The Author³

Besides a mention in the Chronicon of Theophanes Confessor (ca. 765 – 12 March 817), the main source is a vita by a certain patrician and quaestor Nicetas (BHG 113), dating from shortly after Andrew's death in 740, on which three other vitae, BHG 114, 114a and 114b, are dependent, notwithstanding the fact that one of them, BHG 114a, gives details which the others lack; see Marie-France Auzépy, “La carrière d'André de Crète,” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 88 (1995) 2. Concerning the vocabulary of Andrew, see Theocharis Detorakis, “Le vocabulaire d'André de Crète. Mots non thésaurisés par G. W. H. Lampe,” Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik 36 (1986) 45–60; to be added are

(line 403; cf.

(“who travels in the ether”), which is mentioned on p. 46) and the verbal adjective

(line 144).

Andrew of Crete, born in Damascus in 660, led a monastic life in the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem from 678 onwards. Sent on an official mission to Constantinople in 685, he preferred to stay in that city and for ten years continued his monastic practice there. When Leontius III ascended the throne in 695, Andrew was by imperial order ordained deacon of the Hagia Sophia and became head of both the local orphanage and the administration of the deaconry

. In 711 he was appointed metropolitan of Crete with his see in Gortyna. In that year he signed the anathema of the 6th Council under Emperor Philippicus (711–713), thus supporting Philippicus's monotheletism, although soon afterwards he returned to orthodoxy. He stayed in Crete until 730, when Emperor Leo III called him back to the capital because of his opposition to the imperial policy that favored iconoclasm. For ten years he ventilated his resistance to that policy in his homilies but was finally exiled to Lesbos. He died on 4 July 740 in Eresos.

The author's importance undoubtedly lies in his homiletics and hymnography.

), 2) the Homilia II in exaltationem s. crucis (CPG 8180; BHG^a 422; ed. PG 97, 1036–1045; inc.

), 3) a further Homilia de exaltatione s. crucis (CPG 8200; BHGⁿ 449n; unedited; inc.

; possibly the same as CPG 8180),

Text Tradition⁸

Sources: Albert Ehrhard, Überlieferung und Bestand der hagiographischen und homiletischen Literatur der griechischen Kirche von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts. Erster Teil. Die Überlieferung, pars 3.1 (Texte und Untersuchungen 52.1; Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1939 [Osnabrück: Zeller, 1965]) 288, note; Aimilianos Tsakopoulos,

(Istanbul:

, <1953>) 92–98, esp. 93; metrop. Athenagoras, “

,” Epeteris hetaireias byzantinon spudon 11 (1935) 152–55, esp. 153.

The text is preserved in one manuscript only: Istanbul,

53, a paper codex (29.5 × 22 cm.) with 333 folios dating from the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The text is written by two copyists ([1] fols. 1r–323v and [2] 324r–332v) in two columns of 31–34 lines each with a 1.5 cm. interspace. The right column of folio 222v is empty. A nineteenth-century hand wrote the following on folio 1r:

. In the upper margin of folio 66r stands the following note, stemming from 1727: +

. According to a note on folio 333r, the manuscript originally had 45 quires (

) of which 44 have been preserved. After folio 332, many folios have indeed been lost.

The codex contains a panegyricon from September to August and speeches, which are numbered from <

> to

(with an omission for the speech, which follows

). Moreover, it is the sole witness of Philotheus of Silubria's Oratio de angelis (BHG^a 129j; fols. 86–93). The text of the homily on the exaltation of the cross, which starts on the third line of the left column of folio 40r and ends on line 17 of the left column of folio 54v, is preceded by the title

, being followed by the liturgical formula

Context

As can be deduced from 1 Cor 1:23—

See Cyrillus Hierosol., Catecheses (CPG 3583) 4.10; 10.19 (

); 13.4, dating from 348–350.

, incorporated in the state theology.

), which was celebrated from the beginning of the seventh century onwards in Constantinople and half a century later in the West.

Under the reign of Chosroes II, during the fall of 613, the Persian nobleman Shahrvarāz captured Damascus, invaded Palestine, and, accompanied by jubilant Jews, advanced against Jerusalem. At first the Christians surrendered to him, but during his absence in the spring of 614, they expelled his garrison. On his return the Persian took the city by storm—Jewish complicity was presumed

), and its cult enjoyed significant growth. While the earlier Church Fathers had stressed the cross's value as a symbol, not only of opprobrium and disgrace but also of the world's salvation, the spread of the worshipping of cross relics from this time henceforth would result in the creation of new theological treatises, which increasingly discussed the material cross itself.

Summary²⁸

The division into chapters is mine.

Text and translation begin on the following page.

