Chapter 16

Concerning the Size of the Precious Cross, Concerning the Sacred Nails, and Concerning the Discovery of the Crosses of the Two Thieves

The size of the Precious Cross was in length 13 feet, and in width 8 feet (see p. 50 of the newly printed Trophy of the Orthodox Faith). Chrysostom says that the thickness of both the upright and the crossbeam of the precious Cross was one span. “Consider also the figure of the Cross: the figure of the wood had a perimeter of one span; the height of the Cross was the measure of a foot.” (“Discourse on ‘How He Saw Letters Without Having Learned Them’”. Vol. 5.)

Concerning the nails of the precious Cross, we know that Saint Helen brought with her the nails with which the Jews nailed Christ to the Cross to Constantinople, a most worthy gift to her son; of these, Constantine placed one in the bridle of his horse according to the oracle of the prophet Zechariah which says: “In that day what is on the bridles of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty” (Zech. 14:20). The second he carried on his helmet; The third, the divine Ambrose says, Saint Helen, while crossing the Adriatic Sea and being endangered by a violent storm, cast into the sea and there was a calm. Dositheos of Jerusalem, however, judges this to be unbelievable, because Saint Helen’s journey did not take place through the Adriatic Sea on her return from Jerusalem to Constantinople. It appears that there were three nails, two that fastened the hands of the Savior, and one that fastened his two feet together, one upon the other (p. 103 of the Twelve Books of Dositheos). But Paisios of Gaza says that the common tradition reports four nails; two that fastened the hands and two that fastened the feet of the Savior.

Finally, concerning the two crosses of the thieves, the historians report that these too were brought to Constantinople and placed beneath the porphyry column in the Forum, as was the alabaster jar of myrrh with which the Lord was anointed. Later, the nails of the Cross were placed in the column of Constantine (Bonn ed. p. 1152; Dositheos, Patriarch of Jerusalem).[1]