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| The Discovery of the Life-Bringing Cross and of the Holy Nails.
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Book II.
Chapter I.—The
Discovery of the Life-Bringing Cross and of the Holy Nails.
When the business at Nicæa
had been transacted as above related, the priests returned home. The
emperor rejoiced exceedingly at the restoration of unity of opinion in
the Catholic Church, and desirous of expressing in behalf of himself,
his children, and the empire, the gratitude towards God which the
unanimity of the bishops inspired, he directed that a house of prayer
should be erected to God at Jerusalem1139
| 1139Eus. V. C. iii. 25–40; Soc. i. 9,
Letter to Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem.
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near the place called Calvary. At the same time his mother Helena
repaired to the city for the purpose of offering up prayer, and of
visiting the sacred places. Her zeal for Christianity made her anxious
to find the wood which had formed the adorable cross. But it was no
easy matter to discover either this relic or the Lord’s
sepulchre; for the Pagans, who in former times had persecuted the
Church,1140
| 1140Ruf H. E. i. 7, 8; Soc. H. E. I. 17;
Sulp. Sev. H. S. ii. 33, 34, another story of the
identification. Soz. furnishes an additional story about the discovery,
which he, however, confutes.
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and who, at the first promulgation of Christianity, had had recourse to
every artifice to exterminate it, had concealed that spot under much
heaped up earth, and elevated what before was quite depressed, as it
looks now, and the more effectually to conceal them, had enclosed the
entire place of the resurrection and Mount Calvary within a wall, and
had, moreover, ornamented the whole locality, and paved it with stone.
They also erected a temple to Aphrodite, and set up a little image, so
that those who repaired thither to worship Christ would appear to bow
the knee to Aphrodite, and that thus the true cause of offering worship
in that place would, in course of time, be forgotten; and that as
Christians would not dare fearlessly to frequent the place or to point
it out to others, the temple and statue would come to be regarded as
exclusively appertaining to the Pagans. At length, however, the place
was discovered, and the fraud about it so zealously maintained was
detected; some say that the facts were first 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; but it seems more
accordant with truth to suppose that God revealed the fact by means of
signs and dreams; for I do not think that human information is
requisite when God thinks it best to make manifest the same. When by
command of the emperor the place was excavated deeply, the cave whence
our Lord arose from the dead was discovered; and at no great distance,
three crosses were found and another separate piece of wood, on which
were inscribed in white letters in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin, the
following words: “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.”
These words, as the sacred book of the gospels relates, were placed by
command of Pilate, governor of Judæa, over the head of Christ.
There yet, however, remained a difficulty in distinguishing the Divine
cross from the others; for the inscription had been wrenched from it
and thrown aside, and the cross itself had been cast aside with the
others, without any distinction, when the bodies of the crucified were
taken down. For according to history, the soldiers found Jesus dead
upon the cross, and they took him down, and gave him up to be buried;
while, in order to accelerate the death of the two thieves, who were
crucified on either hand, they broke their legs, and then took down the
crosses, and flung them out of the way. It was no concern of theirs to
deposit the crosses in their first order; for it was growing late, and
as the men were dead, they did not think it worth while to remain to
attend to the crosses. A more Divine information than could be
furnished by man was therefore necessary in order to distinguish the
Divine cross from the others, and this revelation was given in the
following manner: There was a certain lady of rank in Jerusalem who was
afflicted with a most grievous and incurable disease; Macarius, bishop
of Jerusalem, accompanied by the mother of the emperor and her
attendants, repaired to her bedside. After engaging in prayer, Macarius
signified by signs to the spectators that the Divine cross would be the
one which, on being brought in contact with the invalid, should remove
the disease. He approached her in turn with each of the crosses; but when two of the crosses were laid on
her, it seemed but folly and mockery to her for she was at the gates of
death. When, however, the third cross was in like manner brought to
her, she suddenly opened her eyes, regained her strength, and
immediately sprang from her bed, well. It is said that a dead person
was, in the same way, restored to life. The venerated wood having been
thus identified, the greater portion of it was deposited in a silver
case, in which it is still preserved in Jerusalem: but the empress sent
part of it to her son Constantine, together with the nails by which the
body of Christ had been fastened. Of these, it is related, the emperor
had a head-piece and bit made for his horse, according to the prophecy
of Zechariah, who referred to this period when he said, “that
which shall be upon the bit of the horse shall be holy to the Lord
Almighty.”1141
These things, indeed, were formerly known to the sacred prophets, and
predicted by them, and at length, when it seemed to God that they
should be manifested, were confirmed by wonderful works. Nor does this
appear so marvelous when it is remembered that, even among the Pagans,
it was confessed that the Sibyl had predicted that thus it should
be,—
“Oh most blessed tree, on which our Lord was
hung.”1142
Our most zealous adversaries cannot deny the truth of this fact, and
it is hence evident that a pre-manifestation was made of the wood of
the cross, and of the adoration (σέβας) it received.
The above incidents we have related precisely as they
were delivered to us by men of great accuracy, by whom the information
was derived by succession from father to son; and others have recorded
the same events in writing for the benefit of posterity. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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