In Christian tradition, the True Cross refers to the wooden cross on which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.

Many historical accounts and legends say that Helen, the mother of Roman emperor Constantine the Great, found the True Cross at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem during her travels to the Holy Land between 326 and 328. In the late fourth century, historians Gelasius of Caesarea and Tyrannius Rufinus wrote that while Helen was there, she discovered a hiding place where three crosses were believed to have been used during Jesus's crucifixion and the execution of the two thieves, Dismas and Gestas. One cross had a sign with Jesus's name on it, but according to Rufinus, Helen was unsure if it was the True Cross until a miracle showed it was the correct one. This event is celebrated on the church calendar as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (Roodmas) by the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Persian, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican churches.

The Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches, as well as some groups of the Church of the East, claim to have relics of the True Cross that are treated with respect. Historians usually question the authenticity of these relics, as do Protestant and other Christian churches, which do not consider them important.

Provenance

In the Latin-speaking traditions of Western Europe, the story of the True Cross was widely known by the 13th century. In 1260, Bishop Jacobus de Voragine of Genoa recorded this story in a book called The Golden Legend.

The Golden Legend includes several accounts of how the True Cross came to be. In The Life of Adam, Voragine wrote that the True Cross came from three trees that grew from seeds collected by Seth and planted in the mouth of Adam’s body after his death.

Another account in Of the Invention of the Holy Cross describes the True Cross coming from a tree that grew from a part of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Seth planted this tree on Adam’s grave, and it remained there until the time of King Solomon. Alternatively, the tree was used as Moses’ staff, later planted by King David in Jerusalem. Solomon later cut down the tree to use as a beam in his temple, but it was not suitable for that purpose.

After many years, the tree was cut down again, and its wood was used to build a bridge. When Queen of Sheba crossed this bridge on her journey to meet Solomon, she was deeply moved by the wood and fell to her knees in reverence. During her visit to Solomon, she told him that a piece of this wood would one day lead to a new covenant replacing the Jewish people’s agreement with God. Solomon, fearing this change, had the wood buried.

Fourteen generations later, the wood was used to make the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Voragine then described how the cross was rediscovered by Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine.

During the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, many people accepted Voragine’s account of the cross’s history. This belief is shown in many artworks, including a famous fresco series called The Legend of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca. He painted this series on the walls of the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo between 1452 and 1466, accurately depicting the events from The Golden Legend.

According to the Eastern Orthodox Church, the True Cross was made from three types of wood: cedar, pine, and cypress. This is linked to a verse in the Bible, Isaiah 60:13, which says, “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box [cypress] together to beautify the place of my sanctuary.” The phrase “the place of my feet” in this verse is interpreted as referring to the footrest on which Jesus’s feet were nailed, a feature found on Orthodox crosses. This connects to Jewish traditions, such as the Ark of the Covenant or the Jerusalem Temple, which were seen as God’s footstool, and the Jewish festivals called aliya la-regel, meaning “ascending to the foot.”

Another tradition states that the three trees used to make the True Cross grew together in one place. A traditional Orthodox icon in the Monastery of the Cross shows Lot, the nephew of Abraham, watering these trees. According to this tradition, these trees were used to build the Temple in Jerusalem (“to beautify the place of my sanctuary”). Later, during Herod’s rebuilding of the Temple, the wood was removed and discarded. Eventually, it was used to make the cross on which Jesus was crucified (“and I will make the place of my feet glorious”).

Empress Helena and the Cross

The rediscovery of the True Cross, called the "Invention of the True Cross" (from the Latin inventio, "finding," a term no longer used in English except in this phrase), was traditionally believed to have been found by Saint Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine I. This account developed over time and became widely known.

The earliest and most important historical source about the rediscovery of the tomb of Jesus and the building of the first church at that site is The Life of Constantine by Eusebius of Caesarea, who died in 339. However, Eusebius does not mention the True Cross. He describes how the site of the Holy Sepulchre, once a place of worship for early Christians in Jerusalem, had been covered with earth and a temple of Venus built on top. This likely happened during the Roman rebuilding of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina by Emperor Hadrian in 130, following the Jewish Revolt in 70 and the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 132–135. After Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, he ordered the site to be uncovered around 325–326 and instructed Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem to build a church there. Eusebius writes about the removal of the pagan temple and the construction of the church but does not mention the discovery of the True Cross.

The first known mention of the True Cross tradition appears in the writings of Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, around 350. In his Catechetical Lectures, he notes that "the whole world has since been filled with pieces of the wood of the Cross." This suggests that parts of the cross were distributed as relics, but he does not describe how the cross was found. In a letter to Emperor Constantius, Cyril only states that the cross was discovered during Constantine’s reign.