Having often venerated the cross of Christ in silence, I have now come to venerate it with a homily—for I did indeed consider it necessary to devote my speeches, as much as I can, to the guardian of my own salvation, by whom I am saved—and furthermore, in order that, if it be granted me to undertake (to write) sermons about the divine and about those who have lived a divine life, the first of these should be about the cross, just as the sign of the cross itself forms for pious people the beginning of every written document and contract, and of every action. The wiser ones among men like to explore in depth God's most high wisdom and power. They deem it appropriate to speak loftily about the eternal and, under those circumstances, to go over the top in wonders. To me, on the other hand, who was like a brute beast in his presence, it is not a great glory, as the saying goes, if, intending to praise with my words his foolishness and all that he has effected until the last times, I shall not offend him. Some of those who are well versed in the divine and teachers say one thing, some another. Others still state that the foolishness of God is Christ's humanity-loving incarnate constitution and, most of all of that which belongs thereto, the message about the cross, inasmuch as, even more than the message itself, the foolishness has been conceived for those who did not believe in it and consequently perished. I am eager to praise now this foolishness but being in want of the words, which are worthy of it, I appeal to the wonderful wisdom itself to make me understand what has to be said about it and to give me words, which deserve not to be kept in silence. Indeed, the foolishness of God and his weakness—for this too the theologians attribute to him—are wiser than men and form a strength. This is all the more the case to the extent that it appears to be the extreme of foolishness, for it is not only strange and paradoxical but also most dishonorable and the most shameful of all. Indeed, more dishonorable than the fact that Christ subjected himself to suffering and death was his willingness to undergo these on the cross. This is also demonstrated by the great Paul, who, after saying He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, added even death on a cross, showing by this addition the intensity of the suffering, typical for this way of dying, which is more dishonorable than every other way. In accordance with the prophecies, which God had long ago put forward in connection with the cross, the Creator of all was considered as belonging to the lawless and the cursed by those who crucified him and by all who saw him hanging but did not know him, for the cross was the exclusive means of executing that kind of people. The more, however, this death was dishonorable, the more the cross itself was held in honor not only for him who accepted it but also for all those who were saved by it. The cross itself is called the glory of the crucified. What, indeed, did Christ say when he was about to be crucified? Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. In this way the Divine knows how to strengthen what is weak and to honor what is dishonorable, and the more so as God appears to arrange all this

for our salvation and to choose accordingly what is foolish, weak, and belongs to what men hold all too much in contempt in order to reduce to nothing and to cast down what seems the opposite, to shame the wise by means of the foolish things, to pull down what is strong by means of the powerless, and to cede to the dishonored what is honored by men. The purpose of him, who is also the Creator of the new creation, is to make the world in this way new and to give it to us instead of what looks the opposite: honor by way of dishonor, strength by way of weakness, and the highest wisdom by way of foolishness. All this is completely included in the cross of our Savior and has been successfully accomplished by it. It is for that reason that the divine Paul says that he knows nothing except Jesus Christ, and him crucified, and that he wishes that nothing else would be for him an object of pride but the cross of Christ.

2. There is more. In a very wise manner and in a way, which fairly befits his divine nature, God has with the cross also effected all the rest, not only the things that came before the crucifixion, but also the things that came after—things, which Christ accomplished by means of his own bodily and divine manifestation. For let us examine what was the purpose of the incarnation of our Savior. By doing so, I think, this will become evident. Everyone agrees that the object was to save man and to deliver him from the tyranny of the devil, which the founder of the human race, as a result of the first deceit, willingly endured. Disobeying his own Creator, he readily obeyed him, who talked him into the opposite and who is by far not equal to the Creator. For God is ineffable being, exceeding beauty, irresistible, infinite, simple, good, goodness itself, extraordinary, impalpable, inaccessible, indescribable. The devil, on the other hand, is ugly to look at, abominable to consider, and fearful to approach, having suffered this by revolting from God and by not being content with his power, becoming ungrateful towards his own Maker, who bestowed upon him the most marvelous gifts. God accomplishes all. He is almighty, Creator of man and the planter of the Garden of Eden, which he put at man's disposal with the exception of one tree, which he must not enjoy. All trees were fruitful and of a kind, which makes it impossible to describe their taste and appearance as well as their nature. The devil, on the other hand, has created nothing and is incapable of doing good. The frenzy of his envy made him present himself as a malignant counselor to those who had just now been created, (promising) that they would assuredly be gods, if they would taste from the trees, which God had planted and from the fruits of that particular tree from which he had forbidden them to eat; freed from their slavery towards their Creator, they would enjoy complete self-determination. Still, even if man had obtained this, he would not have found splendor in the devil's creation (where would he have had to search?), but in that of God of which the tree was also a product. Although the one by whom

man was cheated adopted such an attitude towards his Creator, man listened to him and not to his Maker, who had not out of envy refused to let him have a part in that tree too—yet this was what the begetter of envy accused the Supremely Good of—but wanted to train his creature in loyalty. Having failed in this fidelity, man also fell away from God. Having gone through this, as should not have happened, he was separated from all good and became an instrument of all evil, for nothing is so able to remove the good and so destructive of good conduct by which all is kept safe, as the disobedience, which the worse shows towards the better. And so man partook of the sole fruit from which he had been told to abstain and became puffed up by the notion of self-determination, which the devil too had in some degree enjoyed in the past, and in the belief that he himself would be god—namely if he would consider and just say those arrogant, godless words: I shall set up my throne upon the clouds and I shall be like the Most High—he was puffed up in his opinion in a bad and perilous way. So, in addition to the fact that he neither became god nor like the Most High, he was also driven out of his own good inheritance, as could have been expected. The base nature of his thoughts replaced beauty, which he had previously possessed. Instead of light he became darkness. His pure mind became morally impure, foolish, and a source of evil. He lost the beautiful and good things that God had given him before he had vaunted himself, and, because of his arrogance, got bad things that he did not have before. Such were the effects of his ignorance and his desire to obtain what is of a divine nature. Whether the one who becomes puffed up by such reasonings—not by reasonings (whence would they come?), but by conceitful arrogance—is an angel in heaven or a man, he presumes to be pure and, as a consequence, puts himself on the throne of God, who is the cause of all things. He is, however, unclean, if indeed everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord, an evil and ungrateful creature, not even resembling a donkey or an ox which know all too well what belongs to them: the ox its owner, the donkey its master's manger. He, however, who puts his throne upon the clouds, as if he were God, who existed before anything else, and who thinks that he knows everything, just as God does, knows, of course, neither God nor himself, who he is, namely that God is the sole Creator of everything and uncreated, while he, the other, is a creature among all other creatures having his place below many other creatures, who outrank him. God is unchangeable and completely the same, but the other has by nature the tendency of changing either for the worse or for the better. God is impalpable and invisible, but if the other had achieved some success in this field too, not possessing it like God nor by his own devices, he would have received this grace from him too. God is for everyone an ineffable good beyond comparison, while the most beautiful of what is in man is

