We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you. For by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Today the church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This feast commemorates three historical events of the early Christian Church. First, it recalls the finding of the Cross by St. Helena. Second, the dedication of the three churches built by Emperor Constantine on the site of the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Calvary. Third, the restoration of the True Cross to Jerusalem in AD 629 by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, after it had fallen into the hands of the Persian Emperor Chosroes II in the AD 614 Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem.