“Of the Cross.” This is how the great Despotic feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross is known and referred to, which is celebrated on September 14th in the Orthodox Church calendar. The way this feast is announced indicates that it was not only significant but also particularly familiar to Greek society; even today – when religious sentiment has diminished compared to the past – it is celebrated grandly by the Church, while the faithful observe strict fasting. This day was a landmark for the Greek countryside, as reflected in verses that refer to the day, accompanied by a series of customs throughout the country, such as the “Polysporo” and the “funeral of Leidinos,” while churches and the homes of the faithful are fragrant with basil.
Saint Constantine and Saint Helen
The great importance and spiritual value of the Holy Cross prompted Emperor Constantine the Great, in 326 AD, to finance an expedition to Palestine to locate it.
The significance of the expedition was such that he appointed his mother, Saint Helen, to lead it. Upon arriving in Jerusalem, Saint Helen climbed Golgotha and saw the pagan temple of the goddess Venus.
The Romans had erected it on the site where Jesus’ tomb was located in 70 AD, when they conquered the rebel city of Jerusalem and demolished and levelled the entire city and its surroundings. During the reconstruction at the site of Jesus’ tomb, a temple of Venus was built there. Saint Helen demolished this temple and began extensive excavations, seeking the Holy Cross.
The Basil and the Holy Cross
The fragrant and often sung basil, the beloved plant of the Greek people, is associated with the finding of the Holy Cross and Saint Helen. As she walked through the Holy Land in contemplation, wondering where to dig to find the Holy Cross, she was attracted by a wonderful, distinct scent. In searching for its origin, she found herself at a spot filled with green bushes that exuded a unique fragrance. Saint Helen felt that this could only be a sign and decided to dig at the roots of the bushes, where she found the Cross of Christ. Since then, the fragrant plant, tradition states, has been named “basil” as it grew at the place where the “King of the Jews” was crucified and because it helped the Queen find the sacred relic. This is why Saint Constantine and Saint Helen are depicted in Byzantine iconography with the Holy Cross between them.
Russian icon of Saint Constantine and Saint Helen
As theologian, educator, and philologist Apostolos Pontikas notes, “the fragrant basil, as our people believe, sprouted exactly where the Holy Cross was, from the drops of the Holy Blood of Christ.”
The Miracle of the Cross
According to reports, the crosses found at the excavation site were not one but three. The emotion from their discovery was overwhelming, yet no one could tell which of the three was Jesus’s. As ecclesiastical historians Philostorge and Nikephoros recount, the Bishop of Jerusalem, Macarius, along with several priests, prayed and touched the crosses to the body of a woman who had died just moments before. When it came time for him to touch the third cross, life returned to the woman’s body. Thus they understood that the third cross was the Holy – Life-giving Cross.
The Elevation of the Holy Cross
The Elevation of the Holy Cross, (1675) Simon Rodakios – Asia Minor
Byzantine Museum.
The news of the finding of the Holy Wood spread like wildfire throughout the areas surrounding Jerusalem. Crowds of faithful began to flock to touch and venerate the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ. The throngs were so great that many faithful were unable to even see the Holy Cross. This led the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Macarius, to elevate the Holy Cross inside the Church, at a high place so that all could see.
The Theft of the Holy Cross by the Persians
In 614 AD, the Persian King Khosrow II (590-628) captured the Holy City of Jerusalem, seized the Holy Cross, and took it to Persia.
The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (610-641) campaigned against the Persians
Fourteen years later, on September 14, 628, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (610-641) campaigned against the Persians, reclaimed the Holy Cross, and returned it to the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, where it was elevated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Saint Zacharias (609-631). Because of the return of the Holy Cross to Jerusalem, from then onwards, both in the East and the West, September 14th is celebrated as the Elevation of the Holy Cross, a great fixed despotic feast.
Customs of the Cross
The evening before the feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross, housewives traditionally – much more in the past and less so today – cut basil from their pots and gardens to take it to the church for decorating the Holy Cross.
“With the blessing of the Cross, make the sourdough for the whole year”
On the day of the celebration of the elevation of the Cross, which is a day of strict fasting – they do not eat even oil – the priest distributes basil sprigs to the faithful after the Divine Liturgy as a blessing. However, when September 14th falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the fast allows oil.
The Sourdough of the New Year
With the blessing and basil of the Elevation of the Cross, housewives, when they still kneaded, made the sourdough of the new year to knead bread and prosphora. The custom has weakened; however, it is still maintained by those faithful who choose to offer kneaded prosphora in churches.
“With the blessing of the Cross, make the sourdough for the whole year,” mothers advised their daughters.
When the folklorist Georgios Megas, sent by the Academy of Athens, visited Katalakko to record the customs of Lemnos, the Lemnians told him: “Every household, every housewife brings a jar of water to the church, leaves it in the middle of the church, where the blessing takes place, and then takes it back. With this blessing, they make the sourdough for the year anew. The old one is used up in the last week.”
The basil they received from the priest was initially used to sign the sourdough and then placed in a glass to sprout roots and be replanted.
“Even if the basil wilts
And its branches droop,
Pour water on its root,
To return to its prime.”
For farmers, mid-September was also the right time to begin sowing gradually. They would say: “On the Cross, cross and sow.
On the day of the Cross, sailors would typically cease their long journeys with sailboats, as advised by the proverb: “On the Cross, cross and tie.
