The True Cross

[jayson]

Can anyone tell me what the history of the Cross has been since St. Helen found it? How did it come to be cut into pieces? Also, I read on a thread somewhere on the site that some people believe that St. Helen did not really find the true Cross - that it was an orthodox myth. Does anyone think that's true?

[prodromos]

I don't know the story of how it came to be broken up into pieces, but as to it being a pious myth, I believe there are far too many miracles associated with the pieces of the true cross right through church history for them to be pieces of a simple lump of wood. I can think of the case with Saint Nektarios of Pentapolis, and also one of the nails which ended up on the island of Thasos. That's all I can recall at the moment, but I know I have read many other accounts.

Christos Anesti!  Christ is Risen!
John.

[jayson]

Could you tell me what happened with St. Nectarios - I don't think I've heard the story. But I have heard that you cannot die if you are wearing a piece of the True Cross. That actually, at the point of death, the piece of Cross has to be removed from your person so that your soul can pass on. I guess it's a blessing - it allows you time to get a priest for Holy Communion and confession before the end.

[ozgeorge]

Could you tell me what happened with St. Nectarios - I don't think I've heard the story.

St. Nektarios was given a reliquary Cross by his grandmother which contained a splinter of the True Cross. As an adolescent,St. Nektarios was once crossing the Mediterranian on his way to the Holy Land when a storm blew up and threated to capsize the ship. He took the Cross from around his neck, tied it to his belt and immersed it in the sea praying for salvation. The sea immediatley calmed and the danger passed, but when he lifted up his belt, the Cross was gone. When the ship arrived in Jaffa, for two hours before reaching the port, the sailors could hear a strange knocking sound in the bilges of the ship. The knocking sound continued when the ship was in port, and the Captain ordered the sailors to inspect the hull. The divers found St. Nektarios' Cross stuck to the hull of the ship, and managed to return it to him as he was disembarking. He wore this Cross throughout the rest of his life, and it is sometimes dypicted in his Icons.

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