Hello Father. I have long been interested in the question of what kind of tree all the parts of the Honest were made from. Particles of the Life-giving Cross at the present time. Acquisition of the Holy Cross by Saint Helen
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After the unrighteous judgment and scourging of the Savior of the world, they led to Mount Golgotha, which was outside the walls of Jerusalem. This place was called Lobny, as some believe, because it looked like human head... Another legend says that there was a grave on Calvary the only person who lived in paradise - Adam (which is why on Orthodox crucifixes under the image of the Cross of the Lord, you can see the skull of Adam).
It is Jesus who identifies himself in the vine: I am the true vine, and My Father is the farmer. Every branch that is in me does not bear fruit, it cuts it, and every branch that produces fruit designs it to bear more fruit. Like a branch cannot bear fruit on its own if it doesn't stay in the vine, so don't if you don't stay in me. Those who are not in me are thrown away as truncated and dry; then they collect it, throw it into the fire and burn it. If you stay in me and my words stay in you, ask what you want and you will be done.
The crucifixion (crucifixion) was the most painful and shameful execution, which the Romans borrowed from the Persians. It was agonizing because a person nailed to a cross and in this position experienced severe physical suffering, any movement caused unbearable pain, insects sat in clouds on bleeding wounds, blood gradually flowed from the body, and death did not come soon. In order to speed it up, the crucified were interrupted by the legs, and they, unable to rest their feet on the crossbar, died of suffocation. This execution was shameful because the crucified man was hanging naked in front of a crowd of indifferent people. Exposure to nakedness was considered by the Jews to be the greatest disgrace. And death on a tree was considered a curse (“cursed before God is everyone who is hanged on a tree” Deut 21:23). And it was this hardest and most shameful death that the Son of God took in order to destroy original sin by His death and open to mankind the possibility of eternal salvation.
In this my Father is glorified: that you may bear much fruit and become My disciples. This tree has two essential characteristics: it is impulsive, and for this reason it was used to build the Ark of the Alliance; it is also evergreen and for this reason it is one of the symbols eternal life... He will plant branches and make fruits and become a magnificent cedar.
All birds will live under it, each flight will rest in the shade of their branches. A tree sloping from the tip to the sky, cypress is a symbol of many years of life thanks to its evergreen creatures. In describing the “garden of God,” Ezekiel cites the presence of cypress, as well as cedar and platinum. And God himself will say: "I am like a deciduous cypress." Unforgettable are the cypresses of Paradise Benozzo Gozzoli in the Florentine cycle of the Chapel of the Magi. The Tuscan landscape becomes with the statue of the Florentine Gozzoli of the divine Paradise.
In the first centuries of Christianity, the cross was not depicted either on objects or on sacred images in early Christian churches. Nevertheless, symbolic images of fish, loaves, a ship, the Eucharist, a shepherd carrying a lost sheep on his shoulders were widespread. There is an explanation for this. The early Christian communities lived surrounded by pagans, for whom the cross was a shameful symbol of execution. Therefore, in order not to confuse the neophytes, the early Christians avoided depicting the cross, although they revered it.
The holy martyrs break the branches from the palms of Paradise. In John's vision, an apocalyptic paradise is inhabited by martyrs of the faith, who are wrapped in white robes and carry palm branches. The palm testifies that they overtook what is on earth and received an eternal reward. In addition to being a symbol of eternity, the palm is also a sign of the glory of Christ. However, John in his Gospel reports that when people learned that Jesus had come to Jerusalem, a great crowd that came to the feast, hearing that Jesus had come to Jerusalem, took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting: Hail!
