Chapter 5

Concerning the Appearance of the Sign of the Precious Cross in the Sky to Constantine the Great

The historian Eusebius, in his Life of Constantine the Great, relates that Constantine, “having carefully considered that he needed help greater than military strength on account of the malicious and magical devices practiced by the tyrant (Maxentius), sought God as his helper. … He reasoned that those who had trusted in a multitude of gods had fallen into many disasters, … whereas his ancestral God had already given clear and abundant proofs of His power to Constantine’s own father, (while those who had trusted in a multitude of gods had suffered a shameful end).” Gathering all these things together in his mind, he judged that he ought to honor only the God of his father.

So he called upon Him in prayers, beseeching and imploring Him to reveal Himself—who He was—and to stretch out His right hand in the matters that lay before him. While the emperor was praying and earnestly entreating these things, a most extraordinary divine sign appeared—one that perhaps would not have been easy for anyone else to accept, but since the victorious emperor himself declared it to us who are recounting this account many years later, when we were deemed worthy of his acquaintance and conversation, and confirmed the account with oaths, who could doubt and not believe the narrative? especially since the time that followed bore true witness to the account.

Around the midday hours of the sun, when the day was already declining, he said that he saw with his own eyes in the very sky, above the sun, a trophy of the Cross composed of light, and an inscription was joined to it saying, “By this conquer.” Amazement at the vision seized both him and the entire army, which was accompanying him as he was setting out on a journey somewhere and became a witness of the wonder (I.31 and 32). And in Chapter 29: And indeed he said he was perplexed within himself as to what the vision might be. While he was pondering and reasoning about it for a long time, night came upon him. Then, while he was sleeping, the Christ of God appeared to him with the sign that had appeared in the sky, and commanded him to make a copy of the sign that had appeared in the sky and to use it as a protection against the assaults of his enemies.

And in Chapter 31, Section 1: The construction of the same sign of the Cross. At daybreak he rose and disclosed the mystery to his friends. Then, summoning craftsmen skilled in gold and precious stones, he sat down among them and described the appearance of the sign, commanding them to reproduce it in gold and precious stones. This we ourselves once had the privilege of seeing with our own eyes.