriakos]].

===Theodoret===
[[File:Tres Riches Heures Jean de Colombe true Cross.jpg|thumb|The proving of the True Cross, Jean Colombe in the [[Très Riches Heures]]]]
[[Theodoret]] (died {{Circa|457|lk=no}}) in his ''Ecclesiastical History'' Chapter xvii gives what would become the standard version of the finding of the True Cross:
{{blockquote|When the empress beheld the place where the Saviour suffered, she immediately ordered the idolatrous temple, which had been there erected, to be destroyed, and the very earth on which it stood to be removed. When the tomb, which had been so long concealed, was discovered, three crosses were seen buried near the Lord's sepulchre. All held it as certain that one of these crosses was that of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the other two were those of the thieves who were crucified with Him. Yet they could not discern to which of the three the Body of the Lord had been brought nigh, and which had received the outpouring of His precious Blood. But the wise and holy Macarius, the president of the city, resolved this question in the following manner. He caused a lady of rank, who had been long suffering from disease, to be touched by each of the crosses, with earnest prayer, and thus discerned the virtue residing in that of the Saviour. For the instant this cross was brought near the lady, it expelled the sore disease, and made her whole.}}

With the Cross were also found the [[Holy Nails]], which Helena took with her back to Constantinople. According to Theodoret, "She had part of the cross of our Saviour conveyed to the palace. The rest was enclosed in a covering of silver, and committed to the care of the bishop of the city, whom she exhorted to preserve it carefully, in order that it might be transmitted uninjured to posterity."

===Syriac tradition===
Another popular ancient version from the [[Syriac language|Syriac]] tradition replaced Helena with a fictitious first-century empress named Protonike, who is said to be the wife of emperor [[Claudius]].{{sfnp|Saint-Laurent|2015|p=42}} This story, which originated in Edessa in the 430s,{{sfnp|Wiles & al.|2001|p=57}} was transmitted in the so-called ''Doctrina Addai'', which was believed to be written by [[Thaddeus of Edessa]] (Addai in Syriac texts), one of the seventy disciples.{{sfnp|Meerson & al.|2014|p=121}} The narrative retrojected the Helena version to the first century. In the story, Protonike traveled to Jerusalem after she met [[Saint Peter|Simon Peter]] in Rome.{{sfnp|Saint-Laurent|2015|p=42}} She was shown around the city by [[James, brother of Jesus]], until she discovered the cross after it healed her daughter of some illness.{{sfnp|Saint-Laurent|2015|p=42}} She then converted to Christianity and had a church built on [[Calvary|Golgotha]].{{sfnp|Saint-Laurent|2015|p=42}} Aside from the Syriac tradition, the Protonike version was also cited by [[Armenian language|Armenian]] sources.{{sfnp|Pogossian|2019|p=167}}

===Catholic commemoration===
According to the 1955 Roman Catholic Marian Missal, Helena went to Jerusalem to search for the True Cross and found it 14 September 320. In the 8th century, the Feast of the Finding was transferred to 3 May and 14 September became the celebration of the "[[Exaltation of the Cross]]", the commemoration of a victory over the [[Sassanid Empire|Persians]] by the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] [[list of Byzantine emperors|emperor]] [[Heraclius]], as a result of which the relic was recovered and returned to Jerusalem.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/exaltation-of-the-holy-cross|title=Exaltation of the Holy Cross|date=14 September 2020 |publisher=Franciscan Media|accessdate=August 11, 2022}}</ref>