Воспоминание явившегося на небе знамения Честного и Животворящего Креста Господня

After the death of the first Christian, faithful and pious king Constantine the Great, the royal throne was taken by his son Constantius 3010, who deviated into the evil heresy of Arius, who blasphemed the Son of God 3011. Then, to the shame of the wicked heretics, for the assurance of the infidels and the confirmation of the Orthodox, a wondrous sign appeared in the holy city of Jerusalem: on the days of Holy Pentecost, May 7, at the third hour of 3012, an image of the Holy Cross of the Lord appeared in the sky, shining with an indescribable light, stronger than the rays of the sun, which was seen by all the people, struck by great horror and surprise, This the sign of the cross, starting above the holy Mount Golgotha, on which our Lord was crucified 3013, reached the Mount of Olives 3014, distant from Golgotha at a distance of fifteen stages, the breadth of the sign of the cross corresponded to its length; His beauty, reminiscent of a multi-colored rainbow, was so great that it attracted the eyes of everyone. And everyone, whether anyone had any business in their hands or was in their homes, left all their work and left their houses, contemplating the wonderful sign with attention and fear. Then all the numerous crowds of Jerusalemites, filled with fear and joy from this Divine vision, hurried with deep tenderness and warmth of heart to the holy church - all the elders and youths, men and wives, moreover, with babies, as well as celibate maidens, locked in silence - and those, leaving their homes, rushed there, and in general, residents of Jerusalem of every age and condition, wanderers and foreigners, Orthodox Christians and non-Christians. And they all unanimously loudly glorified Jesus Christ, our Lord, the only begotten Son of God, the true God from the true God, the Provider of great miracles. Then the unbelieving heretics, enemies and blasphemers of the Divinity of Christ, were filled with shame, seeing in the appearance of the cross such great, Divine glory and power of Christ the Lord, being convinced at that time by the very reality that the Christian faith is right, true and pious and offers the believer not learned words from human external wisdom, but is established on the revelation of the Holy Spirit and grace, and is attested by heavenly signs and wonders. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Jerusalem 3015 notified the reported miraculous appearance of the sign of the cross in a message to King Constantius, exhorting him to turn to Orthodox teaching. Hermias Sozomen 3016 testifies that through this appearance in heaven of the Holy Cross 3017, very many of the Jews and Hellenes came to the true faith and, approaching Christ our God with repentance, received holy baptism. And everyone piously glorified Christ our God, Consubstantial and Co-essential with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We, confessing His inscrutable power revealed by the cross, extol with our grateful praises the Lord our God and worship the footstool of His feet, the holy cross, imploring the mercy of the Lord, so that at His second terrible coming Christ may grant us to see the “Sign of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:30), which will then appear, the holy cross, in the joy and hope of salvation and to them, as if with the key, he opened the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven to us, as Paradise once did to the prudent thief (Luke 23:40–43), and placed us together with His blessed sheep forever (Matthew 25:33–34). Amen. The image of Your Cross now rises more than the sun, which You stretched out from the holy mountain even to the place of the forehead: and in it You understood Your Savior’s strength, thereby strengthening our faithful kings: even save us in the world, through the prayers of the Mother of God Christ our God, and save us. Having opened the heavens, the enclosed rays in the heavens, the most pure Cross rose on the earth: having received the same radiances of its action, we are guided to the unstoppable light, and in the battles of its imams, the weapon of the world, an invincible victory. Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, received the East, Asia and Egypt; in 357, having defeated the murderer of his brother Constance, Magnentius, he united the entire Roman Empire under his rule. He destroyed pagan temples or gave them to Christians for conversion to the church; several times he issued a law prohibiting the practice of pagan worship. But with his sympathy for the heresy of Arius, Constantius greatly increased the religious strife of that time: he persecuted Orthodox bishops, deposed them from their cathedras and even imprisoned them; under him, the Arians occupied the highest places in the state. Constantius died in 361, during a campaign against his cousin Julian, who was proclaimed emperor by the troops in Gaul, where he himself appointed him commander-in-chief. Gregory of Nazianzus reports that before his death, Constantius repented of his persecution of the Orthodox. The founder of the Arian heresy was the presbyter of Alexandria Arius. He denied the consubstantiality of the Son of God with the Father, considered Jesus Christ to be a creation and did not recognize His Divine perfections - omnipotence, omniscience, etc. The heresy of Arius was decisively condemned at the first (325) and second (381) Ecumenical Councils, and the equality of the Son of God with the Father was established, which is what every Christian confesses in the second member of the Creed, which was compiled by the Fathers of the First Ecumenical. cathedral In the 5th century Arianism had almost no followers in the Roman Empire, but was revived in Germany among the Goths, Burgundians, Vandals and Longobards, where it existed until the 7th century. According to our count, about 9 o'clock in the morning. – The event itself should be attributed to 351. This year Easter was on March 31st. Pentecost May 19; May 7 falls on the Tuesday of the last week before Pentecost. Golgotha ​​was previously located outside of Jerusalem (Matthew 27:32–33, John 19:17–41; Heb.13:12); lies on the northwestern side of St. cities. It probably got its name (Golgotha from Hebrew means skull, place of the forehead (Luke 13:33) due to its resemblance to a skull. According to legend, Adam was buried here. The Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives are the mountains of Judah, lying east of Jerusalem (Ezek. 11:23). The Mount of Olives got its name due to the many olive trees that grew on it. During His earthly life, the Lord Jesus Christ often came to the mountain with His disciples (John 8:1, 18:2). On the western slope of the Mount of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane, where the Lord prayed on the night before suffering and where he was betrayed by Judas (Matt. 26:36–57; Mark 14:26–53; Luke 22:39–54; John 18:1–13) On the southeastern slope of the mountain was the village of Bethany, from where the Lord made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:21 ; Luke 14:29 ). According to legend, the Lord ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12). B II century The mother of Constantine the Great erected a Christian temple on the Mount of Olives, which was later converted into a mosque by the Turks. St. Cyril, Archbishop. Jerusalem, patriarch from 350 to 387. Known for his fight against the Arian heresy. His memory is celebrated on March 18. Sozomen - church historian of the 5th century. His “Ecclesiastical History” covers the period from 323 to 439 (but the story survives only up to 423). Sozomen also wrote a history of the first three centuries of Christianity, but, unfortunately, it has not reached us. – Sozomen mentions the described wondrous sign in Book IV. of his Ecclesiastical History, chapter 5. The appearance of the cross in heaven foreshadowed difficult times for the Church - the reign of Arianism. For exactly 10 years (361) Arianism held the throne in the person of Constantius, then it was replaced by the apostasy of Julian (361–363); after Julian, Emperor Valens (364–378) patronized Arianism for 14 years. You might be interested in: