Chapter 7

The Second Appearance in Heaven of the Sign of the Cross

On the seventh of May we celebrate the commemoration of the sign of the Precious Cross that appeared in heaven during the reign of Emperor Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, and of Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem. In the Synaxarion for May 7 we read the following. “In the sacred days of holy Pentecost, on the seventh of May at the third hour of the day, the Precious and life-giving Cross, composed of brilliant light surpassing all brightness, stretched out above holy Golgotha as far as the holy Mount of Olives, and by the splendor of its radiance eclipsed the rays of the sun. Therefore every age, young and old, together with infants and nursing children, filled the Church and in ineffable joy and divine compunction offered up glory and thanksgiving to God for this wondrous sight.”

Concerning this sight the historian Philostorgius records the following: “Constantius then became master of the tyrant (Magnentius), and there the sign of the Cross appeared in the greatest magnitude and outshone the light of day with most astonishing brilliance. It was seen over Jerusalem at about the third hour of the day as the feast called Pentecost was beginning. That divinely inscribed figure, extending visibly from the place called the Skull all the way to the Mount of Olives, was encircled on all sides by a great rainbow like a crown. The rainbow clearly signified the favor of the One who was crucified and taken up, and the crown signified the emperor’s victory. That radiant and awe-inspiring spectacle was not invisible even to those in the army, but was clearly seen, and it threw Magnentius and his followers—who were devoted to the worship of demons—into helpless terror, while it raised Constantius and those with him to invincible courage.” (Philostorgius, Book III, § 26).