About 40 years after Cyril, a full story about the discovery of the True Cross emerged. Cyril’s nephew, Gelasius of Caesarea, recorded this account in a lost Greek history before his death in 395. This version was later adapted by Rufinus of Aquileia in his Latin additions to Eusebius’ Church History around 402. According to this story, Saint Helena traveled to Jerusalem to find the relic. A heavenly sign revealed its location. She destroyed the temple of Aphrodite built there and uncovered three crosses beneath the rubble. With the help of Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem, the cross of Jesus was identified when it miraculously healed a seriously ill woman. A church was then built on the site, and the relic was divided, with some parts remaining in Jerusalem and others sent to Constantine along with the nails used in the crucifixion.

Nearly a century after Eusebius and 40 years after Rufinus, Socrates Scholasticus, who died around 440, wrote about the discovery of the True Cross in his Ecclesiastical History. His account is similar to Rufinus’ and was later repeated by Sozomen and Theodoret. Socrates describes how Helena destroyed the pagan temple, uncovered the tomb, and found three crosses, the titulus (the sign above Jesus’ cross), and the nails from the crucifixion. To determine which cross belonged to Jesus, Bishop Macarius had a seriously ill woman touch each of the crosses. The woman was healed only when she touched the third cross, which was identified as Jesus’ cross. Helena then sent the nails to Constantinople, where they were placed in Emperor Constantine’s helmet and the bridle of his horse.

Sozomen, who died around 450, also wrote a version of the story similar to Socrates’. He added that the location of the tomb was revealed by a Jewish man from the East who claimed to have learned about it from family documents. However, Sozomen doubted this claim. Later versions of the story mention that the Jewish man was named Jude or Judas, later converted to Christianity, and took the name Kyriakos.

Theodoret, who died around 457, wrote what became the standard version of the discovery in his Ecclesiastical History. He describes how Helena destroyed the idolatrous temple, uncovered the tomb, and found three crosses near Jesus’ tomb. Bishop Macarius resolved the question of which cross belonged to Jesus by having a seriously ill woman touch each cross. The woman was healed only when she touched the third cross, which was identified as Jesus’ cross. The nails used in the crucifixion were also found and taken to Constantinople by Helena. Theodoret notes that Helena sent part of the cross to the palace, while the rest was placed in a silver covering and entrusted to the bishop of Jerusalem to protect for future generations.

Another ancient version, from the Syriac tradition, replaces Helena with a fictional first-century empress named Protonike, wife of Emperor Claudius. This story, which originated in Edessa in the 430s, is found in the Doctrina Addai, attributed to Thaddeus of Edessa (Addai in Syriac texts), one of the seventy disciples of Jesus. In this version, Protonike traveled to Jerusalem after meeting Simon Peter in Rome. She was guided by James, the brother of Jesus, until she discovered the cross after it healed her daughter of an illness. She then converted to Christianity and built a church on Golgotha. This story was also cited by Armenian sources.

According to the 1955 Roman Catholic Marian Missal

The True Cross in Jerusalem

A silver container holding a piece of the True Cross was kept at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by the bishop. In the 380s, a nun named Egeria, who was traveling on a pilgrimage, wrote a long letter called her Itinerary describing how people honored the True Cross in Jerusalem. She described the following process:

A chair was placed for the bishop at Golgotha, behind the Cross, which stood upright. The bishop sat in the chair, and a table covered with a cloth was placed before him. Deacons stood around the table, and a silver-gilt box containing the holy wood of the Cross was brought in. The box was opened, and the wood and the title (a sign that once hung on the Cross) were placed on the table. The bishop held the ends of the sacred wood while the deacons watched over it. This was done because people, including both Christians and those preparing to become Christians, came one by one to bow, kiss the wood, and pass through. This protection was needed because, at some point in the past, someone had stolen a piece of the wood. As each person passed, they bowed, touched the Cross and title with their foreheads and eyes, and kissed the Cross, but did not touch it with their hands. Afterward, a deacon held the ring of Solomon and the horn used to anoint kings, and people kissed the horn and looked at the ring.

Later, but possibly not until after Egeria’s visit, people could also venerate the crown of thorns, the pillar where Jesus was whipped, and the lance that pierced his side.

In 614, the Sassanid Emperor Khosrau II took the part of the Cross in Jerusalem as a trophy after capturing the city. Thirteen years later, in 628, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius defeated Khosrau and recovered the relic from Shahrbaraz. Heraclius first placed the Cross in Constantinople before returning it to Jerusalem on March 21, 630. Some scholars disagree with this story, with one, Constantin Zuckerman, suggesting the True Cross was lost by the Persians and that the wood in the reliquary brought back by Heraclius was fake. He believed the fake was created to serve political goals for Heraclius and Shahrbaraz, who had become allies.

After the First Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 638, Heraclius retrieved the True Cross but did not try to reclaim the city.

In 1009, the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Christians in Jerusalem hid part of the Cross, and it remained hidden until the city was captured by European soldiers during the First Crusade. Arnulf Malecorne, the first Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, forced Greek Orthodox priests to reveal the Cross’s location through torture. The relic he found was a small piece of wood in a golden cross, which became the most sacred object in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was displayed in a decorated container of gold and silver in a chapel at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, guarded by canons and knights. A second chapel nearby, overseen by the Syrian Orthodox, held another reliquary with their fragment of the Cross. The Latin fragment was carried into battles against Muslim forces.

Throughout the liturgical year, the Latin patriarch led masses in churches around Jerusalem, each celebrating a part of Jesus’s life. Holy Week events centered on the Holy Sepulchre and its fragment of the True Cross. On Good Friday, during morning prayers, the Latin relic was carried to the Calvary chapel, where Jesus was believed to have been crucified, and venerated by the patriarch, canons, and pilgrims until midday. Before the Holy Saturday liturgy, four pilgrims chosen by the patriarch, led by a thurifer and two acolytes, carried the relic from its chapel to the Holy Sepulchre’s edicule while the congregation waited with unlit candles. A New Fire would "spontaneously" light inside the sepulchre. The crossbearer would light his candle from the fire, walk through the church, and light the patriarch’s candle. The canons and congregation then lit their candles one by one, gradually filling the church with light.

In 1110, after the Norwegian Crusade, King Baldwin I of Jerusalem gave a splinter of the True Cross to King Sigurd I of Norway. The Cross was captured by Saladin during the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Though some rulers, like Richard the Lionheart, Isaac II of Byzantium, and Tamar of Georgia, tried to buy it back, it was not returned. In 1219, Al-Kamil offered the Cross to the Knights Templar in exchange for ending the siege of Damietta, but the Cross was never delivered. It disappeared from records after the Battle of Hattin, with its last known location being Damascus.

The Greek Orthodox Church displays a small relic of the True Cross in the Greek Treasury at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, near Golgotha. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims a small relic in the Monastery of Saint Mark in Jerusalem, and the Armenian Apostolic Church claims a relic in Armenia. According to the 15th-century Book of Ṭeff Grains, Emperor Dawit I of Ethiopia received four fragments of the True Cross around 1400 from Coptic Christians as thanks for his protection. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church says these fragments are still kept at Egziabher Ab or Tekle Maryam, two monasteries near Amba Geshen.

Dispersion of relics

An inscription from the year 359, found in Tixter near Sétif in Mauretania (modern-day Algeria), mentions a piece of the True Cross in a list of relics, according to an entry in Roman Miscellanies, X, 441.

Pieces of the cross were broken and spread widely. In 348, Cyril of Jerusalem wrote in one of his Catecheses that "the whole Earth is full of the relics of the Cross of Christ." In another, he said, "The holy wood of the Cross bears witness, seen among us to this day, and from this place now almost filling the whole world, by means of those who in faith take portions from it." Egeria's account shows how highly these relics were valued. John Chrysostom wrote that fragments of the True Cross were kept in golden reliquaries, "which men reverently wear upon their persons." Two Latin inscriptions from around 350 in modern-day Algeria also show that small pieces of the cross were kept and admired. Around 455, Juvenal, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, sent a fragment of the "precious wood" to Pope Leo I, as recorded in The Letters of Pope Leo. A portion of the cross was taken to Rome in the seventh century by Pope Sergius I, who was of Byzantine origin. An inscription in the Felix Basilica of Nola, built by Bishop Paulinus in the early 5th century, says, "In the small part is power of the whole cross." The cross particle was placed in the altar.

The Old English poem Dream of the Rood mentions the discovery of the cross and the start of the tradition of honoring its relics. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also mentions King Alfred receiving a fragment of the cross from Pope Marinus (see: Annal Alfred the Great, year 883). However, the poem may not refer to this specific relic or this event. A later source describes a gift made to the 'Holy Cross' at Shaftesbury Abbey in Dorset. Shaftesbury Abbey was founded by King Alfred, supported with state funds, and placed under the care of his daughter while he was alive. It is possible that if Alfred received the relic, he gave it to the nuns at Shaftesbury.

Most of the small relics of the True Cross in Europe came from Constantinople. The city was captured and destroyed by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Chronica Regia Coloniensis reports that "After the conquest of Constantinople, inestimable wealth was found: incomparably precious jewels and also a part of the cross of the Lord, which Helena transferred from Jerusalem and [which] was decorated with gold and precious jewels. There it attained [the] highest admiration. It was carved up by the present bishops and was divided with other very precious relics among the knights; later, after their return to the homeland, it was donated to churches and monasteries." The French knight Robert de Clari wrote that "within this chapel were found many precious relics; for therein were found two pieces of the True Cross, as thick as a man's leg and a fathom in length."

