The Church today venerates the Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross.
The Feast, also known as the Universal Exaltation of the Precious Cross, is celebrated each year on September 14. The Feast commemorates the finding of the True Cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Fourth century by St. Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great, Emperor of Rome.
The date also commemorates the restoration of the True Cross in Jerusalem by the Emperor Heraclius in the Seventh Century. The Emperor had launched a successful military campaign against Persia, one of the results being the retrieval of the True Cross, which had been plundered and carried away by the Persians.
At the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Metropolitan Apostolos of Derkoi officiated at the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Precious Cross, held at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George.
In Greece, the Metropolitan of Syros, His Eminence Dorotheos, officiated on Monday afternoon at the con-celebratory Vespers at the celebrating cathedral of the Elevation of the True Cross on the Cyclades Island.
In his sermon, His Eminence referred to the paramount position held by the Cross in the lives of the faithful, not just as a symbol of beauty but as invisible defense against overt and unseen threats.
