Solemn High Mass at Our Saviour’s Church on September 14

St. Helena finds the True Cross. Detail of ceiling fresco from the church of Breitenthal, Germany.

St. Helena finds the True Cross from Breitenthal.

On September 14 the Society will sponsor a Solemn High Mass for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at 5 PM at Our Saviour’s Church in Manhattan. The celebrant will be Father George Rutler. The deacon will be Deacon Stephan A. Genovese and the subdeacon Fr. Richard Cipolla. Mr David J. Hughes will direct the music:

Prelude: Jésus accepte la souffrance (Olivier Messiaen, 1908-1992)
Missa O Rex gloriæ (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, c.1525-1594)
Gregorian Mass of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: Nos autem gloriari
Motet at the Offertory: O Crux benedicta (Cipriano de Rore, 1516-1565)
Hymn at the Communion: Vexilla Regis (plainsong, mode i)
Postlude: Passacaglia in C Minor (BWV 582) (Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750)

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross preserves the date of the finding of the Holy Cross by St Helena in 326. Later, on the same date, two churches in Jerusalem were dedicated by Constantine. This aspect of the history of the True Cross came to be commemorated in the West by the ancient feast of the Invention (or finding) of the Cross on May 3. This, however, was actually the day on which the emperor Heraclius restored the Cross to Jerusalem. In the Western Church that event and the stirring history that surrounded it came to be commemorated on September 14.

After the seizure of the throne of Constantinople by Phocas, king Chosroes of the Persians launched an all-out attack on the Eastern Roman empire. Syria, Palestine, Egypt and much of Asia Minor were overrun. Jerusalem was sacked and the True Cross carried off to Persia. The succession in 610 of the new emperor Heraclius at first changed little. Constantinople itself was threatened.

Then, starting around 620, Heraclius launched one of the most audacious military campaigns in history. Ignoring the Persian forces advancing directly towards him, Heraclius and his forces plunged deep into the rear of the Persians from the Black Sea, inflicting defeat after defeat upon their forces in the heart of the Persian kingdom. In 628 Heraclius advanced down Mesopotamia right up to the Persian capital of Ctesiphon and sacked the palace of Chosroes. The Persian king fled and was later overthrown and murdered. Heraclius recovered the True Cross and bore it on foot into Jerusalem. This struggle was traditionally considered the first Holy War or Crusade of Christianity.

The emperor Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629: ceiling fresco from the parish church of Breitenthal.
Credit for all Photos: Veit Feger
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Breitenthal_Pfarrkirche_Deckenfresko_1.jpg