The Miraculous Discovery of the True Cross of Christ

The finding of the True Cross,  Nicola Filotesio, aka, Cola dell'Amatrice, c. 1516.

Emperor Constantine, upon becoming Christian, wished to locate the True Cross. He sent his mother, Saint Helen, herself deeply devout, to Jerusalem with a letter to the Patriarch Saint Macarius. Centuries earlier, the Emperor Hadrian had constructed pagan temples over Golgotha and the Holy Sepulcher. St. Helen ordered these destroyed. A Hebrew source said that the True Cross of Christ’s Crucifixion was under the Temple to Venus on Golgotha. Excavations revealed three crosses, four nails, and a sign inscribed in Greek, Aramaic, and Latin: "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews." Of the three crosses they could not discern which was the True Cross. An ailing woman was brought forward and instructed to kiss the crosses. After kissing the True Cross, she was healed. Popular piety attests that a funeral procession was halted and the corpse placed on each of the crosses. When laid upon the True Cross, the deceased was miraculously restored to life. St. Macarius lifted up the Sacred Cross of the Savior’s Supreme Sacrifice for the people to see. All present venerated it with solemn exclamations of praise.