"You will win with this sim"
The special glorification of the Cross of the Lord is associated with the name of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great (274-337) and many significant events... Born of Constantius Chlorus and Helena, Constantine took the throne, being proclaimed emperor by the soldiers of Britain (England), then part of the Roman Empire.At the beginning of the 4th century, several Caesars ruled the Roman Empire. Maxentius ruled Italy and Rome, and Constantine ruled Gaul (France), Britain and Spain. The Romans were pagans at the time, and the Roman emperors persecuted Christians brutally. But despite the oppression, the number of Christians in the Roman Empire multiplied more and more. Constantine, although he was a pagan, nevertheless respected Christians for a pious life and, following the example of his father Constantius, was kind and just to them.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel! Dove with an olive twig. Early Christians touched upon the tombs of the catacomb branches and olive trees, citing the eternal reward given to dead believers. Another symbol of the early Christian art of the catacombs is the dove with an olive branch in its beak. This sign of the covenant between God and man recalls the famous episode "Genesis": when the waters of the Flood descended, Noah launched a dove, which returned shortly thereafter, bringing an olive branch to its beak.
The olive tree of Heaven is also mentioned in the Psalter: "But I, like a green olive tree in the house of God, believe in faithfulness to God forever and ever." The branch of the tree is cut off from the mouth of Adam. There is a connection between the tree of good and evil, established by God in the Paradise of Earth, and the tree of the cross, on which Jesus was nailed, at least according to the "Golden Legend" by Jacopo da Varazze. After the death of Adam's father, the Dream installed a twig of the tree of good and evil and planted it under his father's tongue. A great tree is born, which after various vicissitudes will be used to create the cross because of the torture of Christ.
In 312 Maxentius declared war on Constantine. Constantine's forces were incomparably weaker than Maxentius, and he felt that he could not defeat the enemy alone. “Therefore, - says the writer of that time Eusebius, - Constantine began to think about what God to call for his help. And it occurred to him that a considerable number of former sovereign persons, having placed their hope in many gods, were deceived in their expectations and suffered defeat, and that, on the contrary, his father, who had worshiped the One Most High God throughout his life, had signs of His protection. Constantine began to call on Him, ask and implore Him to appear, instruct him, and stretch out His right hand to him in the work ahead. Eagerly offering up his prayers and offerings, he received the most amazing sign sent from God.
The theological meaning of the case can be explained: since Adam was a sign of the destruction of the union between God and people, therefore Christ through his sacrifice becomes a sign of the new covenant and the salvation of mankind. However, only from the point of view of faith, the cross changes the meaning. If we do not decipher the cross with a believing eye, this cannot mean that the sign of the end of Christ, his extreme humiliation, is a form of his exclusion from the community of people. But the cross is not only in its outward manifestation; he expresses the opposite feelings to those attributed to people.
For me, this is primarily for this: the place where it is raised seems to be a place of loneliness and abandonment, but with a good eye of faith, Calvary should be considered the most “crowded” place on earth: the whole Trinity family exists mysteriously; you stop Adam as the founder of a family of righteous sinners; all angelic beings crowd you; two people of God are present: Israel and the church, which are gathered in Mary as the daughter of Zion.
“Walking against Maxentius, who was imprisoned in Rome, at the hours of the day, when the sun had already begun to lean towards the west,” the king himself said, “I saw with my own eyes the sign of the cross, made up of light and lying in the sun, with the inscription:“ Hoc vince ”(t i.e. “by this you will win”).
This vision seized with horror both himself and the entire army, which, without knowing where, followed him. And he continued to contemplate the miracle that had appeared. Constantine wondered what such a phenomenon would mean? The next night, in a dream, Christ, the Son of God, appeared to him, with a sign seen in the sky, and commanded, in his likeness, to build a military banner and use it to protect against the attack of enemies. As soon as daylight appeared, Konstantin told those close to his secret and then. Calling on people who knew how to handle gold and precious stones, and having described to them the image of the sign, he commanded in his likeness to make the same of gold and precious stones. We happened to see this banner with our own eyes. It had the following appearance: on a long, covered with gold, the spear had a diameter at the top, which formed the image of a cross with the spear. At the very top of the spear, a wreath of precious stones and gold lay motionless, and on the wreath there was a sign of the Salvation name: the first two letters showed the name of Christ, from the middle of which the letter r emerged. Subsequently, the king used to wear these letters on his helmet. On the crossbar of the spear hung a thin white plate - a royal cloth, covered with various precious stones, shining with rays of light. Embroidered in gold, this dress seemed inexpressibly beautiful to the audience and, hanging across the width, had the same latitude and longitude. On a straight spear, whose lower end was very long, above the sign of the cross, at the very top of the fabric, hung a chest image of the God-loving Tsar and his children made of gold.
