Books – Muhammad Al-Ahmadi
Sunday, March 19, 2023 09:21 AM
Today, Sunday, March 19, the Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates the Feast of the Cross.
The celebration of the Feast of the Cross on this day goes back to the appearance of the Cross of Christ on the tenth day of the month of Baramhat in the year 627 AD, and it goes back to the anniversary of the success of the Roman Emperor Heraclius in restoring the base of the cross honored by Christians, which the Persians had embezzled from Jerusalem at the time during the period of successive wars between the Romans and the Persians.
The Feast of the Cross is also celebrated by the Ethiopian Church, and it is one of the important and popular Christian holidays due to the importance of the cross in the Christian belief.
Churches are always prepared to celebrate this feast 3 times a year, the first on Good Friday (the day of the crucifixion), the second is the feast of the discovery of the cross by Queen Helena, the mother of King Constantine, and the third is the recovery of the wood of the cross in the era of Emperor Heraclius from the Persians, about 14 years after it was taken.
The memory of the discovery of the wood on which Christ was crucified, which the Jews hid for many years under mounds of rubbish after his crucifixion for many years – according to Christian belief. Cross) in the year 135 Temple of the protective flower of the city of Rome.
In the year 326 AD, i.e. the year 42 according to the Coptic calendar, the Holy Cross was revealed with the knowledge of Queen Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, and she went to Jerusalem – Jerusalem today – with about 3 thousand soldiers from her son’s army. She met Saint Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, and she expressed her desire to reveal the cross. To be blessed by him, and after a great effort of searching, one of the Jews, who was very old, guided her to him.
After searching efforts, they found 3 crosses and the commemorative plate with Jesus of Nazareth written on it, King of the Jews. They were able to distinguish the cross of Christ after placing the first and second on a dead person who did not rise again.
