The Exaltation of the Cross

On September 14, we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and this year it falls on Sunday.

Since the liturgical calendar feasts of the Lord have precedence over the Sundays in Ordinary Time, this Feast will replace the Sunday liturgy. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross has its roots in the discovery in 320 AD of the True Cross, of Calvary, and of the tomb of Christ by St. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, which Romans buried under the second-century Temple of Aphrodite; 2) the dedication on September 13, 335, of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, built on the site of Mount Calvary. The Eastern Churches, Catholics and Orthodox, celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the September anniversary of the basilica’s dedication.