Chapter 9

Letter of Constantine the Great to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, Concerning the Building of the Divine Temple

“Constantine the Conqueror, Most Great, Augustus, to Macarius.” So great is the grace of our Savior that no supply of words seems worthy of the present wonder. For the sign of the most holy Passion, long hidden beneath the earth and concealed for so many cycles of years until it was destined to shine forth upon his servants once they had been set free through the destruction of the common enemy of all, truly surpasses all astonishment. For if all those who seem to be wise throughout the whole world were to come together into one and the same place and wished to say something worthy of this event, they would not be able to do so even to the slightest degree. To such an extent does the faith of this wonder surpass every nature capable of human reasoning, inasmuch as heavenly things are established to be more powerful than human things. Therefore this is always both my first and only aim: that just as the faith of truth displays itself daily in ever more glorious wonders, so also the souls of all of us may become more earnest concerning the holy law in chastity and unanimous zeal. Since I consider this to be clear to everyone, I especially want you to be convinced that above all things I am concerned that we should adorn with the beauty of buildings that sacred place which, by God’s command, I relieved of the most shameful addition of an idol lying upon it like a burden—a place holy from the beginning by God’s decree, and shown to be even holier since it brought to light the faith of the saving Passion. It is fitting, therefore, that your shrewdness should so arrange and provide for each of the necessities that not only should a basilica be built superior to those everywhere else, but also that the other elements should be such that all the most beautiful things in every city are surpassed by this building. And concerning the raising and embellishment of the walls, know that the responsibility has been entrusted by us to Dracilianus, our friend who governs a portion of the most illustrious prefects, and to the governor of the province.

Theodoret copied this letter from chapters 30 and 31 of the history “On the Life of Constantine the Great” by Eusebius.

Cyril of Jerusalem, who was nearly contemporary with Eusebius (342–386), testifies explicitly both concerning the discovery of the Precious Cross in the time of Constantine the Great and concerning its existence in his own days in Jerusalem. In Catechesis 13 he says: “This Golgotha, near which we are all now present, convicts me; the wood of the Cross, which from here has been gradually distributed to the whole world, convicts me.”

And the historian Socrates, himself a contemporary (380), says in his Ecclesiastical History (book 1, ch. 17): “The emperor’s mother, Helen, … having been instructed as if by dreams, came to Jerusalem, and finding the city that had once been Jerusalem deserted like a watchman’s hut in an orchard, according to the prophet, she eagerly sought out the tomb of Christ, where He had been buried and rose again; and with difficulty, yet with God’s help, she found it. I will state briefly what was the cause of the difficulty. Those who held the mind of Christ honored the place after the time of the Passion; but those who hated the things of Christ, having learned of the place, built over it a temple of Aphrodite and set up a statue there, making no remembrance of the place. This had long been the state of affairs, but it was made known to the emperor’s mother. So she tore down the idol, filled in the place, and cleared it, and found three crosses in the tomb: one the blessed Cross on which Christ was stretched out, and the other two on which the two crucified thieves had died; and with them was also found the inscription of Pilate, in which he proclaimed the crucified Christ as King of the Jews, writing it in different languages. But since the Cross that was sought was uncertain, no small grief gripped the emperor’s mother. But before long the bishop of Jerusalem, whose name was Macarius, put an end to her grief; and he resolved the uncertainty by faith, for he asked God for a sign and received it. Now the sign was this. A certain woman of the local inhabitants, seized by a chronic illness, was now at the very point of death. The bishop therefore arranged for each of the crosses to be brought to the dying woman, believing that the woman would be restored to health by touching the Precious Cross. And his hope was not disappointed. For when the two crosses that were not the Lord’s were brought near, the woman remained no less at the point of death. But when the third, the Lord’s Cross, was brought near, the dying woman was immediately restored to health and was among the living. This, then, is how the wood of the Cross was found. The emperor’s mother built a magnificent house of prayer at the site of the tomb and named it the New Jerusalem, setting it over against that old and forsaken one. She enclosed part of the Cross in a silver case and left it there as a memorial for those who wished to view it; the other part she sent to the emperor, who received it and, believing that the city in which it was kept would be perfectly preserved, concealed it within his own statue.” [… Constantine also took the nails which had been driven through the hands of Christ on the Cross — for his mother had found these too in the tomb and sent them to him — and, making them into bridles and a helmet, he used them in his wars …]

