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| Chapter XXXIV.
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Chapter XXXIV.
Through the kind efforts
of the same queen, the cross of the Lord was then found. It could not,
of course, be consecrated at the beginning, owing to the opposition of
the Jews, and afterwards it had been covered over by the rubbish of the
ruined city. And now, it would never have been revealed except to one
seeking for it in such a believing spirit. Accordingly, Helena having
first got information about the place of our Lord’s passion,
caused a band of soldiers to be brought361
| 361 “admota
militari manu atque omnium provincialium multitudine in studia
reginæ certantium.” | to
it, while the whole multitude of the inhabitants of the locality vied
with each other in seeking to gratify the desires of the queen, and
ordered the earth to be dug up, and all the adjacent most extensive
ruins to be cleared out. Ere long, as the reward of her faith and
labor, three crosses (as of old they had been fixed for the Lord and
the two robbers) were discovered. But upon this, the greater difficulty
of distinguishing the gibbet on which the Lord had hung, disturbed the
minds and thoughts of all, lest by a mistake, likely enough to be
committed by mere mortals, they might perhaps consecrate as the cross
of the Lord, that which belonged to one of the robbers. They form then
the plan of placing one who had recently died in contact with the
crosses. Nor is there any delay in carrying out this purpose; for just
as if by the appointment of God, the funeral of a dead man was then
being conducted with the usual ceremonies, and all rushing up took the
body from the bier. It was applied in vain to the first two crosses,
but when it touched that of Christ, wonderful to tell, while all stood
trembling, the dead body was362
| 362 “funus
excussum”: a singular expression. | shaken off, and
stood up in the midst of those looking at it. The cross was thus
discovered, and was consecrated with all due ceremony.363
| 363
“ambitu”: apparently used here with the meaning which
sometimes belongs to “ambitione.” | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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