Finding the Cross
Finding the Cross is the name of a festival celebrated on March 6 or May 7 of the church year in Orthodox churches and earlier on May 3 in the Roman Catholic Church to commemorate the discovery of the Holy Cross by St. Helena .
Liturgy and Customs
In the course of the reorganization of the liturgical calendar through the Motu proprio Rubricarum instructum of St. John XXIII (1960) the feast of the finding of the cross, from which the weather blessing was donated earlier in the church year , is only celebrated regionally and in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite. In the ordinary form of the Roman rite , the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14th also commemorates the finding of the Holy Cross.
Regardless of the change in the liturgical calendar, May 3rd remains an important date in many places, for example in Freckenhorst in Westphalia or in Gau-Bickelheim in Rheinhessen. The festival is celebrated there on May 3rd or the following Sunday, in Freckenhorst under the name Krüßing . In Spain and Latin America it is called Fiesta de las Cruces (Festival of the Crosses), also Invención de la Santa Cruz (Finding the Holy Cross) or Cruz de Mayo / Cruzes de Mayo (May Cross / May Crosses). It is an important expression of popular piety, especially in Mexico , Guatemala and El Salvador as well as the Andean countries .
Lore
The legend of the finding of the cross has been handed down in three different versions. The original version is the Helena legend, the existence of which has been documented since the 390s. Accordingly, Helena , mother of the Roman emperor Constantine , traveled to the Holy Land . The cross of Christ was found around the year 325 according to the bishop's advice during excavation work carried out under a pagan temple on the instructions of the empress. Of the three crosses, according to the report of Ambrose of Milan , the cross of Jesus was identified by the titulus , and according to medieval legends by a resurrection when the cross was touched. Some of the cross relics were taken by St. Helena, according to these reports, went to Constantinople , the rest of them are said to have stayed in Jerusalem . Further historical backgrounds can also be found under Exaltation of the Cross .
The Protonike legend and the legend about a martyr named Judas Cyriacus are derived from this . In the legend of Judas Cyriacus, it is not Helena but the Jew Judas who finds the cross. After the discovery, he converted to Christianity, took the Christian nickname Cyriacus and later became Bishop of Jerusalem. This version was very popular in the Middle Ages.
The protonic legend differs significantly from both versions, because in it the events were brought forward from the 4th to the 1st century. The main character is Protonike, a legendary wife of the Roman emperor Claudius . The name Protonike means "first victory" and stands for the victory of Christianity over the Gentiles and especially over the Jews. Protonike traveled to Jerusalem with her two sons and a virgin daughter, where she wished to see Mount Golgotha and the cross of Jesus. The head of the Jerusalem church explained to her that Golgotha was in Jewish possession, that the Jews would oppress the Christians and not allow them access. Protonike ordered the superiors of the Jews to hand over the Golgotha to the Christians. When this was done Protonike went there and found three crosses in Jesus' tomb. Upon entering the tomb, the virgin daughter immediately fell dead. Her eldest son then said that Christ would not allow anyone who believed in him to die because of him. So Protonike took one of the crosses, placed it on the girl's dead body and prayed. When this had no effect, she tried the same unsuccessfully with the second cross. Only when she took the third cross and held it over her dead daughter did she immediately return to life. With this the cross of Christ was identified. Protonike had a church built over the place and returned to Rome. There she told Claudius about the events, whereupon the emperor asked all Jews to leave Italy.
The protonic legend has only survived in Syrian and later in Armenian ; versions of the other two are known in Latin , Greek and Aramaic . At a later time, possibly in the 5th century, the Protonike legend was incorporated into the Doctrina Addai . This is the founding legend of Edessa (today Şanlıurfa ), with which the city should be declared one of the most important Christian centers.
The medieval Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine expanded the narrative of the finding of the cross with a prehistory: Seth received a branch from the tree of knowledge to plant on the grave of his father Adam . Solomon had the tree that grew out of it cut down for construction, but the builders rejected it as unsuitable and laid it as a footbridge over a body of water. The Queen of Sheba recognized the beam as the future wood of the cross and warned Solomon that someone would hang on this wood who would destroy the Jewish Empire. Solomon had the beam buried, a pond was created on the spot and as the passion of Christ approached, the beam floated up and was used for the erection of the cross of Christ.
Historical view
The oldest surviving text version of the discovery of the cross of Christ is the funeral oration of Bishop Ambrose for the Roman Emperor Theodosius I in 395. A version written in Greek by Bishop Gelasius of Caesarea († 395) around 390 was lost. Rufinus of Aquileia made a Latin translation of her at the beginning of the 5th century, which he included in his Church History (Historia Ecclesiastica) . This text by Rufinus forms the starting point for the further transmission of the Helena legend in Latin and Greek.
There are no non-Christian sources about the finding of the cross. The stories differ from one another in essential points. Archaeological finds and the like do not exist. According to Roman Catholic and Orthodox perspectives, the cross is said to have been found at the site of the Chapel of the Cross in Jerusalem .
See also
literature
- Carla Heussler: De Cruce Christi. Finding the Cross and Exalting the Cross. Functional change and historicization in the post-Tridentine period (= icon image + theology. ). Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2006, ISBN 3-506-71373-6 , (At the same time: Stuttgart, University, dissertation, 2003; online ).
- Stefan Heid : The origin of the Helena legend in the pilgrimage of Jerusalem. In: Jahrbuch für Antike und Christianentum 32 (1989), pp. 41–71.
- Stefan Heid: The good intention in Euseb's silence about finding the cross. In: Roman quarterly for Christian antiquity and church history 96 (2001), pp. 37–56.
Web links
- Raphael Karelin: The Exaltation of the True and Animating Cross of the Lord.
- Matthias Altmann: Forgotten or Abolished: Unknown Church Holidays. In: kathisch.de . 15th September 2019 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Jan Willem Drijvers: The Protonike Legend, the Doctrina Addai and Bishop Rabbula of Edessa. In: Vigiliae Christianae. Vol. 51, No. 3, August 1997, pp. 298-315, here pp. 298-303, doi : 10.1163 / 157007297X00228 .
- ↑ Jacobus de Voragine: Legenda aurea. German by Richard Benz, Jena, 1925, (retelling) also digital: Kreuzfindung
- ↑ Helena found the cross. Ambrosius, funeral speech for Theodosius.
- ^ Jan Willem Drijvers: The Protonike Legend, the Doctrina Addai and Bishop Rabbula of Edessa. In: Vigiliae Christianae. Vol. 51, No. 3, August 1997, pp. 298-315, here p. 298, doi : 10.1163 / 157007297X00228 .