Confusion, exaggeration, and outright forgery of relics, including those of the Holy Cross, were common during the Medieval Age. This often happened to attract pilgrims or to support the practice of simony (the sale of church positions or favors).

Smyrnakis notes that the largest surviving piece, measuring 870,760 cubic millimeters, is kept in the Monastery of Koutloumousiou on Mount Athos. Other preserved relics are in Rome (537,587 cubic millimeters), Brussels (516,090 cubic millimeters), Venice (445,582 cubic millimeters), Ghent (436,450 cubic millimeters), and Paris (237,731 cubic millimeters).

Santo Toribio de Liébana in Spain is said to hold the largest piece of the cross and is one of the most visited Roman Catholic pilgrimage sites. In Asia, the other part of the True Cross is said to be in the Monasterio de Tarlac in San Jose, Tarlac, Philippines.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims to have the right wing of the True Cross buried in the monastery of Gishen Mariam. This piece was given by the Venetian Republic to the Ethiopian Empire during the medieval period and remained in the possession of the Atse Emperor until the 18th century. It was even lost in battle before being buried atop Amba Geshen.

In 2016, a relic of the True Cross held by Waterford Cathedral in Ireland was tested using a method called radiocarbon dating, and it was found to be from the 11th century by Oxford University.

In February 2020, the Sevastopol district archpriest Sergiy Khalyuta said that a piece of the True Cross was bought by a donor and was to be placed on board the Russian missile cruiser Moskva, which has a chapel on board. The ship sank in April 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After the sinking, there was speculation that the fragment may have gone down with the ship.

By the end of the Middle Ages, so many churches claimed to possess relics of the True Cross that John Calvin famously remarked that there was enough wood in them to fill a ship:

"There is no abbey so poor as not to have a specimen. In some places there are large fragments, as at the Holy Chapel in Paris, at Poitiers, and at Rome, where a good-sized crucifix is said to have been made of it. In brief, if all the pieces that could be found were collected together, they would make a big ship-load. Yet the Gospel testifies that a single man was able to carry it."

— Calvin, Treatise on Relics

Conflicting with this is the finding of Charles Rohault de Fleury, who, in his Mémoire sur les instruments de la Passion of 1870, studied the relics in response to criticisms from people like Calvin and Erasmus. He created a list of all known relics of the True Cross, showing that, despite claims by authors, the fragments collected together would not reach one-third the size of a cross assumed to have been three or four meters (9.8 or 13.1 feet) in height, with a transverse branch two meters (6.6 feet) wide, proportions not unusual. He calculated: assuming the cross was made of pine-wood (based on his microscopic analysis of the fragments) and giving it a weight of about seventy-five kilograms, the original volume of the cross would be 0.178 cubic meters (6.286 cubic feet). The total known volume of relics of the True Cross, according to his list, is approximately 0.004 cubic meters (0.141 cubic feet) (or 3,942,000 cubic millimeters), leaving a volume of 0.174 cubic meters (6.145 cubic feet), or nearly 98%, unaccounted for, lost, or destroyed. Four cross particles—of ten particles with surviving documentary provenances by Byzantine emperors—from

Veneration

John Chrysostom wrote about the three crosses. He described how kings removed their crowns and carried the cross, the symbol of their Savior’s death. The cross appeared on royal robes, in prayers, on armor, on holy tables, and throughout the world. The cross shines brighter than the sun.

The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and some Protestant churches celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14. This date marks the anniversary of the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Later, these celebrations also honored the rescue of the True Cross from the Persians in 628. In Galicia, the Feast of the Cross was celebrated on May 3 beginning around the seventh century. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, when Galician and Roman traditions were combined, the September date became known as “Triumph of the Cross” in 1963. This date commemorates the rescue from the Persians, while May 3 was kept as “Invention of the True Cross” to remember the discovery of the cross. In the West, September 14 is often called Holy Cross Day. The May date was removed from the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar in 1960 when the Roman Breviary was revised by Pope John XXIII. The Orthodox Church still celebrates both events on September 14, one of the Twelve Great Feasts. They also hold a Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Cross on August 1, when relics of the True Cross were carried through Constantinople to bless the city.

In addition to fixed dates, the Cross is honored on certain variable days. The Catholic Church includes a formal Adoration of the Cross during Good Friday services. In Eastern Orthodox churches, a replica of the cross is brought out in procession during Matins of Great and Holy Friday for people to venerate. The Orthodox also celebrate an additional Veneration of the Cross on the third Sunday of Great Lent.