in comparison to God most shameful, if at least one has to believe him who says that all man's righteousness is before God as a rag of a woman sitting apart—how should one not believe in the inspired word of the Spirit?— and perhaps also the righteousness of an angel, although the latter is by nature better than we. For all divine words say that God transcends everything that exists in an equal way, although they also acknowledge that one thing surpasses and situates itself above another whether by physical superiority or the purity of moral virtue. Furthermore, God is an undivided, indivisible, and single unity, although he forms an ineffable triad of persons. The other is manifold, dispersed, and only then united with himself in a suitable way, when he happens to bow to that One, who is one above everything, and to the ineffable unity. Apart from that, God, who is one, is present everywhere in a way that befits each and everyone, not divided—the Divine is indivisible, as has been said—but whole and united in a way that transcends all unity, just as the one who, multiple by his relations, receives God is unique and sole. The other, wherever he happens to be, cannot be present elsewhere at the same time. He is limited and wholly a creature of God. God, however, is infinite. Consequently, being present everywhere as whole, he nevertheless is whole, outside all beings. In sum, God is eternal in a way beyond all being. He creates the existence—an existence befitting the particular nature of each—for all, that is, for those who, in whatever way, serve under him. The other is nothing, if he has not been constituted by God. At first, he came into being through him. Then again, through him, he became a new creation. He never ceases becoming constantly new, being transformed according to the divine saying from glory to glory, if he happens to have the right disposition, for he who is ungrateful and cannot bear the divine creation, he is indisputably Satan, the first insolent rebel against God. Whoever is Satan's friend and acquaintance is driven from disgrace to disgrace and from the darkness of ignorance to darkness because of his ungratefulness towards God and the fact that he turns away from the Godlike dignity. How then would it not be part of an utmost foolishness to presume that beings, which are so different one from another, would come together to be in the same dignity? And so it turned out. He who suffered first and out of jealousy plotted against the harmonious and wonderful creation, which God provided after him, an incorporeal nature, who because of his high status was not wont to change—all that is higher in nature is stubborn and not pliant towards repentance, once it is thrown out of what befits it, or how should I put it?—fell once and for all into the depths of misery and showed his contempt, being unfit for conversion. For this reason, God has given him no heed and made him fall. To obtain mercy from above, there has to be a wish for which God can feel pity; without that, I think, mercy is not possible. This desire is the place where that mercy can rest near us. When Adam, who had been deceived, realized what had happened, he was seized by a pitiable remorse about the deceit. That is what mostly attracts divine compassion. In accordance with God's righteousness and providence, Adam did not recover the former prosperity and fortune, in order that

he would not, after having been granted immediate and complete forgiveness, rapidly forget his recklessness and the transgression he committed and that the oblivion of the bad that was already present would not take control of him and pull him down again into the same sin or worse. For oblivion is an offspring of indulgence, ignorance of oblivion, and sin of ignorance, and probably nothing makes one more easily slip into sin than oblivion. Adam was ordered to live in another land with toil and sweat and to provide for himself with his own hardships. He had been pardoned so that, although this had been his way of life, he could get in contact with his Maker, make offerings to him as well as libations of what was available, and accordingly as much as he was capable approach God and enter into relations with him. Nevertheless he stayed easily tempted and an easy prey to the wickedness of the one who had deceived him, as when an ulcerated flux, which vigorously moves downward along one or other of the body's limbs, puts the body in such a condition that it becomes a haven for new ulcerations, weakened as it is by the first attack and lacking the strength to withstand the next ones.

3. The humanity-loving nature of the Divine Logos, which could from the beginning heal this weakness but neglected to—I think, because of what has been said—did not at all intend to overlook the fact that the one that he, absolute goodness, had made according to his image, was toiling and tortured by the Satanic war. No, he did not overlook this. Having shown himself also in the past to be humanity-loving by the fact that he did not thrust away him, who, by his disobedience, had despised him together with his Father and the Spirit, he also showed later how humanity-loving he was at a moment, which he himself, being God, knew to be appropriate to cure the wound. His love towards men was boundless and could not be compared with anything. It surpassed all comprehension, left all intellect and reason behind, and was full of only heavenly consternation solely demanding pious faith in return. It was not subject to calculations and proofs, so that, being humanity-loving everywhere and in all kinds of ways, the Divine Logos was especially at that particular moment called humanity-loving, because he so proved to exceed himself in his love towards humanity, if it can be put in this way, and that this was the epithet, which surpassed all other good appellations because at the very moment at which it was heard, it overpowered the souls and made those genuinely God-loving, who were so loved by God. Of course, knowing that one is loved is the most effective agent of an eager return of love. For the Word was God and a boundless power and could still in another way cure the illness of the soul. Because his Father wanted him to do so and with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the Divine Logos descended into our nature. He thus emptied himself and inclined the heavens as is written in order to cure by himself his own creations, our soul, which sins against him and is therefore ill, and our body, which is closely united to the soul and sins and sickens together with it. Naturally—the cross was to be the

