Instead of the Jews, people from other nations settled in Palestine and rebuilt the devastated cities, including the city of Jerusalem. The faith of Christ began to be affirmed among the pagans. The spread of the Christian faith among the pagans caused persecution of Christians by the Roman pagan emperors. Adherents of paganism convinced the emperors that Christians were enemies of the state, enemies of the emperors and of all mankind.

The persecution of Christians was so cruel that it is difficult to describe; Christians were subjected to the most terrible, incredible tortures. The first cruel persecution began in the year 64 after the Nativity of Christ (30 years after the Resurrection of Christ), under the emperor Nero. Nero set fire to the city of Rome for his amusement and then laid all the blame on the Christians.

By his order, Christians were sought out and seized, given to circuses to be torn to pieces by beasts, sewn into animal skins and poisoned by dogs, crucified on crosses, doused with tar and lit instead of torches at night to illuminate the gardens of Nero. During this persecution, the Apostles Peter and Paul suffered in Rome (in 67 A.D.). Paul was beheaded with the sword, and Peter was crucified on the cross, but, at his own request, he was crucified upside down, because he considered himself unworthy to die as the Lord Jesus Christ died.

The most terrible was the last persecution of Christians under the emperor Diocletian. This persecution lasted from 303 to 313 A.D. Hundreds of thousands of Christians were then killed, with the most diverse types of torture. During this persecution, the books of the Holy Scriptures were taken away and burned. A contemporary of the persecutions, a well-known Christian writer and teacher of philosophy in Nicomedia, Lactantius writes: "If I had hundreds of lips and an iron breast, then even then I would not be able to count all the kinds of tortures endured by believers."

In one place they tortured from ten to a hundred people a day; many of the tormented and mutilated were again treated in order to be tortured again. Christians were tortured without distinction of sex and age. "I myself was an eyewitness to this," writes the historian Eusebius, "so that the iron was blunted and broken, and the murderers themselves, tired of it, alternately succeeded one another." But the sufferings and feats of the martyrs strengthened and spread the faith of Christ among other people.

Many pagans, seeing the faith and feats of the Christian martyrs and the miracles that took place at the time, were themselves convinced of the truth of the Christian faith, and accepted Christianity. The more Christians were persecuted and tortured, the more the Christian faith was strengthened. Cessation of persecution. Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord The persecution of Christians ceased only at the beginning of the fourth century, under the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.

Emperor Constantine himself was convinced of the power and glory of the sign of the cross of Christ. Once, on the eve of a decisive battle, he and all his army saw in the sky the sign of the cross, composed of light, with the inscription: "In this conquer you" (in Greek: NICA). On the following night, Jesus Christ Himself appeared to the emperor with the Cross in His hand and said that by this sign he would defeat the enemy; and he gave orders to build a military banner with the image of the Holy Cross.

Constantine fulfilled God's command and defeated the enemy. He took the Christians under his protection and declared the faith of Christ to be the dominant (main). He abolished execution by crucifixion and issued laws in favor of the Church of Christ. For their merits and zeal for the spread of the Christian faith, Constantine the Great and his mother Helena received the name of the holy kings of the Equal-to-the-Apostles, that is, equal to the apostles.

The Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine wished to build churches of God on sacred places for Christians in Palestine (i.e. , on the place of the birth, suffering, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, etc.) and to find the Cross on which the Savior was crucified. With great joy, his mother, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Helena, undertook to fulfill the tsar's wish.

In the year 326, Queen Helen set off for Jerusalem for this purpose. She put a lot of effort into finding the Cross of Christ, since the enemies of Christ hid the Cross, burying it in the ground. Finally, she was pointed out to an elderly Jew named Judas, who knew where the Cross of the Lord was. After much questioning and persuasion, he was forced to speak.

It turned out that the Holy Cross was thrown into a cave and littered with garbage and earth, and a pagan temple was built on top. Queen Helena ordered the destruction of this building and the excavation of the cave. When they dug up the cave, they found in it three crosses and a separate tablet with the inscription: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." It was necessary to find out which of the three crosses was the Cross of the Saviour. Patriarch of Jerusalem (bishop)

Macarius and Empress Helena firmly believed and hoped that God would indicate the holy Cross of the Savior. On the advice of the bishop, they began to bring crosses one after another to a seriously ill woman. No miracle occurred from the two crosses, but when the third cross was laid, she immediately became healthy. It happened that at that time the deceased was being carried past for burial.

Then they began to lay crosses one after another on the deceased; and when the third cross was laid, the dead man came to life. In this way they recognized the Cross of the Lord, through which the Lord performed miracles and showed the life-giving power of His Cross. Empress Helena, Patriarch Macarius and the people around them venerated the Cross of Christ with joy and reverence and kissed it.

Christians, having learned of this great event, gathered in an innumerable multitude to the place where the Cross of the Lord was found (found). Everyone wanted to venerate the Holy Life-Giving Cross. But since it was impossible to do this because of the multitude of people, everyone began to ask at least to show him. Then Patriarch Macarius stood on an elevated place and, so that everyone could see, he raised it up several times.