The accuracy of this account, as we have said, some of the more recent writers have wished to call into question. Gelasius was the first to dispute it, for the sole reason that the historian Eusebius, who wrote the life of Constantine the Great, makes no mention of the

Cross, and Hermias Sozomenus in his Ecclesiastical History, book 2, chapter 1, writes concerning the finding of the life-giving Cross and the holy nails, saying: “The matters at Nicaea came to an end at this point. Each of the priests returned home. The emperor rejoiced exceedingly, seeing the universal Church in agreement concerning the doctrine. Offering thanksgiving to God for the harmony of the bishops, and for himself and his children and the kingdom, he thought it necessary to build a house of prayer to God in Jerusalem, at the place called Golgotha. Around the same time, his mother Helen came to Jerusalem both to pray and to visit the sacred places there. Being devoutly disposed toward the doctrine of the Christians, she made it her great concern to find the wood of the venerable Cross. But the discovery of neither this nor the divine tomb was easy. For the pagans who had formerly persecuted the Church, eager to cut off the religion by every device while it was still growing, had buried the place in the earth with much rubble and raised it to a height, though it was originally deeper, as now appears. Enclosing all around the entire area of the Anastasis and of the skull, they adorned it and paved the surface with stone. They built a temple of Aphrodite and set up a statue, so that those who came there to venerate Christ would seem to be worshiping Aphrodite, and that in time the true reason for the veneration of the place would fall into oblivion, with Christians no longer daring to visit it or to reveal it to others, and on the contrary the pagan temple and the statue being believed in. Yet the place became known and the error that had been contrived concerning it was discovered—according to some, through the disclosure of a Hebrew man, one of those dwelling in the East, from a paternal writing; but as it is more true to understand, through God revealing it by signs and dreams. For I do not think that divine things need disclosure from human beings, whenever they are to be made known by God. Then, at the command of the Emperor, when the place there had been cleared to a depth, the cave of the Resurrection appeared in one part. And elsewhere near the same place three crosses were found, and separately another piece of wood in the form of a tablet with letters in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, declaring Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And these things, as the sacred book of the Gospels records, happened thus: it was fastened above the head of Christ, Pilate having ordered this, who was then governor of Judea, but the identification of the divine Cross still remained uncertain; for the inscription itself had disintegrated and been torn apart, and because of the three crosses being scattered about indiscriminately, the order of the inscription had been confused in the placement of the crucified bodies. So while the divine wood was still uncertain and required a revelation more divine than human, something like this happened: there was a certain woman in Jerusalem, one of the prominent citizens, suffering from a most severe and incurable disease; Macarius, the bishop of Jerusalem, came to her as she lay there, bringing with him the emperor’s mother and her attendants, and having first prayed and appointed a sign for those watching—that the divine Cross would be the one which, when placed upon her, would free the woman from her disease—he brought each of the pieces of wood and applied them to her. But when the two were placed upon her there was nothing—indeed, what was happening seemed to be mockery and ridicule, since the woman was at death’s door; But when the third piece of wood was likewise brought near, she suddenly regained her sight, and gathering her strength, immediately leapt up from her bed in good health. It is also said that a dead person was brought back to life in the same way. Of the wondrous wood that was found, the greater part is kept in a silver reliquary in Jerusalem even to this day. But the Empress sent a portion to Constantine her son.[1] And also the nails with which the body of Christ had been pierced. From these nails, it is related, the emperor fashioned a helmet and a horse’s bridle according to the prophecy of Zechariah. And it is foretold concerning the present time: ‘What is upon the bridle of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty’ (Zechariah 14:20); for the Prophet speaks in these very words. These things were known long ago and foretold by the holy prophets, but in later times they were confirmed through miraculous works, when at the time that seemed good to God they were made manifest. And this is nothing so wonderful, seeing that even the Greeks themselves acknowledge this to be from the Sibyl. O blessed wood, upon which God was stretched out! For even one who strives to be opposed to this could not deny it. The wood of the Cross, therefore, and the reverence surrounding it, were foretold.” (See also Nicephorus Callistus, Ecclesiastical History, books 8 and 9.)

Theodoret recounts the following concerning the finding of the Precious Cross in chapter 17 of his Ecclesiastical History.