pinnacle of the whole cure and the recovery of man. The first sin was pleasure by which the sickness took hold. Conversely, the cross was pain. Medicines, which are opposite to the causes of the suffering, dispel the illnesses from the body, although in this case equal has been cured by equal: death by death, our death by that of Christ, and by wood both the lawless use that was made of it, and the wound which resulted from it. This is not at all surprising: “a peg with a peg” says the proverb. Just like illnesses, good medicines cause pain for the patients, and while the former are simply the aches of the body, the latter chase them away. That is the reason why we, men, unwillingly endure the first type and readily the second, for we are freed from the former by the latter, that is, from the more painful ones by the less burdensome ones—a voluntary thing is by nature less of a burden than what is not—and by those which render service, if one wishes to put it that way, from those which dwell in the body inasmuch as men are full of unhealthy matter. Surely then death followed on the sickness of our forefather which was the result from sin, and also, of course, on Christ's sinless cure of us. The first death was a product of sin and a moderate punishment of the sinner, and the second its overthrow. Just so, Christ's Passion was the cure of that infamous pleasure, his sinlessness the cure of sin, his humility that of delusion, and all the humanity-loving acts which he thus did, the cure of all that had then been endured and suffered. If this seems surprising, then again in another way it does not: it was God's work—for God everything is most easy, and for him exists what does not—and nothing of what seems most prodigious is prodigious for him who looks at God and sees his boundless power. However, as I said before, if the object of God's dwelling with us in the flesh and soul—namely our deliverance from the slavery of the devil and of the double death

of soul and body as well as the return to the original happiness with greater and more divine splendor—has been realized on and by the cross, and if the blood of Christ was shed as a ransom for us, who had been sold by sin to the devil's might, then the cross wholly seems to be the pinnacle of our salvation and liberation. The crucified Jesus himself too testifies to this to us in his own words saying, when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw everyone to myself, with the consequence that before he was crucified—that is what is meant by being lifted up—he did not lift up everybody but did so after having been crucified. This being as it is, nothing is for us more salutary than the divine cross, so that one can say that the cross has come into being for the sake of our redemption, salvation, and, what is more, our divinization, and that for the sake of the cross, the Word's strange and ineffable birth out of the Virgin has taken place for us, as well as the circumcision according to the Law, his baptism beyond the Law, and all Christ's benefactions and miracles in between for us. If the cross had not been set beforehand, nothing of this would have happened, and likewise, not even the cross, if what Christ has realized through the cross—namely his drawing towards himself all, who were led astray before as far away from him as was possible and were slaves in a most shameful and grievous way of him who fights against God—would not be there. Surely, it is clear that the events, which came after the cross, were consequent, for if the cross and death had not preceded, he would not have risen from the grave; if this had not beforehand been a shining beacon, neither would the assumption be a fact nor the fact that we sit at God's right hand in the person of Christ, who assumed our nature, put it on in this way, and gave it a place near the majesty of his Father. How wonderful! So great God's love towards men appeared to be, due to which the humanity-loving Word descended unto death, even death on a cross, so numerous were the benefactions and the like, which the cross procured, all for the most part ineffable.

4. Thus, as has been said, not only the divine actions of the incarnate Christ have been done for the sake of the cross and through it but also most of those, which are anterior to the incarnation. So then, I think, the first creation of man did not take place without the cross—the shape of man's body is, indeed, cruciform—not to mention that of the first and immaterial beings. Because it was necessary, in accordance with the divine love towards men, that they appeared plainly to them, so that they could grant them sacred knowledge and a spiritual elevation, as is right, towards God and their own spiritual and unseen foundation, they appeared with wings set crosswise, and this reveals on the one hand their quick movements and their careful piety towards God, and on the other hand, in a clear way, the dignity of the cross with which in fact man's body too is honored—by the way, the soul

too, I think, according to what befits it, for perceptible beings are somehow images of spiritual ones, especially those who are naturally related. Yet, still more than that, our body resembles a cross, whenever we hold our hands out in supplication and raise our eyes to heaven. All things considered, I think, one would be justified in asserting this also about the forefathers of our race, namely that, as long as they dwelled on earth and turned all their spiritual and physical energy towards heaven, therewith worshipping the Divine that is typified by the image of the cross, they led a blessed and prosperous life—they were secure, free from sin, and without any experience of evil—but that as soon as they turned their minds to what was crawling at their feet and held out their hands to that which the serpent ordered them but which God forbade, they succumbed to the charms of bad pleasure, having forgotten God's command, and rightly submitted to the sentence for the evil to come. If man does not look like this because of the cross, but conversely, the cross possesses this shape because man does, this does not prevent the fact that from the beginning, of course, the shape of the cross has been held in honor by God because of the divine action, which he later performed for the sake of man by the aid of the cross. For God, everything is present; for him, nothing is future, as is the case for us, nor past. If the divine shape of the cross was also operating in the holy fathers up to the great Moses, predicting by their deeds the salvation, which was to come for us through it, let it be the task of those who are wiser and more Godlike to explain this. But the following too belongs, I think, to what is reasonable. For the divine Moses and his brother, it was clearly possible to work and display many miracles through the cross, not only for the Hebrews but also for the Egyptians: for the latter to their detriment and dishonor because of their impiety and depravity, for the former to their benefit and salvation because of their love towards God. Well then, the rod of Moses, so it is told, with which God through Moses worked most of his wonders—Moses shook it somehow, and one time the rod was thrown on the ground, repeatedly became a serpent, and then again was restored to the nature the people were familiar with; another time it was stretched out over the sea and split it; at another moment in another way, when Moses used it to perform miracles, it was shaken by him, but always in a cruciform shape—produced those miracles, which one cannot disbelieve—wise, indeed, are those who tell them, and they reveal God—and this also applies to the miracle by which the bitter water became drinkable for the Hebrews. That wood too was a prefiguration of the cross and its effect predicted the cross's energy by which Christ, the wisdom and power,