The day of the Cross as a milestone for agricultural work
Particularly interesting is the recording of customs of the day of the Cross by historian and folklorist Apostolos Pontikas: “The blessed basil (the cross flower), our people believe it has numerous healing and miraculous properties, and they keep it in their icon corner.
The day of the Cross also serves as a time marker for agricultural activities.
In some places, September 14th is regarded as both the beginning and end of the hiring period for workers and shepherds, etc. Summer habits, like midday naps and evening meals, which had been necessary until now due to the long summer day, cease now.”
The funeral of Leidinos
“Especially in Aegina, it is customary on this day to bury Leidinos and mourn him, with a mimetic representation that likely has ancient origins.
Once it was a women’s holiday, but today it is prepared by the women and performed by the children. With cloth and straw, they construct a male figure and display it as if in a funeral, lighting candles and lamenting it. The figure is life-sized and initially, the performance did not pertain to the evening but something much more serious, the disappearance of vegetation and its rebirth in spring, as in related spring ceremonies. Thus, it seems that the figure is clearly phallic in form.
“Leidinos is an autumn agricultural phallic custom with symbolic character and infused with the famous satirical spirit of Dionysus, which has been revived in Aegina since ancient times.”
The Polysporo
“The sanctity of this day ensures that preparations are made for the impending sowing, especially the blessing of the selected seed destined for it. For this purpose, they send a polysporo to the church, a mixture of all kinds of seeds, to be sanctified and blessed.
“From this day on, sailors also cease long journeys, as the common saying advises: On the Cross, cross and tie, or look to the Cross and to Saint George, do not look back”
There is a custom among farmers to braid beautifully with craftsmanship the last sheaf of wheat when harvesting, either into a comb or a cross, which they then hang in their home gallery. When it’s time to sow, they mix the grains of the wheat from this sheaf, which have already been blessed on the day of the Elevation of the Cross in the church, with the seed.
The Holy Cross and sailors
Finally, “From this day on, sailors also cease long journeys, as the common saying advises: On the Cross, cross and tie, or look to the Cross and to Saint George, do not look back.”
The customs of the Cross by region
In Koroni
“In Koroni,” they make dough and place the basil sprig taken from the church for the Cross on top, and it rises and becomes sourdough by the next day.
This sourdough is not lent for 40 days, and the first bread they make with it will be for the Divine Liturgy and will be distributed.
“The sanctity of the day ensures that preparations are made for the impending sowing, especially the blessing of the selected seed destined for it. For this purpose, they send a polysporo to the church, a mixture of all kinds of seeds, to be sanctified and blessed.
In Galanades of Naxos
In the Galanades of Naxos on this day, “Every farmer places a little barley, some beans, chickpeas, and whatever else they have in a towel to sow, and takes it to the church, leaving the towel at the right of the Holy Door; there a whole heap forms, which the priest blesses after the Divine Liturgy. Each then takes their towel with the sanctified seed. When it’s time to sow, the farmer will place this sprinkled seed in their bag containing the seed to be sown.
The feast of the Cross in Pontus
On September 14th, a great despotic feast of Christianity, was celebrated in Pontus with the due Christian reverence. It was such an important feast for the Pontians that they named the month of September “Stavrities” in its honor.
It was a day of holiday and fasting. Housewives had prepared the “faeia” of the Cross from the day before, which were fasting foods and indeed un-oiled, since according to Orthodox tradition, on the day of the Cross, they fasted even oil, unless it fell on a Saturday or Sunday.
On the day of the feast, the whole family would go to church. The area would be fragrant with basil, which according to tradition was the scent that led to the discovery of the Holy Cross.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, they would take basil from the priest’s hands and bring it home to have his blessing.
They would place it at the icons, and every time they would incense, they would burn a leaf in the censer. Housewives would make sourdough with a sprig of basil to use in making bread or prosphora, and at noon the whole family would gather at the table to eat the faeia of the Cross.
In Crete, winemakers would cross the wine with the basil, while in oil-producing areas, housewives would pound olives in the mortar on this day and with that oil, they would light the lamp.
In the Peloponnese, olive producers would tie a pomegranate with an olive branch and early in the morning of the Cross, they would go to the shore and dip it in the water, saying: As the water flows, may good things flow into the home.
In villages of Thessaly, they would send to the church for blessing, the cross, the straw or the comb, which was the last sheaf of summer, and which they would keep at the icon corner from the priest. The priest, mentioning the seeds, would recite the following blessing: “grow the earth, and give seed to the sower, and bread for consumption.” Moreover, since there is a strict fast maintained on this day, grape growers from the villages of Elassona would distribute grapes to their fellow villagers.
On the Day of the Cross, the Heavens Open
Our people believe that on the Day of the Cross, the heavens open in the shape of a cross, as occurs on Theophany, the Transfiguration, and New Year’s Day. The Day of the Cross began the period for farmers, sailors, and shepherds. Thus, the summer leases came to an end, and new ones began, for the winter pastures.
“Of the Thief’s Cross”
Shepherds would let their flocks roam freely in the fields, as the crops had been harvested. This day was exactly called “the Thief’s Cross,” because they would release the goats and sheep to graze in the fields. Moreover, as this day belonged to the shepherds, they would take hair from their goats or sheep to the church along with a prosphora. After the blessing from the priest, they would mold a little bread and wool and place it on the bells of the flock as a talisman. The celebration of the Cross is linked with preparations for the sowing of the farmers, which will fertilize the land in the new year.”