In Christian tradition, the True Cross is the wooden cross on which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.
Many historical stories 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 visit to the Holy Land between 326 and 328. Fourth-century historians Gelasius of Caesarea and Tyrannius Rufinus wrote that Helen discovered the hiding place of three crosses believed to have been used during the crucifixion of Jesus and the two thieves, Dismas and Gestas, who were executed with him. One cross had a sign with Jesus's name, but Rufinus said Helen was unsure if it was the True Cross until a miracle showed it was. This event is celebrated 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, along with some groups from the Church of the East, claim to have relics of the True Cross that are honored. However, many historians and Protestant and other Christian churches do not believe the relics are real.
Provenance
By the 13th century, the story of the True Cross was widely known in Latin-speaking traditions of Western Europe. In 1260, Bishop Jacobus de Voragine of Genoa recorded this story in The Golden Legend.
The Golden Legend includes multiple accounts of the True Cross’s origin. In The Life of Adam, Voragine describes how the True Cross came from three trees. These trees grew from seeds collected by Seth and planted in the mouth of Adam’s body after his death.
Another version, found in Of the Invention of the Holy Cross, explains that the True Cross came 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. Some accounts say the tree was used as the staff of Moses and later planted by King David in Jerusalem. Solomon later cut the tree down to use as a beam in his temple, but it was not suitable for this purpose.
Centuries later, the tree was cut down again, and its wood was used to build a bridge. Queen of Sheba, upon crossing the bridge, was deeply moved and fell to her knees in reverence. She told Solomon that a piece of the bridge’s wood would one day replace God’s covenant with the Jewish people with a new order. Fearing this prophecy, Solomon buried the wood.
Fourteen generations later, the wood was used to make the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Voragine later describes how this 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 The Legend of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca. He painted this famous fresco cycle on the walls of the chancel of the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo between 1452 and 1466. His work faithfully depicts the events from The Golden Legend.
According to the sacred traditions of 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 Isaiah 60:13, which mentions these trees beautifying God’s sanctuary. The phrase “the place of my feet” in the verse is interpreted as referring to the footrest on which Jesus’s feet were nailed during his crucifixion. This is shown on the Orthodox cross.
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 tradition, these trees were later used to build the Temple in Jerusalem. 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.
Empress Helena and the Cross
The rediscovery of the True Cross, known as the "Invention of the True Cross" (from the Latin word "inventio," meaning "finding"), is traditionally credited to Saint Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine I. This account developed over time and is not mentioned in the earliest historical records.
The Life of Constantine by Eusebius of Caesarea, who died in 339, is the oldest and most important source about the rediscovery of Jesus' tomb and the construction of the first church at the site. 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 to Venus built on top. This likely happened during the Roman rebuilding of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina under Emperor Hadrian in 130, following the Jewish Revolt in 70 and the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 132–135. After Constantine converted to Christianity, he ordered the site to be uncovered and a church built there around 325–326. Eusebius writes about the demolition of the pagan temple and the church’s construction but does not mention the discovery of the True Cross.
The first known reference to the True Cross tradition appears in the writings of Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (c. 350–386). In his Catechetical Lectures (around 350), Cyril notes that pieces of the cross were distributed as relics but 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 forty years later, a full story about the discovery of the True Cross emerged. Cyril’s nephew, Gelasius of Caesarea, recorded this account in a lost Greek work before his death in 395. This version was later adapted by Rufinus of Aquileia in his Latin additions to Eusebius’ Church History around 402. In this story, Saint Helena traveled to Jerusalem and, guided by a divine sign, destroyed the temple of Aphrodite. Beneath the ruins, she found three crosses. With the help of Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem, the cross of Jesus was identified when it healed a seriously ill woman. A church was built at the site, and the relic was divided, with part remaining in Jerusalem and part sent to Constantine along with the nails from the cross.
Nearly a century after Eusebius and forty years after Rufinus, Socrates Scholasticus (died c. 440) described the discovery of the cross in his Ecclesiastical History. His account, later repeated by Sozomen and Theodoret, closely matches Rufinus’ version. Socrates writes that Helena destroyed the pagan temple and uncovered the tomb, where three crosses and the nails from Jesus’ crucifixion were found. A seriously ill woman was healed only after touching the third cross, which was identified as Jesus’ cross. Helena also sent the nails to Constantinople, where they were placed in the emperor’s helmet and horse’s bridle.
Sozomen (died c. 450) gives a similar account in his Ecclesiastical History. He adds that some sources claim a Jewish man from the East revealed the location of the tomb through inherited documents. This man is said to have been revived by touching the cross, though Sozomen questions this claim. Later versions of the story name the man Jude or Judas, who later converted to Christianity and took the name Kyriakos.
Theodoret (died c. 457) in his Ecclesiastical History provides what became the standard version of the discovery. He writes that the nails were also found and taken by Helena to Constantinople. 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 for safekeeping.
Another ancient version from the Syriac tradition replaces Helena with a fictional first-century empress named Protonike, wife of Emperor Claudius. This story, originating 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. In this version, Protonike travels to Jerusalem after meeting Simon Peter in Rome. She is guided by James, Jesus’ brother, and discovers the cross after it heals her daughter. She converts to Christianity and builds a church on Golgotha. This version was also cited by Armenian sources.
According to the 1955 Roman Catholic Marian Missal, Saint Helena found the True Cross on September 14, 320. In the 8th century, the Feast of the Finding was moved to May 3, and September 14 became the celebration of the "Exaltation of the Cross," commemorating a Byzantine victory over the Persians by Emperor Heraclius. This victory led to the relic’s recovery and return to Jerusalem.
The True Cross in Jerusalem
A silver reliquary was kept at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre by the bishop of Jerusalem. It was shown to people of faith from time to time. In the 380s, a nun named Egeria, who was traveling on a pilgrimage, described how people honored the True Cross in Jerusalem in a long letter she sent to her convent. This letter is called her Itinerary (Latin: Itinerarium Egeriae).
Soon after Egeria’s visit, people could also honor other holy items, such as the crown of thorns, the pillar where Christ was whipped, and the lance that pierced His side.
In 614, the Sassanid Emperor Khosrau II took part of the True Cross from 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. He first placed the cross in Constantinople, then returned it to Jerusalem on March 21, 630. Some scholars disagree with this story, and one, Constantin Zuckerman, suggested that the True Cross might have been lost by the Persians, and the wood in the reliquary brought back by Heraclius was not genuine. He believed the fake relic was used for political reasons by Heraclius and Shahrbaraz.
After the First Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 638, Heraclius retrieved the True Cross but did not try to retake 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 recovered was a small piece of wood in a golden cross. This became the most sacred relic of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, without the controversy that followed the discovery of the Holy Lance in Antioch. The relic was displayed in a gold and silver case in a chapel at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, protected by knights and overseen by canons. A second chapel nearby, managed by Syrian Orthodox priests, held another reliquary with a fragment of the cross. The Latin fragment was carried into battle against the Muslims.
Throughout each liturgical year, the Latin patriarch led masses at churches in Jerusalem that celebrated parts of Jesus’s life. Holy Week events were closely tied to the Holy Sepulchre and its fragment of the True Cross. On Good Friday, the Latin relic was carried to the chapel of Calvary, near where Jesus was crucified, and venerated by the patriarch, canons, and pilgrims. Before the Holy Saturday liturgy, four pilgrims chosen by the patriarch—led by a thurifer and two acolytes—brought the relic to the 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. Then, the canons and congregation lit their candles one by one, filling the church with light.
In 1110, King Baldwin I of Jerusalem gave a splinter of the True Cross to King Sigurd I of Norway after the Norwegian Crusade. The cross was later captured by Saladin during the Battle of Hattin in 1187. Though some rulers, like Richard the Lionheart and King Tamar of Georgia, tried to recover it, the cross was never 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 fragment in the Monastery of Saint Mark in Jerusalem, and the Armenian Apostolic Church holds a relic in Armenia. According to the 15th-century Book of Ṭeff Grains, Emperor Dawit I received four fragments of the True Cross around 1400 from Coptic Christians. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims these relics are still kept at Egziabher Ab or Tekle Maryam, two monasteries near the former imperial cemetery on Amba Geshen.
Dispersion of relics
In 359, an inscription found in Tixter, near Sétif in Mauretania (modern-day Algeria), mentioned a piece of the True Cross in a list of relics, according to an entry in Roman Miscellanies, X, 441.
Pieces of the True Cross were broken and shared 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" and that "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 writings show how much people valued these relics. John Chrysostom wrote that fragments of the True Cross were kept in golden containers, "which men reverently wear upon their persons." Two Latin inscriptions from around 350 in modern-day Algeria also mention the keeping and admiration of small pieces of the cross. 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, states, "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 be based on this event. A later source mentions 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 truly received this relic, he may have given it to the nuns at Shaftesbury.
Most small relics of the True Cross in Europe came from Constantinople. The city was captured and destroyed by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The 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." 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 about which relics of the Holy Cross (and other relics) belonged to certain groups, or the outright creation of fake relics, was a common issue during the Medieval Age. This often happened to attract pilgrims or to support the practice of simony, which involved selling church positions.
Smyrnakis notes that the largest surviving piece, measuring 870,760 cubic millimeters, is kept in the Monastery of Koutloumousiou on Mount Athos. He also mentions preserved relics 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 only other known part of the True Cross is in the Monasterio de Tarlac at 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 Atse Emperor’s personal possession until the 18th century, even being 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 and 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 have relics of the True Cross that John Calvin famously said there was enough wood in them to fill a ship.
Conflicting with this was the work 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 some authors, the collected fragments would not reach one-third the size of a cross assumed to have been three to four meters (9.8 to 13.1
Veneration
John Chrysostom wrote teachings about the three crosses.
Many Christian groups, including 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 when the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was completed. Later, these celebrations also honored the rescue of the True Cross from the Persians in 628. In some regions, like Galicia, the Feast of the Cross was celebrated on May 3 starting 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 remembered the rescue from the Persians, while the May date was kept as "Invention of the True Cross" to honor the discovery of the cross. In the West, September 14 is often called Holy Cross Day. The May date, also known as Roodmas, was removed from the Catholic Church’s calendar in 1960 when the Roman Breviary was changed by Pope John XXI. Orthodox churches still celebrate both events on September 14, one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the year, and also hold a Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Cross on August 1. On this day, relics of the True Cross were carried through Constantinople to bless the city.
In addition to fixed dates, the Cross is honored on certain days that change each year. The Catholic Church includes a formal Adoration of the Cross during services for Good Friday. In Eastern Orthodox churches, a replica of the cross is brought out in procession during Matins of Great and Holy Friday so people can honor it. The Orthodox also venerate the Cross again on the third Sunday of Great Lent.