The first is the terrible and glorious Cross of the Lord, which from an instrument of execution has become an instrument of power and glory. This is the Cross that lifted up from earth to heaven the innocent and voluntary Sufferer Christ the Savior and with Him nailed the sins of the whole world. The Cross, watered with His pure blood and with it washing away all sinful defilement. A cross that absorbed a multitude of malicious glances, mockery and blasphemy. The Cross, at the foot of which only two people were weeping: the Mother of the Crucified One, by Whose very heart the weapon of the Cross passed, and the only disciple whose love was not frightened away by the horror of suffering.

This Cross ascended above the world for a short time, in order to hide in the earth for a long time by the malice of man. But this short time was enough for the Life-Giving Cross to conquer the world and give it life.

By a long and difficult path of humility the Lord Jesus Christ entered into His glory, but the humiliation of the Life-Giving Tree, on which He offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, lasted incomparably longer. The glory of the Crucified One had already filled all the ends of the world, and the Life-Giving Wood of the Cross, hidden in ignorance and ignominy, awaited its hour for another three centuries.

Already the Cross crowned the Church of Christ, the sign of the Cross by the power of Christ crucified on it strengthened the human weakness of the first Christians, who went to torture for their faith, and the only Life-Giving and Saving Tree was still hidden from the eyes of men.

Christianity expanded and strengthened. Even the powerful of this world were already thinking about the Divine origin of the Crucified One and Ascended to the Cross. Emperor Constantine the Great was vouchsafed with all his army to see the sign of God – the Cross shining in the sky from the stars and the radiance of the inscription around it: "In this you shall conquer."

Such manifestations revived in the minds of Christians the memory of the first Cross of the Lord, and with it the faith that this great shrine could not perish. By this time the Church had already been filled with many living testimonies of the feats of bearing the cross, and it was so lacking for the triumph, glory, and joy of that one Cross, from which the victory over death shone. And the work of searching for the Cross of the Lord was taken upon herself by the eighty-year-old Helena, the mother of the first Christian emperor Constantine. The Holy Spirit inspired this queen (later called Equal-to-the-Apostles), to the glory of the Crucified One and to the joy of Orthodox Christians, to exert much labor and effort in order to find the holy thing.

The pagan emperors and the malice of the Jews tried to completely destroy in man the memories of sacred events and sacred places where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for people and rose again. The Holy Sepulchre and Golgotha were covered with earth, and a pagan pagan temple was erected on the site of an artificial hill.

And now the Christian queen was looking for traces of the lost treasure among the Jews hostile to Christianity.

And how great is the power and authority of God, you can judge for yourselves: to the queen's question addressed to the elder Jews: "Where did your ancestors hide the Cross of Christ?" they pointed out to her a certain old Jew Judas, who, in response to a repeated question, apparently against his will, led her to the place of the temple of Venus and said: "In this very place you will find the Cross of your Christ."

Иуда предал Христа на Крест, а через триста лет другой Иуда способствует явлению славы Христа.

После удаления капища еще долго длились поиски, и надежды сменялись безнадежием, пока Сам Господь не соблаговолил открыть людям покоящуюся в земле святыню. Благоухание Святого Духа, исшедшее из земли, положило конец поискам.

Но снова в недоумение поверглись благочестивые искатели. Вместо одного вожделенного Креста они нашли три, и совершенно одинаковы]. Дощечка с надписью, имевшаяся в свое время на Кресте Спасителя, была найдена позднее и в другом месте.

Святитель Макарий, вместе с царицей Еленой возглавлявший поиск, воскликнул: “Если Промысел Божий не благоволил навсегда оставить Крест Господень в земле, то попустит ли ему оставаться в неизвестности? Попустит ли, чтобы мы вместо Креста Господня воздавали честь кресту разбойника? Бог Сам укажет нам Крест нашего Спасителя.”

Все три креста были внесены в дом благочестивой жены, лежащей на смертном одре. После пламенной молитвы святитель поочередно возложил кресты на умирающую. И только прикосновением последнего вошла в больную сила жизни.