{"id":25084,"date":"2013-07-31T22:19:14","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T02:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=25084"},"modified":"2015-03-13T16:41:41","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:41:41","slug":"in-turkey-have-they-found-part-of-christs-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/07\/in-turkey-have-they-found-part-of-christs-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"In Turkey, have they found part of Christ’s cross?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From NBC News:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Turkish archaeologists say they have found a stone chest in a 1,350-year-old church that appears to contain a relic venerated as a piece of Jesus\u2019 cross.<\/p>\n

The artifacts were unearthed during a dig at\u00a0Balatlar Church<\/a>\u00a0in Turkey\u2019s Sinop Province, and displayed this week by excavation team leader G\u00fclg\u00fcn K\u00f6ro\u011flu. \u201cWe have found a holy thing in a chest. It is a piece of a cross,\u201d the\u00a0Hurriyet Daily News quoted her as saying<\/a>.<\/p>\n

K\u00f6ro\u011flu, an art historian and archaeologist at Turkey\u2019s Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, said the team suspects that the chest served as a symbolic coffin for the relics of a holy person \u2014 and that the fragments within it were associated with Jesus\u2019 crucifixion.<\/p>\n

She showed reporters at the site a stone with crosses carved into it. \u201cThis stone chest is very important to us. It has a history and is the most important artifact we have unearthed so far,\u201d she said. The chest has been taken to a laboratory for further examination.<\/p>\n

K\u00f6ro\u011flu said her team has been working since 2009 at the church \u2014 which was built in the year 660, during the Byzantine era. She said the ruins of an ancient Roman bath were also found at the site, along with more than 1,000 human skeletons.<\/p>\n

Fragments associated with Jesus\u2019 cross were sent far and wide as relics in ancient and medieval times. According to legend, St. Helena \u2014 the mother of Emperor Constantine \u2014\u00a0found the cross in Jerusalem<\/a>\u00a0and distributed pieces of the wood to church leaders in Jerusalem, Rome and Constantinople (present-day Istanbul in Turkey).<\/p>\n

Later in the 4th century, St. Cyril of Jerusalem said the whole world \u201chas been filled with pieces of the wood of the cross.\u201d St. Gregory of Nyssa said the wood had \u201csaving efficacy for all men, though it is, as I am informed, a piece of a poor tree, less valuable than most trees are.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From NBC News:\u00a0 Turkish archaeologists say they have found a stone chest in a 1,350-year-old church that appears to contain a relic venerated as a piece of Jesus\u2019 cross. The artifacts were unearthed during a dig at\u00a0Balatlar Church\u00a0in Turkey\u2019s Sinop Province, and displayed this week by excavation team leader G\u00fclg\u00fcn K\u00f6ro\u011flu. \u201cWe have found a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1372,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jesus","category-this-that"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Turkey, have they found part of Christ's cross?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From NBC News:\u00a0 Turkish archaeologists say they have found a stone chest in a 1,350-year-old church that appears to contain a relic venerated as a piece\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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