What Is The Exaltation Of The Cross?

[simpleazon-image align=”left” asin=”B002QCERWW” locale=”us” height=”500″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31D%2BIbSql4L.jpg” width=”286″]The Exaltation Of The Cross Explained

This weekend, the Holy Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Exaltation of the Cross; but what exactly is this?

The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross commemorates two historical occasions: the discovery of the Real Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, in the year 320, under the temple of Venus in Jerusalem, and the devotion in the year 335 of the basilica and temple built on Calvary by Constantine, which mark the site of the Crucifixion.

The basilica, called the Martyrium, and the shrine, called the Calvarium, were destroyed by the Persians in 614. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher which now stands on the site was built by the crusaders in 1149.

However the feast, even more than anything else, is a celebration and commemoration of God’s greatest work: his salvific death on the Cross and His Resurrection, through which death was defeated and the doors to Heaven opened. It was through the cross that the Son of God made a way for all to be saved

The entrance antiphon for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross tells us: “We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, our life and our resurrection: through him we are saved and delivered.”