True Cross

According to Christian tradition, the True Cross is the cross on which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.

It is related by numerous historical accounts and legends that Helena, the mother of Roman emperor Constantine the Great, recovered the True Cross at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, when she travelled to the Holy Land in the years 326–328. The late fourth-century historians Gelasius of Caesarea and Tyrannius Rufinus wrote that while Helena was there, she discovered the hiding place of three crosses that were believed to have been used at the crucifixion of Jesus and the two thieves, Dismas and Gestas, who were executed with him. To one cross was affixed the titulus bearing Jesus' name, but according to Rufinus, Helena was unsure of its legitimacy until a miracle revealed that it was the True Cross.^[a] This event is celebrated on the liturgical 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 Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, and the Church of the East all claim to possess relics of the True Cross as objects of veneration. Historians generally dispute the authenticity of the relics, as do Protestant and other Christian churches, who do not hold them in high regard.^[2]

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