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| THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS Mid-l6th century 131 x 97. Egg tempera on lime wood. From the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Drohobych, Lviv region. 170k, jpeg. The subject of the icon represents the festival of the Christian Orthodox Church - Holy Cross Day. It is based on a story set in the 4th century. It tells how Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the aim of finding Christ's sepulcher and the cross on which He was crucified. Though the Emperor Hadrian made every effort to ensure the cross would not be recognized, Helena's excavations were successful. She managed to discover the cross and, most important, to find out on which of the three excavated crosses Christ was crucified (for, as is known, the same penalty befell two robbers at the same time as Christ). Helena understood that the Calvary cross should be miracle- working, each cross was applied in turn to a dead woman (according to some sources she was gravely ill) and the cross on which Christ had been crucified resurrected her. Hence it is called Life-Giving. Helena sent a part of it to her son Constantine, while the cross itself she mounted in a precious case and installed it in Jerusalem where a church was built (the Church of the Holy Sepulcher) in its honor in 335. The day of the church's consecration became Holy Cross Day. On that day a bishop raised it over the heads of believers, so that all people who came to celebrate the holy day could see it. The story's main personages were very popular in the Ukraine, the more so as the first Christian Princess Olga was given the baptismal name of Helena. The Drohobych icon has a number of original peculiarities which come from apocrypha. Along with the Exaltation of the Holy Cross the icon also presents the: Dream of Emperor Constantine Constantine and Helena ask Where to Search for the Cross The Apparition on the Location of the Cross The Discovery of the Cross The Identification of the Cross Constantine and Helena Bring the Cross to the Patriarch The Adoration of the Cross Among the subjects is a rare one, that of Emperor Constantine Falling ILL. According to an apocrypha, Constantine fell ill while still a pagan and when his doctor proposed that he bathe in the blood of infants the Emperor refused outright. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/lviv/Gallery/Room5.html |