which effect all things, freed us from our sinful and so bitter condition and transformed our nature towards the sweetness of virtue. That this is true will be shown by manifest facts. When Moses made the brass serpent to cure those who were perishing by snakebites and hung it up, he did not put it in position in a form other than that of a cross. Placed in this manner and seen by those who had been bitten, it was destined to take them out of imminent perils. For he did not let the serpent hang down in a straight way but athwart. He attached it to the pole as a crossbar, thus completing a cross, and when they looked at it, it freed the victims from bites. For him who had been bitten, looking at it was the same as not having been bitten at all and to be compared with absence of injury. With which of his weapons or lines of battle did Moses chiefly put the notorious Amalekites to flight and destroy them? Was it not with the shape of the cross? Raising his hands in supplication to God and against his foes, raising them in that form—for he rested his right hand on his left and his left on his right, thus joining them crosswise—he chased his opponents away. In the same way the great Jacob too, the forefather of our people—I almost failed to mention it, although it deserves most of all to be recalled—when blessing his grandsons, the sons of Joseph, as it is told, made with both hands alike the sign of the cross, when beginning his prayers. The one grandchild, who should have sat at his grandfather's right hand, happened to be at his left and vice versa, so, in order to touch them, Jacob made a cross with his hands. Did not Elisha, imitating the shape that his master used, divide the waters of the Jordan and create for himself a narrow passage? Or rather, did not the cross make for him a passage in the river? If someone would not believe this too, he will regarding our topic be persuaded by the story of how the child of the Shunammite returned to life, if he is not too disputatious. Elisha stretched himself out crosswise above the child lying there lifeless. He immediately resuscitated it and handed it over to its mother alive. The following event too forms part of our heritage, for it has been handed down that the peg, with which that brave and noble-minded woman Jael killed Sisera, was cross-shaped. With this peg and in the person of Sisera who in that time appeared on the scene, the pious and God-loving soul symbolically destroyed beforehand that future, obscure beast which was brought down by the cross, a common foe and enemy for God and for the people of that time. All this happened according to the divine providence with a view to future events, although the holy prophets either beheld it beforehand or were guided towards it in an altogether inspired way. Well then, if these phenomena should also be used for our

knowledge of what is unclear but akin to what is manifest: all miracles, which date from beforehand, have at any rate been worked by means of the shape of the cross. The ancient and new are reciprocally connected through the splendor of the divine dispensation. The ones, indeed, indicated the others. Just as facts which are not clear are shown to us by means of those from the past, which are clear, those from the past are illustrated by more recent ones, and symbols by what has already been accomplished. As a consequence, they have all given evidence of the fact that for our Savior the cross has been the most essential tool of all to save us, for also the one jot in the Law and the one tittle were the cross, which had to come according to the divine prophecy, as well as the rod, which encouraged the great David together with all devout people, and the staff of God, and then again David's rod of iron, as (being) indestructible, with which, as the Holy Spirit foretold, Christ will tend the peoples and dash their disobedience in pieces like a potter's vessels; in addition also the stool of God's feet and the place where his feet stood, where the king and prophet exhorts himself and others to do obeisance. The mark on the foreheads of those who had to be saved, when the condemned must be slain with axes, in one prophet, and the log, which brought still another axe from the depth of the river to the surface, in another one—the axe meaning our nature, which has become cold and heavy by sin and was long ago brought down in the depths of misery—were not these the cross, or did these facts not all happen at any rate through the cross?

5. It is clear for everyone, I think, who is not a slave of the pericopes, even though those will burst, who are obscure in their thoughts and therefore enemies of the cross of our Savior—even of the Savior of all himself. Some of those make jokes and laugh at it because there is not even one moment when the cross would accept onto itself a God who has become incarnate, suffered in this way, and impaled himself on the cross. Others do believe that this has taken place but reproach the cross and hate it as having become a God-slaying instrument. From others still the cross has to endure violation for another reason, for Christ would not have suffered on it only in the flesh but also in his Godhead. A last group, thinking the opposite of the previous ones, assumed that Christ, when crucified, did not only not suffer in his Godhead but neither in the flesh and that the crucifixion happened without reason. They were proved to be preeminently insolent and impious in this matter. The pious did not launch a debate on this topic with the first group because these, from the beginning, even refused to hear about the incarnation of the Divine Logos. Who were they? The Jews and the Greeks—the Greeks, who could not be made to believe in it even by the Dodonaean oak about which they were high-minded

