The Appearance of the Cross Shown from Heaven to King Constantine

The holy King Constantine the Great, Equal to the Apostles (306–337), was the son of Constantius Chlorus, Caesar of the western part of the Roman Empire, who was well disposed towards the Christians. He spent his youth at the court of King Diocletian in “honourable captivity”, where he saw with his own eyes the unbearable, savage torture and slaughter of the Christians. He sensed that the bloodthirsty emperor was fighting something invincible; his heart was filled with sympathy for the Christians and was preparing to receive that God whose power was so clearly revealed in weakness.

In 306, after the death of Constantius Chlorus, the army proclaimed Constantine the Great emperor of Gaul and Britain. As soon as he ascended the throne, he confirmed the decrees his father had issued in favour of Christianity and gave the Christians freedom to confess their faith. The other rulers of the Roman Empire, the fanatical pagan Maximian Galerius (in the East) and the cruel tyrant Maxentius (in the West), hated Constantine and were preparing to fight him.

When he learned of this, the king who was Equal to the Apostles himself began to prepare for a campaign against Rome, which involved great difficulties. Before this important battle he wished to receive help truly from heaven, and the Lord looked with the eye of mercy on His chosen one. Once, in the afternoon, against the sun already declining towards the west, he clearly saw the sign of the Cross with the inscription: “By this conquer!”

This sight filled Constantine and the soldiers with him with dread, since the pagans regarded the cross, as an instrument of shameful punishment, as a portent of misfortune. At night, in his sleep, Jesus Christ Himself appeared to the troubled king and bade him depict on his battle standards the sign he had seen in the vision, and fight the enemy by its power.

And indeed, the Lord’s chosen one led his army behind a battle standard bearing the image of the Cross, adorned with gold and precious stones; he had the soldiers depict this sign on their shields and helmets too, and inflicted an unheard-of defeat on the enemy.

When Constantine entered Rome victorious, the population, crushed and tormented by Maxentius’s violence, met him with joy; in the most crowded place of the city they set up a statue of the new emperor, in whose hand, at Constantine’s own direction, was fixed a spear in the form of a cross with the inscription: “By this saving sign I have freed your city from the tyrant’s yoke and restored to the Roman people and senate their ancient splendour and glory.”

After this victory, in 314, the emperor who was Equal to the Apostles issued a decree granting his subjects complete freedom of religion: the pagans kept the right to perform their rites, while the Christians were permitted to confess openly the one true God. By later decrees Constantine abolished the penalty of crucifixion and banned bloody spectacles in the circus; he declared Sunday a day of rest not only for free citizens but for slaves too; he freed the clergy from all outside duties and taxes; he returned to the Church the buildings taken from her and gave her new ones as well, the basilicas, more suitable for divine service, where judges had formerly sat. The Church of Christ breathed freely. According to the testimony of the “Most Ancient Iadgari”, our forefathers solemnly celebrated the miracle of the appearance of the Cross on 29 January.