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 CROSS

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CROSS

178,000,000 cubic millimetres. Now the total known volume of the True Cross, according to the finding of M. Rohiuilt de Fleury, amoimts to above 4,000,000 cubic millimetres, allowing the missing part to be as big as we will, the lost parts or the parts the existence of which has been overlooked, we still find ourselves far short of 178,000,000 cubic millimetres, which should make up the True Cross.

(4) Principal Feasts of the Cross. — The feast of the Cross, like so many other liturgical feasts, had its origin at Jerusalem, and is connected with the com- memoration of the Finding of the Cross and the buikl- ing, by Constantine, of churches upon the sites of the Holy Sepulchre and Calvary. In 335 the dedication of these churches was celebrated with great solemnity by the bishops who had assisted at the Council of Tyre, and a great number of other bishops. This dedication took place on the 13th and 14th of Septem- ber. This feast of the dedioetion, which was known by the name of the Enccmia, was most solemn; it was on an equal footing with those of the Epiphany and Easter. The description of it should be read in the " Peregrinatio ", which is of great value upon this sub- ject of liturgical origins. This solemnity attracted to Jerusalem a great number of monks, from Meso- potamia, from Syria, from Egyjit, from the Thebaid, and from other provinces, besides laity of both sexes. Not fewer than forty or fifty bishops would journey from their dioceses to be present at Jerusalem for the event. The feast was considered as of obligation, " and he thinks himself guilty of a grave sin who during this period does not attend the great solemnity". It lasted eight days. In Jerusalem, then, this feast bore an entirely local character. It passed, like so many other feasts, to Constantinople and thence to Rome. There was also an endeavour to give it a local feeling, and the church of "The Holy Cross in Jerusalem" was intended, as its name indicates, to recall the memory of the church at Jerusalem bearing the same dedication.

The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross sprang into existence at Rome at the end of the seventh century. Allusion is made to it during the pontificate of Ser- gius I (687-701), but, as Dom Baumer observes, the very terms of the text (Lib. Pontif., I, 374, 378) show that the feast already existed. It is, then, inexact, as has often been pointed out, to attribute the introduction of it to this pope. The Galilean churches, which, at the period here referred to, do not yet know of this feast of the 14th September, have another on the 3rd of May, of the same signification. It seems to have been introduced there in the seventh century, for ancient Galilean documents, such as the Lectionary of Luxeuil, do not mention it ; Gregory of Tours also seems to ignore it. According to Mgr. Duchesne, the date seems to have been borrowed from the legend of the Finding of the Holy Cross (Lib. Pontif., I, p. cviii). Later, when the Galilean and Roman Liturgies were combined, a distinct character was given to each feast, so as to avoid sacrificing either. The 3rd of May was called the feast of the Invention of the Cross, and it commemorated in a special manner Saint Helena's discovery of the sacred wood of the Cross; the 14th of Sejit ember, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, commemorated above all the circumstances in which Hcraclius recovered from the Persians the True Cross, wliii-h tlioy had carried off. Nevertheless, it appears from the history of the two feasts, which we have just examined, that that of the 13th and 14th of September is the older, and that the commemoration of the Finding of the Cross was at first combined with it.

The Good Friday ceremony of the Adoration of the Cross also had its origin in Jerusalem, .as we have seen, and is afaitliful reproduction of the rites of .\doration of the Cross of the fourth century in Jerusalem which have been described above, in accordance with the

description given by the author of the " Peregrinatio ". This worship paid to the Cross in Jerusalem on Good Friday soon became general. Gregory of Tours speaks of the Wednesday and Friday consecrated to tlie Cross — probably the Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week. (Cf. Greg., De Gloria Mart. I, v.) The most ancient adoration of the Cross in the Roman Church is described in the "Ordo Romanus" generally attributed to Saint Gregory. It is performed, accord- ing to this "Ordo", just as it is nowadays, after a series of responsory prayers. The cross is prepared before the altar; priests, deacons, subdeacons, clerics of the inferior grades, and lastly the people, each one comes in his turn; they salute the cross, during the singing of the anthem, " Ecce lignum crucis in quo salus niundi pependit. Venite, adoremus" (Behokl the wood of the cross on which the salvation of the world did hang. Come, let us adore) and then Ps. cxviii. (See Mabillon, Mus. Ital., Paris, 1689, II, 23.) The Latin Church has kept until to-day the same liturgical features in the ceremony of Good Fri- day, added to it is the song of the Improperia and the hymn of the Cross, " Range, lingua, gloriosi lauream cert aminis ' '.

Besides the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday and the September feast, the Greeks have still another feast of the Adoration of the Cross on the 1st of August as well as on the third Sunday in Lent. It is probable that Gregory the Great was acquainted with this feast during his stay in Constantinople, and that the sta- tion of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, on La>tare Sun- day (the fourth Sunday in Lent), is a souvenir, or a timid effort at imitation, of the Byzantine solemnity.

On the theoJngy of the subject, St. Thom-\s, Summa TheoL, III, Q. XXV, aa. 3 and 4, with which cf. Idolatry, the controversy in The Tablet from 22 June to 21 Sept., 1907. Peta«us, De Incamat., XV, xv-xviii; Bell.\rmine. De Imaginibus Sancto- Turn, II. xxiv; Theodore the Studite, Adv. Jconomachos in P. G., XCIX. For the controversy in the time of Charlemagne, GoNDi OF Orleans. De Cultu Imaginum, P. L., CVI, 305 sq^; DoNGAL, Liber adversus Claudium Taurinensem, P. L., CV, 457 sq. ; Amalarius, De oi^ciis eccles., I, xvi, P. L., CV, 1028 sq.; PsEUDo-ALCtTiN, Officia et Oratt. de Cruce, P. L., CI, 1207 sq.; Rabanus Mauhhs, De Laudibus S. Crucis. P. L., CVII, 133; ScOTtJs Eriugena, De Christo Crucifixo, P. L., CXLI, 345.

On the cult of the Cross in pre-Christian times: Brock, The Cross, Heathen and Christian (London, 1880), criticized by DE Harley in Diet. aval, de la fai catholiqueiPans, 1891). 670-78; de Harlet, Pretendue origine pazenne de la Croix in La Contro- verse (1882), IV, 705-32; cf. La Croix et le Crucifix, ibid. (1887), IX, 386-404. and La croiz chez les Chinois, ibid. (1886), VII, 589; Bring-Mouton, De NotA Christianismi Ambigud Cruce (London, 1745); Saint Felix-Mauremont, De la croix con- sideree comme signe hieroglyphique d'adoration et de salut in Bulletin de la soc. archeol. du midi de la France (1836-37), III. 183; Laj.^rd, Observatiotis sur Vorigine et la signification da symbole appete la croix ansee in Memoires de I'acad. des inscr. (1846); Rapp, Das Labarum u. der Sonnencultus in Jahrb. (Bonn, 1866), XXXIX. XL; MOller, Veber Sterne, Kreuze. u. Krdnze ah retigivse Symbole der alien Kulturviilker (Copen- hagen, 18651; Mortillet, Le signe de la croix avant le chris- tianisme (Paris. 1886)— cf. Nuova Antologia (1867), 797, 805. and Rerur Chiqw- (1S66). 297; Verths, Du culte de la croix avnnf .T C in I-;-: M7i-. de la Soc. Hist. Archeol. de Chdteau- rin. 1^:. 1^,!, I\, 135-194; Btsssen, Das Symbol des

Ki' ' \ ■ Ji H. die Entstehung des Kreuz-Siimbols

d,x <■. A, '. .Iterlin, 1876); Hochart. Le symbole

dr la ,-,,.,., Ill .1/1/1. ./, la lac. litt. de Bordeaux (1886); RoBlou, Ob^^ermlioiis sur les signes hierogli/phiques qui peuvent rappeler la figure de la Croix in Science cath. (1890), IV, 465-471; As- sault, Le culte de la croix avant J.-C. (Paris, 1889); Id., M{- nwire sur le culte de la croix avant J.-C. (Paris, 1891) : Lafargue. Le culte de la croix avant J.-C. in Rev. cath. de Bordeaux (1891), XIII, 321-330; Pre-Christian Cross in Ed. Rev. (1870), CXXXI, 222; Meyer, Die Gesch. de^ Kreuzholzes von Christus in .46- handl. philos.-philol. bayer. Akad. (1882). XVI. 101, 116.

On crosses m general: Borgia. De Cruce Vaticand (Rome, 1774); Id.. De Cruce Velitenui (Rome. 17S0); Gretser. De Cruce Christi (2 vols. 4°. Ingoldstadt. 1600) and 4th ed. of the same, enlarged, in 0pp. Omnia (l(ilS); Bosio, Crux tri- umphans et Gloriosa (.\ntwern, 1617); Decker, De Staurolatriil RomanA (Hanover, 1617); BASlurs, De Veterum Chri.ftiano- rum Ritibus (Rome, 1647>; SrHi.icHTER. De Cruce apud Judaos, Christiannx ri '7, ,,/:',,• ,7,,^ Snh,Hs (Halle. 1732); Zaccaria. Dissert, d. I ■ ' ■ > 1 n Gori, Symbol. Lit!.. X. 65

sq.; Papii. /• / ^ Crucisin AclaSS..Z'Hl&\,\

sqq; Lipsn ^, /). > /. . '// (4», Antwerp, 1593); ZoCK-

LER, Das l\i>tiz i.^ii ^^lul,■r.sIoh, 1775); Ziegelbaufh. Historia didaciica ilt S. Cruei.^ Cultu et Veneratione in Ord. D. Benedicti (Vienna. 1746); Wiseman, Four Lectures nn the Offlcea and Ceremonies of Holy Week (London, 18391 11-114;