and which had become silent through the cross, not to mention other things, or anyway most of all those Greeks, who after a little resistance let themselves apparently be persuaded by the oak itself and by the other miracles, which had ceased due to the power of the cross. Hence, these people must be rejected in whatever of both directions their opinion may tend. The heresies, which came next were each appropriately punished for their individual impiety by wise and holy men dating from before our time. Although both assuming a union of Christ's different natures, they became diametrically opposed to each other. One group, as I have said, supposed that Christ had, from the beginning, not even suffered in the flesh at all, the other group declared that the Godhead too had been subject to suffering. In this way, it became possible for both groups to suppose one nature in Christ by basing themselves on opposite arguments. One of these represented the Godhead as a creature, a bodily creature; the other regarded even the flesh of Christ as uncreated because, as its adherents used to say, the flesh is joined and united with God more than anything else. This is indeed what happened: there was a time when the Word of God the Father was not hypostatically one with the flesh and with the human nature as a whole. Long ago however, as I said, our holy fathers denounced those people as impious, and because of their heresies and impiety, they were properly called Monophysites, Aphthartodokites, and Aktistites. On the other hand, let us to whom God has given piety in all divine matters and who experience the many blessings of the cross, thank Christ, who has granted us this favor. Let us praise the cross, which generously provides us with multifarious benefactions. The cross, indeed, the cross is for us the corrector of each individual life, a harbor for when we are caught in a storm, enjoyment when we are in distress, a way out when we are at loss, ambrosia when we are hungry, nectar when we are thirsty, wealth instead of poverty, the removal of (material) wealth by the wealth of piety, and strength when a war is waged against us. The cross gets us back on our feet when we stumble, gives hope when we despair, calls us back when we err, and tempers us when we are in whatever way under bad influences. It illuminates us when we are in darkness, it is a guide for wanderers, a stay for the exhausted, or rather a light for the enlightened, strength for those who are strong, hope for those who nurse hopes, enjoyment for those who rejoice in the Lord, and the rest likewise. In a word, it is the horn of Amaltheia for those who have put their faith in the cross, if at least this term is not bold but befitting to it. Indeed, what can Amaltheia's horn, in comparison with the cross, offer us by means of the properties of which, as the fathers of myths claim, it consists? The horn, so they say, procures resources albeit merely to the body, but the cross truly gives the appropriate resources to both the body and the soul, so many as I have just enumerated, and more than these, shall we say everything that we—not unnaturally—constantly need unless a base faith would lead us. Besides, the cross is the victory of pious kings, generals, and armies, the defeat of those who are the opposite, and the weapon of truth that shields the

pious, according to the great David—for Christ is truth, and the cross is his weapon—a strong and steadfast faith. Only the cross is an infallible guarantee for those who close any contract; it reconciles opponents and seals the irresistible love of those who love in a God-fearing way. The cross exercises virginity, joins marriages, rears up children, educates and teaches all and brings them to perfection, once and for all, or, to put it this way, the cross is peaceful, friendly, suppliant, mediating, virginal, nuptial, free, saving, keeping off mischief, averting all terrors, cleansing away the filth from the soul, punishing the impious, everywhere and always marvelous, a teacher of divine philosophy, a guide for the philosophy that is readily obedient to God, but a hurricane for that which is not, a sword against pleasure-seeking and evil as a whole. The cross is the hate against the present world that drags people away from God, the longing for the future world that unites us with God, or rather the flight from the present one even before the body itself flees, and the departure and transition to the other. We know that the cross, by driving prostitutes away from its own veneration because of their impurity, has rendered them traveling towards the ether by exposing them—an achievement, I think, which surpasses all other. He, who, concerning Mary of Egypt, knows the miracle of the desert, understands what I am saying. Where will one look and not see the cross conferring benefactions on us? What is man's guide by day, when he is awake and does his work? What is his guide by night when he goes to sleep or toils? What is a more trusty guard for those who, by day as well as by night, brandish the cross? There is nobody, nobody whom it befits more to listen to the wisdom than he who is shielded by the cross and by true reason. What does this mean? If you sit down, you will be without fear, and if you repose, you shall sleep with pleasure. Such is by nature its protecting power, and it is by nature stronger than its opposites. The cross ensures that one can be free from worries and that one can feel quiet before hostile fears against which, as one may assume, it will stand as protector. Nothing guards anything so well, as the cross guides us, nothing is stronger than the opposite force. Naturally—the cross carries in itself the Almighty, and indeed because of it, all toils become easier; all danger becomes reasonable and inspires more confidence. The cross forms the right start and the voluntary end of their arts for the artisans, of skills for those who undertake them, of agriculture for the farmers, of commerce for honest traders, of a fair voyage for sailors, of cycles that are annual, seasonal, monthly, and daily, of hours themselves and of half hours for those who live in strict piety, of all prayers, sacred rites, pure offerings, churches, houses, cities, festivities, and in the first place of everything that contributes thereto and comes on top of it. The cross is for everybody not only the beginning of everything; it

also finishes absolutely every good deed and renders assistance. It awards in like manner rest, which is better than work, as well as silence and tranquility and, of course, also their opposites, dispelling inferior idleness and supervising more edifying works. The cross is simply everything for everybody, always and everywhere. Time would truly fail me, if I wanted to enumerate the humanity-loving acts of the divine cross. As we have learned, no sparrow is killed without God's knowledge, and nothing happens in defiance of the divine cross to those who are good in piety.

6. The sacred image of Christ cannot be present everywhere for us nor be with us, as we desire—at any rate, wood is needed and a painter to represent him on it—but the cross of Christ is with us everywhere, even if wood is wanting, if at least we have our hands at our disposal. The holy blood of Christ and his body, being celebrated not without the cross—nothing sacred is celebrated without it—and being imparted, deify both those who partake of it—if they, being pure, reach out for the divine gifts that are pure as well—and the participation itself in the gifts and the communion. Thereby the cross consecrates and, so to speak, ratifies. But in neither of these can anyone partake whenever he wishes: both a church and sacred vessels—more than a few— are needed, as well as an appointed hour and a great ceremony. If one wants to partake without church and ceremony, this also is surely not as easily put into practice as the cross. Obtaining the cross and wanting it is the same thing, as is also the case with the glorious and completely pure baptism. This preeminently belongs to God's grace; it is an illumination for those who receive it and is also called so. It cleanses all filth from the past—the cross performs the same—but it is not possible to get baptism twice. If one has been purified once and for all by baptism, then another way is needed in case new filth that is added afterwards should dim the light, as it is impossible to bring about the cleansing again through baptism. What is this other way if not that of the cross? Indeed as I mentioned, the cross leads and teaches both the virtues and the cleansing efforts and, as has been said, is always with the pious, being both a teacher who accompanies us from birth as well as a companion for what has to be done. If you run, it runs in advance of you. If you walk, it goes alongside you. If you are exhausted, it lifts you up and heartens you. If you fall, it raises you up, puts an irresistible strength in you, and restores you to your former good health.

