Today, we celebrate the feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross.

The feast was celebrated in Rome before the end of the 7th century. Its purpose is to commemorate the recovering of that portion of the Holy Cross which was preserved at Jerusalem, and which had fallen into the hands of the Persians. Emperor Heraclius recovered this precious relic and brought it back to Jerusalem on 3 May 629.

This feast recalls three events:

1. The finding of the True Cross by Saint Helena.

2. The dedication of churches built by Emperor Constantine on the site of the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Calvary.

3. The restoration of the True Cross to Jerusalem in AD 629 by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, after it had fallen into the hands of the Persian Emperor Chosroes II in the AD 614 Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem.