THE EXALTATION OF THE CROSS CELEBRATED AT THE CATHEDRAL

The services of the feast of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord were celebrated at Holy Trinity Cathedral on 26 and 27 September.

The All-Night Vigil was served on Saturday 26 September. As the order of the feast prescribes, the Cross adorned with flowers was carried from the table of oblation to the holy table before the service began. At Matins, it was brought out to the centre of the cathedral after the Great Doxology, where the rite of the Exaltation of the Cross was performed by the cathedral’s key-keeper, Priest Maxim Politov, together with the cathedral clergy and Priest Peter James of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, rector of Protection of the Mother of God Church in Rochester, New York. The Cross was then placed in the centre of the church for the veneration of the faithful.

On Sunday 27 September the Divine Liturgies were celebrated. The late Divine Liturgy was led by the cathedral’s key-keeper, Priest Maxim Politov, with the cathedral clergy and Priest Peter James concelebrating. The choir of Holy Trinity Cathedral sang under the direction of Marina Politova.

This year the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross fell on the 17th Sunday after Pentecost. The hymn “We venerate Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy Resurrection” was sung in place of the Trisagion at the Liturgy.

The Cross will remain on the analogion in the centre of the cathedral for the veneration of the faithful until the leave-taking of the feast on 4 October.

The Exaltation of the Cross is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church. It was established in memory of the finding of the Cross in Jerusalem in the time of St Helen Equal-to-the-Apostles. According to Church tradition, the true Cross was identified among the three that were found by a healing that took place. Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem raised (“exalted”) it before the assembled people. The establishment of the feast is connected with the consecration of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in 335. The day of the feast is a fast day. The fast is kept even when the Exaltation falls on a Sunday, as it do this year.