7. Nor could the earth hide the cross—that is, indeed, impossible—nor the envy of the Hebrews, which once buried it deep in the earth, eager to do away with it because of its miracles, but was proved (afterwards) to have made this effort in vain. Although having been buried as the third cross together with two others, namely those of the thieves—this too was a ruse of the God-slaying envy, in order

that nobody would see that it was contriving at every opportunity and that it was wholly corrupt—its divinity declared it imperishable. Having given a share of this divinity to the earth, the cross went up into the air again. By the sacred efforts of a holy empress, whom the love for the cross held spellbound and did not grieve, the cross went up again to that famous light to illuminate those who are dwelling in that spiritual light, which is much brighter than the light we know, and did not leave the heaven without itself nor without light. Out from heaven it shone upon the excellent Constantine and sent down a firm and fiery power against the enemies, not only against the sensible ones but also against the unseen and the more troublesome. It gave itself to the emperor as an unbreakable weapon, a ready standard, a steadfast scepter, and, so to speak, as an irresistible strength, which subjected for him the whole earth and made of the realms of Cyrus, Xerxes, and Alexander a mere appendage. Everything, indeed, everything must stand in the light of the cross of him who descended into the lowest regions of the earth and ascended again above all empires and is present everywhere. This indeed was its destiny: in Paul's phrase the height, the depth, the length, and breadth could perhaps mean the cross or mean it without any doubt—if this passage refers to still another mystery— completely embracing, guarding, and enlightening all that is visible and invisible, not only what is ours, but also the powers above which inhabit heaven. As such the cross was given to us by the Source of gifts, being in truth a second source of goods of all sorts. So the cross has embraced every time, every place, and each nature and age, with its benefits, as has been said. Nothing—neither old nor young, nobody of those who are capable of receiving its abundance, nor even of those who have to be punished by it because of their unconquered evil—is deprived of it or of its goods. An augmentation of the good is in fact what the destruction of its opposite amounts to.

8. Yet, the moments during which especially the cross does good and illuminates, or rather through which it strikes the whole earth and the whole world with light, are two in number each annual cycle—a cycle which is somehow cut in two by two universal feasts and festivities in its honor, and exults therein so much, just as a crown exults in the beauty and comeliness of two large and wonderful gems, which divide it in equal parts, and exchange their luster from both sides, gracefully blending together, and produce a complete ring of brilliance upon the round shape

of the crown. One of these feasts introduces spring after winter, the most beautiful of seasons, and even before spring itself, it is by itself the most charming spring for pious people. The other one resembles the first one, introduces fall, and proclaims the exaltation of the cross after its discovery, in which the sacred empress, the mother of the great and divine Constantine, assisted, in accordance with God's will. Indeed, after having found the treasure, she wished to share this common good with other people too, for she deemed it unjust and against her love for mankind meanly to enjoy on her own this universal bliss and to guard it confined without giving others their share. She convened a meeting of as many different people as she could—every class, every age, every position, and every dignity both religious and royal—and caused the cross to be elevated upwards by the sacred hands of all. This became the biggest and most frequented feast, festivity, and thanksgiving to God of all that ever existed whereby all were raised to heaven by their souls, leaving the earth completely behind. Being since that day the most perfect and universal feast, it has been laid down in ecclesiastical laws and is celebrated everywhere on earth annually, just as the sun illuminates the autumnal equinox without disturbance and does not allow those who live in piety to be distressed by the excesses of winter or the troubles of the heat, which are their opposite in evil. Conversely, the other feast lights the second equinox, and many marvelous aspects are linked with it: as I said, to introduce the most beautiful of seasons, to be in the middle of the sacred fasts of Lent, to lead the divine resurrection of Christ, and other such adornments. Being an indication and a precursor of Christ's Passion by which his resurrection is preceded and for which sorrow and gloominess are appropriate, this feast (of Half Lent), as a resurrection before the resurrection, secretly supports the fatigued. Occurring in the middle of the fast and the other battles, which are, according to sacred laws, the lot of Lent and must train the athletes of piety—occurring in the middle of these days of athletic effort, the feast stretches out its hand from the beginning to those who reach it with much toil, and gladly makes them joyfully regain strength or rather innervates them from the start and encourages them in their expectations with which they arrive there. Having reached Half Lent, they completely forget their previous troubles, as if they are revived. Having thus allowed them to rest a while and rendered them cheerful and renewed, it sends them on more vigorous than before towards Christ's Passion and from there on towards the resurrection, so that they endure without noticing the greatest troubles most lightly thanks

to this order of the adoration of the cross. If one were to state that this holy feast is to the perfectly pure fifty days' fast of the Christians what a joint is to a reed stem, supporting and securing man's asceticism where it lacks vigor both before and after the feast, he would not err, as it seems to me. In this way the feasts of the cross both provide a leisurely break.