The cross shows contradiction and is more contradictory: it is "scandal and stupidity." The foolishness of the Roman scaffolds has already rebelled against the "Greek" aesthetic and rationalistic. In truth, our cultures are rebellious, and cultures of all kinds will rebel, because for pure reason the cross cannot be what it is: a scandalous issue.
Therefore, the choice of the cross is the practice of prophetic dissonance from the canons of worldly "prophecy": it is a prophecy about the style of God, which in revelation constantly shows in a complex dialectic the similarities - diversity with human adventure, wanting to be "close" and "distant" in due time, " one of us "and" completely different. "
This salutary sign, as a defensive weapon, was always used by the tsar to overcome an opposing and hostile force and ordered all troops to wear similar banners. Struck by a wondrous vision and deciding not to honor any other God except what he had seen, Constantine summoned the mysteries of His word and asked them who that God was and what was the meaning of the sign that he saw. They answered him that God, who appeared to him, is the only begotten Son of the One and only God. And the sign that appeared is a sign of immortality and a solemn sign of victory over death, which He won in the days of His earthly life ...
The cross, on the one hand, is a sign of inhuman death, but at the same time it shows wisdom that does not correspond to the wisdom of a person, which is really diametrically opposite. The interpretation of the cross is all about the bipolarity of God's closeness to man.
The cross is a prophecy, it is a miracle, it is a gospel. This is a verbal word spoken by the Holy Trinity. In fact, how does the startling prophecy of the cross come through? Undoubtedly, this question can be answered in a clearly formulated way; but just give you a very simplified answer, even in litanical form. The cross reveals its wondrous and paradoxical character, at least in these ways.
Calling on the God of all and calling, as Savior and Helper, His Christ, also placing a victorious banner with a salutary sign in front of his men at arms and bodyguards, Constantine opposed Maxentius, who was entrenched in Rome. By the power of God, Constantine overthrew the enemy, who, fleeing, was thrown from the Nitvian bridge into the Tiber, fifteen miles from Rome, and drowned. The victor triumphantly entered the reigning city, where everyone greeted Constantine with cheerful faces and hearts, with blessings and inexpressible joy. But, possessing an innate piety, he was not in the least proud of popular exclamations and was not proud of praise, but, realizing God's help, immediately lifted up a prayer of thanks to the culprit of victory. With national monuments and signatures, he told everyone the power of Christ's saving sign. In the midst of the royal city, he erected this sacred banner and inscribed definitely and indelibly that this saving banner is the guardian of the Roman Empire and the entire kingdom. When a statue was erected to him in the most crowded place in Rome, he immediately ordered that tall spear in the form of a cross to affirm his image in his hand and inscribe it on Latin the following inscription: "With this salutary sign, a true testimony of courage, I saved and freed our city from the yoke of the tormentor and returned freedom, its former splendor and fame to the Roman Senate and people." Subsequently, Constantine and his soldiers repeatedly experienced the power and help of the cross. According to the legend of Eusebius, “where the banner of the cross was shown, there the enemies turned to flight, and the victors pursued them”.
The symbol of hatred becomes the symbol of love; the slave of the servants is turned towards liberation; the gesture of excluding God from history begins to indicate the most powerful inclusion of God in the history of mankind; serving love and pain is the cause of merciful power; the humility of God strikes the pride of man; death is devoid of its final character; to a person who wants to overthrow him, God reacts by exalting him; what we said, stupidity is wisdom; the place of victory was the place of victory; it seemed that the proof of strength and authority was the emptying of one's own and the judgment of another; the consequence of sin begins with grace; the symptom of infertility changes in the sign of the birth of a new life. Therefore, Christ imposes an ideological loss on the cross, enriching it with a prophetic purchase, which consists of the value of the salvation that Jesus of Nazareth gives to the cross.
When the tsar found out about this, he ordered the saving banner as the most effective means of victory to be transferred to where he saw any of his regiments weakened.In this sign, victory was immediately restored, because the courage and strength sent from above strengthened those who fought under him. Therefore, those of his shield-bearers, who were distinguished by the strength of the body, the strength of the soul and the pious disposition, Constantine ordered to be the only one in the service of this banner. There were no more than fifty such men; they had no other duty than to stand around the banner, or follow it in the form of a guard; usually each of them carried it alternately on their shoulders. To the writer real history, Eusebius, the king himself told about this and added the following to his story: “Once, in the very heat of the battle, there was a noise in the army and confusion spread. At this time, the one who carried the banner suffered greatly from timidity and therefore transferred his burden to another in order to flee from the battlefield. When one accepted the banner, and the other withdrew and was already in the distance, an arrow fired pierced his womb and took his life. Taking the punishment for the fearfulness of unbelief, he fell and died. On the contrary, for the one who took the saving banner, she became the guardian of his life, so that, no matter how many arrows were shot at him, he remained unharmed. "
We are faced with recreation: God revives a tree that has already been cut off from the human hand and made the sign of death, and reinserted it, turning it into a “tree of life”. It is here that we understand that the cross can be “understandable” in the sense of meaningful and acceptable, only with the hermeneutics of faith: only in this way will it appear to the Christian as a “part” of the mystery of Christ.
Mary is under the cross, like the Mournful One, but that does not mean that the woman stoically crosses the intestines of pain. Mary does not suffer any birth pain and does not suffer from the suffering that is born and ends her: pure pain, whatever it may be, is not necessarily the cause of salvation; save him from believers under the cross of Christ to capture his salvation.
Thus, the cross, considered the most shameful instrument of execution, became a sign of the triumph and victory of Christianity over paganism. Since then, Constantine has forbidden to punish by crucifixion; he decorated banners and weapons with a cross on them; set up a tent outside the camp, where he put up a cross, and there he often retired to offer prayers to God. Soon after, Constantine was baptized, destroyed all pagan temples and announced Christian faith dominant throughout the Roman Empire.
One observation: Mary does not begin to be Sorrows under the cross: she comes to Calvary as a woman who knows suffering for Christ. The Virgin was, so to speak, experienced in pain, as a shade of her calling for the Messianic Mother. Pain Mary knows a very rich joint. The traditional list of the seven sorrows of the Virgin is known.
Marian pity and faith in meditation, in connection with the New Testament, are added to it by others, all reporting the rejection of Christ. This is, first of all, the story of Luke, telling us about the participation, expressed or intuitive participation of the Mother in the saving work of the Son.
Acquisition of the Holy Cross by Saint Helen
Tsar Constantine, in gratitude for his victory and the miraculous manifestations of the grace of God, wished to build a temple in Jerusalem on the place where the Lord was crucified, in order to make this place an object of universal reverence. His mother St. Helena. In 326, she came to Jerusalem to worship the holy places and find the Cross, on which the Savior sacrificed Himself for the sins of the world. It was supposed to find the Cross on Calvary, because the Jews had a habit of burying the instrument of execution at the place where the execution took place. But where was Golgotha?In the year 119, at the behest of Hadrian, the cave, where Christians gathered to worship the Holy Cross, was heaped up with earth, paved with stones, and an idol's temple was erected here. St. Helena, with Patriarch Macarius of Jerusalem, searched for the Cross of the Lord for a long time. Finally, they pointed out to her one elderly Jew, named Judas, who knew the location of the Cross, but he began to excuse himself by ignorance. Then they put him in a deep ditch and began to torment him with hunger. After being there without food for six days, he was finally forced to show what he was looking for. Holy place, about which he heard in infancy from his grandfather. The idol temple located here was destroyed, and when this place was cleared, a cave was opened where the tomb of the Lord was, and three crosses were immediately found, and separately from them a plaque with the Hebrew, Greek and Roman inscriptions, which was testified by the Evangelist John: JESUS NAZARIAN, KING OF THE JEWS.
However, Mary is in the "hour" as "Mournful excellence." However, the gospels do not even mention the grief of Mary. But they tell us about his closeness, man and faith, to the death of Christ: “Mary is the queen of martyrs,” because she shares her primacy, her mystery of suffering and love, which is precisely the sacrament of the cross of Jesus.
Sad, student and teacher
It is difficult for disciples to accept the soft power of charity and the discourse of the cross. Mary is among the few who are able to adhere to a degrading God and agree that Christ pays forgiveness in principle. Mary, who is undoubtedly a disciple under the cross, is she also a teacher? The answer is that the Bereaved One is a teacher as a student. And you may still ask: what does he actually teach you? The answer is that Mary, by activating this effective and beautiful non-verbal language, teaches not only virtues, but existential criteria and laws of the history of salvation.
But how was the cross of the Lord to be distinguished from other crosses, when all three crosses lay together and the inscription was separate from them? Then God miraculously pointed to the Cross on which the Savior was crucified. This is what the legend tells about it. At a time when Saint Helena and Macarius were perplexed as to which exactly the Cross of the Lord was, the body of the deceased was carried by. Saint Helena ordered to stop the procession and put crosses in turn on the body of the deceased; and when the Cross of the Lord was laid, the dead revived.
On the cross, the tallest chair in the world, Jesus is the host of the celebration of two beloved ones: the Father and the man. Maria is present as best student Christ: therefore she has a formidable discipleship. Mary teaches how she is under the cross of Christ. it eternal lesson"Stabat Mater".
The cross, the terrible instrument of death used by the Romans, becomes the key to eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The celebration is celebrated exactly 40 days after the Feast of the Transfiguration. Christian tradition compares the tree of the cross to the tree of knowledge and the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. By eating the fruit of the Tree of Eden, death entered the world because of crime, and through the Forest of Blood, life prevailed over death. The first Adam hid in the garden trees when he heard God walking through the garden, as it is written: "A man with his wife hid from the Lord God in the garden trees."
The Cross was also placed on the sick woman, and she was immediately healed. Saint Helena, the patriarch and all those present at this miracle bowed and kissed the life-giving Cross with joy and reverence; but the crowd of people was so great that it did not allow everyone to approach Him, and many wanted to at least see Him. Then Patriarch Macarius ascended to an elevated place and from there showed the Holy Cross, lifting It up. The people prayed with reverence and cried out: "Lord, have mercy." And many pagans believed in Christ and were baptized.
He hid himself because sin made him afraid before God - sin, fear, death, therefore, overwhelmed the human person. However, Jesus did not hide - he was taken from the foza of human sinfulness - he hung on the tree of the Cross and raised so that everyone could see it, as it is written: “He bore our sins in his body on the cross because since we no longer live for sin we live for justice. "
The cross is also compared to Noah's ark, as it is written: "As it was in the days of Noah, so will the coming of the Son of Man." It has been compared to Moz's wand. We also see a Sukkah on the Cross. Instead of the tents that Peter wanted to make for Jesus and the prophets Mos and Elijah on the mountain when Jesus was transformed, the Cross of Jesus is a true sukkah for the one who believes in Jesus, seeks refuge, fleeing from sin, In the shadow of the Cross, the believer in Jesus looks at the Son Human, who completely obeys the will of Heavenly Father.
In this way, the day of the uncovering of the cross became the beginning of the annual feast of the REALIZATION. At the very place where the holy Cross was found, a temple was erected in the name of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The event of finding the Cross of the Lord happened on May 3, 326. Its original celebration took place on the second day of Holy Easter. When Constantine the Great, in gratitude to God for the victory given to him over Maxentius, built the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem, then the celebration of the Cross was postponed to September 14, since the consecration of the newly built Christian church at the place of suffering and death of the Savior of the world took place on September 13.
Return of the Cross of the Lord from Persia
For almost 300 years, the holy Cross of Christ was in the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection, remaining a subject of special veneration for all Christians. But in 612 over Jerusalem, according to the inscrutable destinies of God, a terrible calamity broke out.Upon the accession of the Greek (Byzantine) emperor Phocas, in 603, Chozrai II, king of Persia, soon declared war on him, which lasted for many years. Heraclius I, who deposed Phoca, continued the war with the Persians, who in 614 crossed the Jordan and laid siege to Jerusalem, which belonged at that time Byzantine Empire... After a bloody battle, they captured it, burned down the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord, killed many priests, monastics and many Christians, stole everything that was in the Church of the Resurrection of value, and, by the way, the Cross of the Lord.
For fourteen years the Persians possessed the Holy Cross. Finally, at the end of 628, Saroes, the son of Chozroes, defeated by Heraclius, was forced to return the Cross.
Heraclius himself, with the patriarch, clergy and with a multitude of people, met the Cross of the Lord in Constantinople and then accompanied Him to Jerusalem, in order to bring thanksgiving to God for the return of the Holy Cross and for the victory given to him there. Having reached the Mount of Olives, Heraclius took the Cross on his shoulders to carry It to the place of execution. But the patriarch who accompanied the king noticed to him that the Son of God carried the Cross to Golgotha not in royal majesty, but in the humble form of a slave. Touched by the inspiration of the saint, the tsar took off his royal clothes, put on a wretched one and, with an open head and bare feet, brought the holy Cross into the Church of the Resurrection and laid it in the place from which it had been kidnapped by the Persians.
Christians gazed with joy at the triumph of the return of the Cross of the Lord. In the Temple of Jerusalem, in imitation of the ancient Exaltation, the Honorable Cross was again erected by the hands of the patriarch, and the people again exclaimed in emotion: "Lord have mercy."
Further history of the Cross of the Lord
When Palestine was conquered by the Turks, then for the liberation of the Holy Land, Western Christians equipped a large army of crusaders, which, approaching Jerusalem in 1099, took it from the Turks (July 11). Jerusalem Christians met their liberators - crusaders with the Holy Cross, the look at which delighted the crusaders, because they saw on the Cross, as it were, the crucified Lord Jesus Christ. The joy of Christians was so great that the Holy Cross was solemnly carried through the streets of Jerusalem, they kissed, hugged, shed tears of joy, until they put it back in the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord. |
During the third crusade (1171-1188) against Saladin, the Cross of Christ was also in the ranks of the troops. Being placed on a dais, during the battle of Tiberias, He inspired the pious warriors so that Saladin himself spoke of their bravery and courage with undisguised annoyance. But when during this battle the Ptolemaid bishop, who was holding the Cross of the Lord, was killed, the latter fell into the hands of enemies. A desperate cry rang out in the ranks of Christian soldiers and, despite all the efforts of Christians to take the Holy Cross from their enemies, He remained, according to the inscrutable fate of God, in the hands of the unfaithful Turks. Then the warriors, throwing their weapons, no longer thinking about saving their lives, threw themselves at the swords and spears of their enemies. The battlefield was a spectacle of despair, sorrow and terrible grief ... Christians, having lost the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, were no longer afraid of losing their freedom and life.
After the battle, the Cross of the Lord was carried by the enemies to Baghdad, where it was for more than thirty years, since Saladin and his successors did not want to return Him to Christians for any treasures in the world.
Only in 1221, after a successful war, the Holy Cross was returned to Christians. From now on, they began to separate and give large parts of the Cross of the Lord, as a blessing, to some large cities ...
In the Holy Land in Jerusalem there is a monastery of the Holy Cross. It is located in a beautiful valley in the western part of Jerusalem, outside the walls ancient city... The monastery was built on the site where, according to legend, the Tree grew, from which the Cross of the Lord was later made. Legends tell that it did not grow by chance.
The story of the Tree of the Cross begins at the time of Patriarch Abraham and is associated with the appearance of the Holy Trinity to him in the form of three Angels. According to legend, then the Angels went to Sodom, but left their three staffs to Abraham.
According to the Old Testament, after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the righteous Lot took refuge with his two daughters in a cave. His daughters decided that all mankind was exterminated and there are no more men who will take them as wives. So they made their father drink wine and sinned with him. From their children later came two peoples - the Moabites and the Ammonites. Lot was desperate when he learned of his daughters' actions. Further history not included in Holy Bible, but preserved in the Tradition of the Church.
Lot asked his uncle Abraham to help him to beg the Lord for forgiveness in his sin. Abraham gave Lot the staffs left by the angels, telling him to plant them in the ground and water them. If a dry tree takes root and sprouts, then Lot's sin is forgiven. For about 33 years Lot carried labor: he brought water from Jordan on a donkey and watered these staffs. The devil tempted him, assuming the appearance of a man, asked to drink and drank or poured out all the water. And so three staves sprouted into three evergreen trees; cedar, cypress and singing (pine) - and fused into one trunk with three tops, revealing the image of the Holy Trinity. Lot realized that his sin was forgiven.
Prophecies that Christ will be crucified on a three-part tree, and indications that these three types of wood are sacred, we find in books Old Testament... The Prophet Isaiah says: “The glory of Lebanon will come to you, cypress and pevg and together a cedar, to decorate the place of my sanctuary, and I will glorify my footstool” (Isaiah 60.13). In Orthodox worship, this prophecy refers to Honest Tree Cross of Christ (third paremia at the Exaltation). The Cross of Christ is called a cypress, a pevga and a cedar: “Like a cypress is mercy, like a cedar is fragrant faith, like a true love bringing, To the Lord's Cross let us bow down, on him glorifying the Redeemer who has been nailed down ”(Lenten Triodion, Wednesday of the fourth week, Matins, canon to the Prepolation and the Cross, canto 7). Cedar and cypress are mentioned among the trees of paradise in the book of Ezekiel (31; 8). Preparing for the construction of the House of the Lord. Solomon asked Hiram, king of Tpr: "Send me cedar trees, and cypress and singing trees from Lebanon" (2 Chron. 2. 8).
But back to our story. The tree planted by Lot and nurtured by great labor in repentance has grown very unusual and beautiful. King Solomon wanted to use it to build a temple, he needed a large tree to put on the roof of the building, and this particular tree was found suitable. It was cut down, but they could not use it, because it was constantly changing in size - it decreased, then increased.
There is also a tradition preserved in Western Christianity that after that a beam made from this Tree was left as a bench in the temple courtyard (according to another version, it was used to make a bridge over the river). The Queen of Sheba, known for her wisdom, came to meet with Solomon and sat down on this beam to rest. But she was burnt by the fire emanating from the Tree. After that, bowing to the Tree, she predicted that the Savior of the world would be hanged on him, and therefore the kingdom of the Jews would come ruin and end. Frightened, Solomon ordered to bury the timber.
Subsequently, a bathhouse was built on this site for the ablution of the sacrificial animals. The water here became famous for healing, and many sick people began to visit it (according to various legends, this is either the Siloam or the Sheep Font). Shortly before the suffering of the Lord, the Tree emerged from the waters of the pool. When it became necessary to make the Cross for Jesus Christ, the final use was finally found for this log.
Another legend says that. that the high priest Caiaphas knew that this was the very tree of Lot, and judged that since it was a tree of sin, it was necessary to make a cross from it for a criminal, numbered among the evildoers, which they did. However, the question remains unclear: what part of the Cross was made from this Tree, vertical or horizontal, although it is believed that it is vertical. In the Byzantine era, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, at the place where, according to legend, the Tree of the Cross grew, a monastery was formed, which still exists today. It can be visited by any pilgrim staying in the Holy Land.
There are also other traditions and legends, however, trusting the authority of the tradition stored in the ancient monastery of Jerusalem, we mainly cite it, especially since much of this tradition was included in the liturgical texts, which means that it was recognized by the Church as true.