May third marks the feast traditionally called "The Invention of the True Cross." In that context, the obsolete term "invention" meant finding. The tradition goes back to Saint Helena, mother of the first Christian emperor, Constantine. She was credited with having found the three crosses of Calvary, and Saint Cyril of Jerusalem later asseverated that. As the story goes, the crosses of Jesus and of the two revolutionaries who had flanked him were discovered during the excavations for the emperor's Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. The cross believed to be that of Jesus was then chopped up and sent out to churches throughout the known world. A portion of it was retained and placed in a silver receptacle in the Basilica.
A Spanish abbess, Etheria, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the end of the fourth century and stated that she had participated in Veneration of the True Cross at a service there. In time, that special liturgy spread to Gaul and then later to Rome. This is part of the long tradition of using relics retained from holy people and objects, as sources of inspiration. In time, relics fell into disrepute as creative capitalists throughout the ages managed to manufacture copies and sell them to the gullible. Martin Luther once quipped that there were enough pieces of the True Cross in Germany at the time of the Reformation to comprise a thousand crosses!
Given the fact that the Roman Empire crucified many thousands of people, primarily for treason, it takes no seven-league stride to imagine that Saint Helena herself could have been mistaken. What is important, though, in my opinion is how these bits and scraps of wood can mediate a great reality to people of faith, pointing them to Christ. That has value. And how that medium of devotion was multiplied across the face of the earth. We humans are blessed with five senses, and we Catholic Christians have always employed all those senses in worship and devotion.
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