Saint Helen and the Cross

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Cabeelibob

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This probably has been brought up countless times.
Whatever happened to the True Cross that Saint Helen Found? (Assuming the story is true)
I could not find that anywhere.
 
It was broken in pieces and many churches claim to have a piece of it, from the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to various places in western and eastern Europe.
 
Initially it was venerated in Constantinople and then Jerusalem, and nobody knows when it was broken into pieces. Probably when the Muslims took over Jerusalem, the Christians broke it and hid the pieces.
 
Are there any pieces of the True Cross that are fairly likely to be apart of that cross, if at all?
 
Many of those “claims” are documented.

A typical piece seems to be a splinter a couple of inches long tied into a cross inside its container.

Almost all are tracked by the Vatican, although are two known surviving pieces with imperial seals instead (I’ve seen one several times).

And, no, there are not “enough to build a cathedral”, as some claim. About 2/3 is missing.

The Sunday of the Exaltation of the Cross survives today in EO and EC, drawn from the ancient practice in the Hagia Sophia. My parish generally manages to have a relic of the True Cross in a cross-shaped reliquary for this.
 
Cabeelibob said:
This probably has been brought up countless times.
Whatever happened to the True Cross that Saint Helen Found? (Assuming the story is true)
I could not find that anywhere.
Click to expand...
There is no definitive evidence this is true.
 
dochawk said:
And, no, there are not “enough to build a cathedral”, as some claim. About 2/3 is missing.
Click to expand...
In the mid-nineteenth century Charles Rohault de Fleury, a French architect who had an interest in the history of the Church, is said to have measured and catalogued all the known fragments claimed to have been taken from the True Cross. The volume added up to 4 million cubic millimeters, which is slightly less than the size of a plank 2 feet long by 6 inches wide by 2 inches thick.

I should add that I found this information in one of Evelyn Waugh’s prefaces. From time to time, over the years, I have attempted to track down the original source, but in vain.
 
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BartholomewB said:
I should add that I found this information in one of Evelyn Waugh’s prefaces. From time to time, over the years, I have attempted to track down the original source, but in vain.
Click to expand...
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