“It’s as though I lived through the paschal feasts, the crowd and the excitement,” exclaimed one of the faithful at the end of the Mass of the Invention of the Holy Cross in the Holy Sepulcher on Monday, May 7.
The Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross is, along with Corpus Christi, one of the two feasts that, besides Lent and Easter, are celebrated at the Holy Sepulcher according to the same plan: a solemn entry for First Vespers, processions winding three times around the aedicule, nighttime Office, Solemn Mass on the day of the feast. But unlike the other feasts, this one is celebrated only by the Franciscans, and the principal concelebrant is normally the Custos of the Holy Land. [1]
Furthermore, this is the only feast day that is not celebrated in the upper part of the church but rather in the very place where, according to tradition, Saint Helena, the Emperor Constantine’s mother, found the three crosses of Calvary, among them that of Christ. [2]
The liturgy takes place, not in the upper part of the church, but in the crypt where the Cross was found. After the Custos ’ Solemn Entry, the celebration begins with a procession, whose progress is interrupted for First Vespers in the Crypt of the Invention of the Cross.
This year, the Custody published a new liturgy pamphlet. Among its innovations Holy Sepulcher habitués will be surprised to note that the words of the hymn Vexilla Regis have been slightly changed.
The hymn was written in the sixth century by Venantius Fortunatus in honor of the arrival in Poitiers, France, of a relic of the Holy Cross at the request of Queen Radegunda, and it later passed into the Roman liturgy. When the daily procession in the Holy Sepulcher was reformed in 1623, the then-Custos of the Holy Land, Tommaso Obicini, adopted the text as it appeared in the breviary of the liturgical reform of the Council of Trent in 1570. In 1632, Pope Urban VIII modified Venantius Fortunatus’ original Low Latin text to adapt it to Latin metrical scansion. Although the Franciscans, in accordance with the Rule of Saint Francis, pray in conformity to the usages of the Roman Church and its reforms, during the Ottoman occupation of the Holy Land liturgical adaptations were not a priority.
The original text, therefore, was in use from 1623 to 1924, when Brother Augustin Fachini brought the text into conformity with that in the breviary. He did not know that sixty years later the Second Vatican Council, in chapter 93 of its document on the liturgy Sacro Sanctum Concilium, would call for returning hymns to their original forms.
The changed words were not the occasion of any major glitches, and the celebration was very prayerful. A small but fervent congregation assisted at each of the services.
After Vespers some of the faithful took advantage of the recommencement of the procession in the Basilica of the Resurrection for a time of prayerful recollection before the relic of the True Cross. It had been brought into the crypt in solemn procession, borne in the hands of the Custos , for the Office of Readings, and again for the daytime Mass. After Mass, it was brought back up into the Basilica in a procession that wound three times around the aedicule. The faithful could were able to venerate the relic after three solemn benedictions: in front of the Tomb, at the altar of the apparition to Mary Magdalene and finally in the chapel of the apparition to Mary.
O Cross, our one reliance, hail! That carries the Easter joy To give fresh merit to the saint, And pardon to the penitent.
It is true that the joy of the feast day had something of Easter joy about it.
MAB
[1] In the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the feast is a diocesan memorial. In the Latin Church, the feast has been removed, in favor of the single feast day of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14.
[2] During the Office of Readings, Saint Rufino’s text explaining how the Lord’s Cross was distinguished is read.
The Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross is, along with Corpus Christi, one of the two feasts that, besides Lent and Easter, are celebrated at the Holy Sepulcher according to the same plan: a solemn entry for First Vespers, processions winding three times around the aedicule, nighttime Office, Solemn Mass on the day of the feast. But unlike the other feasts, this one is celebrated only by the Franciscans, and the principal concelebrant is normally the Custos of the Holy Land. [1]
Furthermore, this is the only feast day that is not celebrated in the upper part of the church but rather in the very place where, according to tradition, Saint Helena, the Emperor Constantine’s mother, found the three crosses of Calvary, among them that of Christ. [2]
The liturgy takes place, not in the upper part of the church, but in the crypt where the Cross was found. After the Custos ’ Solemn Entry, the celebration begins with a procession, whose progress is interrupted for First Vespers in the Crypt of the Invention of the Cross.
This year, the Custody published a new liturgy pamphlet. Among its innovations Holy Sepulcher habitués will be surprised to note that the words of the hymn Vexilla Regis have been slightly changed.
The hymn was written in the sixth century by Venantius Fortunatus in honor of the arrival in Poitiers, France, of a relic of the Holy Cross at the request of Queen Radegunda, and it later passed into the Roman liturgy. When the daily procession in the Holy Sepulcher was reformed in 1623, the then-Custos of the Holy Land, Tommaso Obicini, adopted the text as it appeared in the breviary of the liturgical reform of the Council of Trent in 1570. In 1632, Pope Urban VIII modified Venantius Fortunatus’ original Low Latin text to adapt it to Latin metrical scansion. Although the Franciscans, in accordance with the Rule of Saint Francis, pray in conformity to the usages of the Roman Church and its reforms, during the Ottoman occupation of the Holy Land liturgical adaptations were not a priority.
The original text, therefore, was in use from 1623 to 1924, when Brother Augustin Fachini brought the text into conformity with that in the breviary. He did not know that sixty years later the Second Vatican Council, in chapter 93 of its document on the liturgy Sacro Sanctum Concilium, would call for returning hymns to their original forms.
The changed words were not the occasion of any major glitches, and the celebration was very prayerful. A small but fervent congregation assisted at each of the services.
After Vespers some of the faithful took advantage of the recommencement of the procession in the Basilica of the Resurrection for a time of prayerful recollection before the relic of the True Cross. It had been brought into the crypt in solemn procession, borne in the hands of the Custos , for the Office of Readings, and again for the daytime Mass. After Mass, it was brought back up into the Basilica in a procession that wound three times around the aedicule. The faithful could were able to venerate the relic after three solemn benedictions: in front of the Tomb, at the altar of the apparition to Mary Magdalene and finally in the chapel of the apparition to Mary.
O Cross, our one reliance, hail! That carries the Easter joy To give fresh merit to the saint, And pardon to the penitent.
It is true that the joy of the feast day had something of Easter joy about it.
MAB
[1] In the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the feast is a diocesan memorial. In the Latin Church, the feast has been removed, in favor of the single feast day of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14.
[2] During the Office of Readings, Saint Rufino’s text explaining how the Lord’s Cross was distinguished is read.