On the restitution of the holy cross

Improvisations on the reading that took place of the commands for the restoration of the precious woods

1 O Golgotha, leap for joy; all creation honors you again and calls you God-receiving; for the emperor, having arrived from Persia, shows the cross fixed in you; applaud him with famous words; but if stones have no mouth, prepare new branches of palm trees for the meeting of the new victor; he took from you the plaything of error; for if he himself had not recovered the wood, the bold-mouthed magi would have had a laugh; but now, having learned their power by deed, they know, I think, how fire is paradoxically turned to ash by the mystically kindled wood. How well done of you, most mighty one, for your efforts and the contests of the battle for peace; and how shall we bless you with fleeting words, you whom grace shows to be blessed, how you recovered the stolen wood, having put to sleep the serpent that seized it? You were shown a hero to God, seizing a golden fleece from the slain dragon; for you yourself did not kill the beast with Median drugs, but by fixing it with the wood. Cease now, bastard Israelites, from your paternal unbelief. The cross came, royally received with litanies, prayers, tears, vigils, with the lame made articulate and with speaking instruments, fitting a great trophy for the emperor, with enemies desiring and fearing more; for it did not wish to dwell with the barbarian, even if, punishing sin at that time, it had run away to a foreign land; but it has returned and gathers its children from the shameful and bastard sojourn and is worshipped and is glorified more, as chastising and redeeming more. O Paul, initiate of the ineffable words, it is no longer foolishness to the nations to speak of the cross; for it was found to be effective and appeared dreadful, and even more so to the nations. Now, O emperor, you have the authority of our mystery, and every country and City and the whole world with one accord calls blessed the grace given to you. May the great Constantine sing of such a one as you; for another blessing you will not suffice. Appear, Constantine, to Rome again; applaud the child, how having taken your sullied substance he has shown it saved. It is fitting for you now, leaving the city above, to dance with us in this one below; for you had a gloomy and afflicted spirit until you knew the cross was returning and victorious, which you first found hidden in its own place, but your child brought it back to its original places, not only from being hidden, but from having arrived in Persian furnaces; and you have a child by God's providence; so that a Constantine might be found again, fortified by the life-giving wood. How astonished I am, how with contrary inclinations before the kings the pious emperor turned the fire to soot with the fiery wood, which Chosroes despised as wood, but found it to be a lance for his own heart. Who, winged with words or flying through, could approach such a mystical strategy? And now you walk, purified in soul, on a smiling path, dancing with Angels. The cross in you appeared to your enemies as a new ark, and more than the ark; for the one sent a plague upon the barbarians up to the arrows, but the stretching of the wood sent living arrows to them; Parthians burn Persians and a Scythian kills a Slav and is killed in turn, and stained by their own murders they have much confusion in one battle; but you yourself are silent, bearing crown and sceptre like an umpire of wrestlers in the middle, having wrestled with many, but now having ended the battle; and so the intermediaries of the contests look to your nod from a contrary angle; and where there is a nod, the wrestling has justice; but if you nod against, also the of the

In restitutionem sanctae crucis

Αὐτοσχέδιοι πρὸς τὴν γενομένην ἀνάγνωσιν τῶν κελεύσεων χάριν τῆς ἀποκαταστάσεως τῶν τιμίων ξύλων

1 Ὦ Γολγοθὰ σκίρτησον· ἡ κτίσις πάλιν ὅλη σε τιμᾷ καὶ καλεῖ θεηδόχον· ἐκ Περσίδος γὰρ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀφιγμένος τὸν σταυρὸν ἐν σοὶ δεικνύει πεπηγμένον· κρότησον αὐτὸν τοῖς ἀοιδίμοις λόγοις· ἀλλ' εἴπερ οὐκ ἔχουσιν οἱ λίθοι στόμα, νέους προευτρέπιζε φοινίκων κλάδους πρὸς τὴν ἀπαντὴν τοῦ νέου νικηφόρου· ἀφεῖλεν ἐκ σοῦ τῆς πλάνης τὸ παίγνιον· εἰ μὴ γὰρ αὐτὸς ἀντανεῖλε τὰ ξύλα, γέλων ἂν εἶχον οἱ θρασύστομοι μάγοι· ἔργῳ δὲ τούτων νῦν μαθόντες τὸ κράτος ἔγνωσαν, οἶμαι, πῶς τὸ πῦρ ἀντιστρόφως ξύλοις τεφροῦται μυστικῶς ἀνημμένοις. ὡς εὖ γέ σοι, κράτιστε, τῶν σπουδασμάτων καὶ τῶν ἀγώνων τῆς πρὸς εἰρήνην μάχης· καὶ πῶς σε ῥευστοῖς εὐλογήσομεν λόγοις, ὃν ἡ χάρις δείκνυσιν εὐλογημένον, πῶς ἀντανεῖλες ἁρπαγέντα τὰ ξύλα τὸν ἁρπάσαντα ταῦτα κοιμήσας ὄφιν; ἥρως ἐδείχθης τῷ Θεῷ χρυσοῦν δέρας ἐκ τοῦ δράκοντος τοῦ σφαγέντος ἁρπάσας· οὐ φαρμάκοις γὰρ Μηδικοῖς τὸ θηρίον ἀνεῖλες αὐτός, ἀλλὰ πήξας τῷ ξύλῳ. παύσασθε λοιπὸν Ἰσραηλῖται νόθοι ἐκ τῆς παρ' ὑμῖν πατρικῆς ἀπιστίας. ὁ σταυρὸς ἦλθε βασιλικῶς δεδεγμένος λιταῖς, προσευχαῖς, δακρύοις, ἀγρυπνίαις, χωλοῖς ἐνάρθροις καὶ λαλοῦσιν ὀργάνοις, μέγα τρόπαιον τῷ βασιλεῖ συναρμόσας, ἐχθροὺς ποθοῦντας καὶ πλέον φοβουμένους· τῷ βαρβάρῳ γὰρ οὐ παροικεῖν ἤθελεν εