Art Celebrates The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

In English, it is called The Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the official translation of the Roman Missal, while the 1973 translation called it The Triumph of the Cross.

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrated every year on September 14, recalls three historical events: the finding of the True Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of the emperorConstantine; the dedication of churches built by Constantine on the site of the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Calvary; and the restoration of the True Cross to Jerusalem by the emperor Heraclius II. The feast also celebrates the Holy Cross as the instrument of our salvation. It became the life-giving tree that reversed Adam’s Original Sin.

The Discovery of the True Cross, by Italian painter Agnolo Gaddi c.1350-96. Fresco, c.1385. Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence, Italy.

Pier della Francesca, Exaltation of the Holy Cross Italian, 1452-1466. Arezzo, San FrancescoThomas Hopko · Icons of the Elevation of the Cross
Brothers and sisters:
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.

II PHILIPPIANS 2:5-8

Coptic Icon

“No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”