The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross is the feast on which the whole Church lifts up and glories in the Cross of Christ, no longer an instrument of shame but the tree of life and the throne from which the Lord reigned in the act of redeeming the world. On this day the faithful adore the Cross as the sign of God's saving love, the price of our ransom, and the pledge of victory over sin and death.

The feast recalls several great events joined to the wood of the Cross: the finding of the True Cross at Jerusalem by St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, in the early fourth century; the dedication in the year 335 of the basilicas built on Calvary and at the Holy Sepulchre; and the recovery of the relic of the Cross by the Emperor Heraclius in 629 after it had been carried off by the Persians. Celebrated on 14 September, it proclaims with St. Paul that the faithful should glory in nothing except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.