Copy Book Archive

St Helen Finds the True Cross The mother of the Roman Emperor goes to Jerusalem on a quest close to her heart.

In two parts

AD 326
Roman Empire (Byzantine Era) 330 - 1453
Music: Sir Charles Villiers Stanford

Photo by Tamerlan, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source

About this picture …

This plaque in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem marks the place where the true cross was discovered on March 6th, 326.

St Helen Finds the True Cross

Part 1 of 2

In AD 326 Helen, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, went to the Holy Land to search for the cross on which Jesus Christ had been crucified. The story is told in one of the oldest pieces of English literature, the epic Anglo-Saxon poem ‘Helen’ by Cynewulf.

EMPEROR Constantine the Great secured his crown by displaying the sign of the Cross in battle, and soon afterwards, in 326, he encouraged his Christian mother, Helen, to go to Jerusalem to find Christ’s original, true Cross.

When Helen angrily accused the Jews of Jerusalem of Christ’s murder, they held an anxious conference: they quite genuinely knew nothing about it. But they discovered that one of them, Judas, had heard about Christ from his father, a secret believer, and handed him over to Helen.

Judas was mortally afraid of what Helen might do to those she blamed for Christ’s death, but love for his father, and a week in prison without food, convinced him to co-operate. He took Helen to Calvary, and there he prayed to be guided, as God had guided Moses to the burial-place of Jacob.

As he prayed, a mist silently gathered about a small, sweet-scented basil flower.* When Judas saw it, he clapped his hands in wonder and began digging, furiously.

Jump to Part 2

Celebrations of the feast of the Cross in the Eastern Churches use sweet basil in memory of this. The feast is held on September 14th, marking the day following the consecration of the church in Jerusalem, when the cross was brought out for the people and clergy to see and venerate.

Précis

Helen, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, went to Jerusalem in 326 to find the cross on which Christ died. She found that nobody knew anything about it, except a Jew named Judas who was unwilling to speak. A week in jail and his own native honesty persuaded him to co-operate, however, and he showed Helen the site of Calvary. (59 / 60 words)

Part Two

From Leipsanothiki. Click image for more. Source

About this picture …

The reliquary of the Holy Cross kept at the Koutloumisiou monastery on Mount Athos in Greece, a present from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081-1118). Contrary to popular prejudice, calculations in the late 19th century revealed that the relics recognised as authentic by the churches of East and West would amount to less than a third of a typical Roman-era cross.

TWENTY feet down, Judas’s spade suddenly rang on some solid object. He smoothed away the sand to uncover the remains of three wooden crosses. But which of them was the cross of Christ himself?*

In some perplexity, the company sat and sang hymns until the ninth hour. It was then that Judas noticed a funeral procession passing out of the city. He snatched up some pieces of the three crosses and laid them, one after the other, on the bier. Suddenly, the dead man - a young man, robbed of life too soon - awoke as if from sleep, and sat upright.

Beginning with the fragment that had brought the young man back from the dead, the true cross was now pieced together.

Nine years later, on September 13th, 335, a magnificent new church was consecrated at the site of the Holy Sepulchre, in place of Hadrian’s pagan temple; and near the place where Christ once died his Cross was raised again, a token of everlasting life.

Copy Book

One assumes that the mocking board which read ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’ had been lost or detached.

Précis

Judas was guided by God to the place where Christ’s cross lay buried, but there he unearthed three crosses. To find the right one, they set them in turn on a dead body. The cross that restored him to life was evidently Christ’s own, and it was placed in a brand new church on the same site. (57 / 60 words)

Source

Based on ‘Elene’, by Cynewulf (possibly the 8th century bishop Cynewulf of Lindisfarne).

Suggested Music

1 2

Symphony No. 5 in D major

2: Allegretto Grazioso

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

Performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones.

Media not showing? Let me know!

Symphony No. 5 in D major

3: Andante Molto Tranquillo

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

Performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones.

Media not showing? Let me know!

Related Posts

for St Helen Finds the True Cross

Lives of the Saints

St George and the Dragon

In one of the world’s most popular legends, bold hero St George rides to the rescue of a maiden in distress.

Bible and Saints

The Last Commandment

Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf imagines the farewell between Jesus and his Apostles, forty days after his resurrection.

Bible and Saints

At Heaven’s Gate

The eighth-century English bishop and poet Cynewulf takes us to the threshold of God’s holy city, and gives us a choice.

Lives of the Saints

St George the Triumphant Martyr

One of the Emperor Galerius’s most trusted generals openly defied him.

Lives of the Saints (186)
All Stories (1522)
Worksheets (14)
Word Games (5)