The Metropolitan Cathedral “God’s Birth:” in Chisinau was today not large enough for the dozens of Christians who went there to attend the Divine Liturgy on the occasion of the Feast of the Cross or the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-creating Cross. A cross of flowers and basil was put in the middle of the church, which will stay there for a week, IPN reports.
The Feast of the Exaltation commemorates both the finding of the True Cross in 326 and its recovery from the Persians in 628, and is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the church year. This day is always a fast day and the eating of meat, dairy products and fish is prohibited.
According to legends that spread widely, the True Cross was discovered in 326 by Saint Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, during a pilgrimage she made to Jerusalem. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was then built at the site of the discovery, by order of Helena and Constantine. The church was dedicated nine years later, with a portion of the cross placed inside it.
Other legends explain that in 614, that portion of the cross was carried away from the church by the Persians, and remained missing until it was recaptured by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in 628. Initially taken to Constantinople, the cross was returned to the church the following year.
They say that on the Feast of the Cross, the snakes, lizards and other living creatures go under earth.
