The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-04-04
CROSS HISTORY AND LEGEND.
CONTINUED from Page i. }


crucifed. After the death of the Manhood, t
cross was buried with the instruments of the Cruz
fxion in conformity with the custom of the Jew
The precious wood remained undisturbed and und
cayed for three hundred years. until the time
Constantine the Roman Emperor.
We reach the period when the legenda
touches the boundaries of the historic and we a
brought face to face with ecclesiastical narrati
verified by church writers, the Roman breviary, al
commemorative feasts of the Roman Ordo.
Late in the afternoon of hot summers day,
mounted courier grimed with the dust of the Can
pagna and the Roman road, gallops into the mpe
lal city and announces to the captain of the in
perial guard that formidable and innumerab
army of northern barbarians crossed the frontier
and were encamped on italian soil. When til
Emperor was told of the invasion of the norther
hosts, he began, at the head of his unconquere
warriors, his march towards the Danube.
When he in touch with the enemy. he wa
amazed to learn of the strength and countless mum
bers of the barbarian hordes If he lost the battle
he was to begin early next morning, his retrea
would be rout and Rome was doomed. Late a
night, out from the fatigue of the day, h
entered the sanctuary of the Imperial tent ant
sought repose While he slept, he dreamt that al
angel came to his cot and placing hand upon nj
breast, told him to look up. Then, the canvas root
of the tent disappeared and the Emperor saw .
large and luminous cross in the heavens and i'm
mediately it in great letters of FURNISHED gold
"Under this sign thou shalt conquer" Constantine
summoned his officers to a consultation and re-
lated his dream. The pagan Emperor and his pa
gan generals agreed that the dream was of happy
| omen, and that the voice of the angel was the
friendship of god. That night on the Imperial
banner the cross was blazoned and to the royal
standard given the name "Labarum' the
Gift of God. Early next morning the battle
opened, and before the went down, the Romans
were again masters of all Europe.
On his return to Rome, the Emperor called his
augurs and priests of the pagan temples to an I'm
perial Council. He related the history of his
dream, the incidents and happy issue of the
battle, and demanded of them the name of the god
who befriended him. They answered they did not
know. Then there advanced to the Imperial seat
an officer of the Council, Christian, and after
receiving permission to speak, declared that the
cross, the sign, was the symbol of Jesus Christ,
THE GOD OF THE CHRISTIANS
The Emperor made further inquiries was in
structed in the history of Lords life the Cru
cifxion and the Resurrection. His conversion to
Christianity followed and a new and brilliant era
for the Church at once opened. Learning that il
was the custom of the Jews. in the days of Herod
and Augustus, to bury the cross of the crucifed
he requested his mother, then dwelling in his pal
ace take with her an Imperial escort and retinue
sail for Jerusalem and find if possible, the Gross
on which Jesus Christ was crucifed.
Unfortunately, history supplies us no authentic
information on the birth or nationality of the
Empress Helen. Her origin and place of birth, like
those of ST. Patrick, are themes for speculative
writer's but has long ago passed outside the do
main of serious history.
| When the Empress entered Jerusalem, she al
once called together assembly of the officials OF
the CITY, learned from them the whereabouts of the
hill of the Crucifxion-the Golgotha place o5
skulls, and, as near as possible the precise spo
where the sacrifice took place. She was told tina
over the ground of the Crucifxion, on the hill o.
! Golgotha, the Emperor Adrien had built
TEMPLE OF VENUS
! And that it would have to be removed before exca
vations could begin.
The temple was wrecked, the debris carted away
and the search for the Cross begun. Twenty fee
below the surface, the diggers found three crosses
They were lifted from their beds, cleaned ant
brought to the Empress. Now which one of thes
three was the true CROSSE
Not long after coming to the city of the Jew;
Helen became the friend of of the many ladie
of noble birth who called to do her honor. This lad
was for some time suffering from a serious illness
much to the sorrow of the Empress, and at the tim
the crosses were brought to the Empress mes
senger came to tell Helen, the doctors had abar
doned all hope and that her friend was dying job
Macairius was then bishop of Jerusalem, and wher
in obedience to the request of the Empress h
called to give his opinion on the crosses, she tol
him Of the sickness unto death of her friend. "It