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Go here<\/a> to learn more about the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The legend is that the Empress Helena, Constantine\u2019s mother, traveled to Jerusalem and discovered the true cross. The local Christians said she could have it, but said she must not remove it from the Holy Land, so we got slaves to load her ship with soil from Jerusalem, put the relics on the soil and sailed off to Rome, where she loaded the soil onto a cart, put the cross on it and took it to her palace in Rome, thus fulfilling her promise\u00a0not to remove\u00a0the cross from the Holy Land. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if this is an urban legend, but I am told that in one spot within the basilica of\u00a0 Santa Croce there is supposed to be some of the soil from Jerusalem and that this soil was tested recently and found to be from Jerusalem. Among the relics in the church are the incorrupt finger of St Thomas which was put into Christ\u2019s wounds, a nail used in the crucifixion, fragments of the true cross, part of the cross beam of the good thief\u2019s cross, and most interestingly, a part of the title board that hung over the cross.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s feast of the exaltation of the cross dates back to the discovery by Helena and celebrates the victory of Christ through death and resurrection. Words from today\u2019s gospel: \u201cFor God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"