9. With all this the cross has illuminated everybody and forms the basis for the salvation of all—always and everywhere, for young and old, for each rank, position, and age—not keeping a distance from anyone. When the cross is present, nobody is alone, naked, ill-fed, homeless, cityless, or a stranger. No one who in whatever way is unfortunate—provided that he is not through and through bad nor stubborn—despairs of better expectations if he knows well the cross's power, considers its continuous miracles—those from of old, those from later, those from the beginning, those which are continually happening—and grants it his steadfast and firm faith. The holy angels have an eternal law: to dance around God and to enjoy both his illumination and the providence that they send down over those who are under themselves. This is, indeed, their joy and pleasure, most of all when they are sent by the goodness to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit the kingdom, for the good God makes them be good too. It is typical of goodness not to desire only to enjoy benefits but also, as far as is possible, to share them with those in need and to rejoice in equal way when others enjoy them together with them, as those who are beneath do not at any rate envy these benefits towards those who are above them. However, by the rebellion against the goodness, the opposite energy and opinion were turned into demons instead of good angels for whom the sleepless and most wily wickedness towards us is their only continuous joy and pleasure. No power is, however, so destructive as that of the cross. Accordingly, the devil came as a dragon fearfully attacking a pious man and putting on a most terrifying performance as if on the verge of devouring him, in order to make him desert his piety by frightening displays. The other however directed the cross as a weapon against him and held it up, and immediately the dragon, frightening displays and all, was gone. He also came as a lion, a leopard, and all wild beasts at once, either with an unspeakably great multitude or, conversely, as only one. He came as light, disguising himself as god or as a good angel, in order to deceive, but the beams of the cross exposed him as darkness. He withdrew as fire and smoke. He came as gold—and with that stone, which is not Lydian but divine—but was denounced as being neither lead nor bronze but nothing at all. Indeed, even if the devil approaches as silver, as an expensive stone, or as beauty, which draws one to pleasure that is not beautiful at all, as excessive care for the stomach leading to drunkenness, as

pretentious power, as outstanding wisdom, as the sweet smell of perfume, as the fragrance and appearance of a flower in a most irresistible way—even if he comes as whichever of those means with which he subjects and binds the souls of men to himself—the cross, stretched out in front of him, makes clear that this is all show, as in fact it is, or also—completely opposite to what is on stage—that it is shame, disgust, hunger, pestilence, poverty, and death. Even if he seeks to steal into a pious heart with demonic subtlety without anyone noticing, one sees that he is a mountain full of wild beasts. If he has crept in unnoticed, he is caught by the cross and thrust out as a scoundrel, so that instead of what he contrived against the pious and the expectations he fostered as a consequence, the result is completely the opposite thanks to the power of the cross, for not only nobody of those for whom he lays snares (falls into sin) but they also in addition gain knowledge itself about his snares, disregarding them henceforth. Indeed, the fact that through what has happened they overcame those who ambushed them makes them despise in the future those who resemble their foes. And yet, it is said that the fact that he lays snares is the most terrible and cunning thing, because he is most malicious and remarkable for his very great experience with humanity inasmuch as he is older than each in age and more refined in nature, for he is incorporeal in comparison with this thick body of ours, although his condition became thick and materialistic due to his fall from heaven. But the cross gives him who is so terrible and arrogant to the pious to become for them a play thing and laughingstock because of precisely those things, which he invents notwithstanding the fact that they are corporeal. Moreover, the body is stronger than the incorporeal beings, when the cross fights as champion, chiefly since Christ our Savior, crucified in the flesh, by his crucifixion and dying as a result of the Passion, destroyed and overturned the demonic power.

10. Neither the sand of the sea nor yet the multitude of stars will ever be counted with human calculations. Nor would I be capable to go through all the praises, which are due to the cross. This would be a task, I think, of heavenly angels with a language or of those men of old who have thoroughly practiced their language and with zeal concentrated on this only. Therefore, having dedicated my diligence, as well as I could, to the wholly blessed cross—for we are all equally bound to it by its present power, eucharist, and hymns—I end my sermon, for I notice that going on is beyond me and at the same time not even necessary: it would add nothing to the great glory of the cross, not even if I repeat those many items again and again, precisely as tiny flows from river mouths and streams add nothing to the sea. If what I have said is of a level worthy in comparison with the cross, thanks be to the blessed cross of which this also is the work—the cross, which makes use of us, its servants, to do this for our profit, not for its own glory. If, on the contrary, what I have said is completely unworthy, then also thanks be to the cross. First of all it is a gift of the cross for this reason, namely because, as has been shown,

nothing would ever happen, be it very big or very small, if the cross did not assist. Children—starting to learn the components of the words, and, after the cross, the characters—first see the cross on their writing tablets and are taught by the teachers to say the (exact) words. They invoke the cross to help them in the acquisition of learning, and by doing so, they acquire piety before anything else through the cross, and learn the characters thereafter. Looking at precisely this, one could, of course, say that the first characters are word elements, as is said, and that the cross is (an element) of piety. If Christ is on the cross, and the cross belongs to Christ, and Christ accepts the praises addressed to the cross, why do we fear our homily not to be valuable? He who once in a humanity-loving way accepted the praises of Hebrew babes and infants and favorably received olive branches, which were offered to him, will not refuse the words, which we now devote to his cross, even if they are entirely childish. There remains the fact that a prayer would befit my sermon—being at the same time the end thereof—for normally a prayer is not separated from praises and hymns towards the Divine.

11. You who hold everything together, infinite power, great and splendid glory of Christians, give strength to God's Church against the impious, give victories to our pious emperors against our enemies, give peace to all pious men from the violent villains, who will perish in a dreadful way, to worship in holiness and righteousness all our days the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the trinity, the unity, the one divinity, power, glory, and kingdom for which alone is fitting all worship and adoration from everlasting to everlasting, amen.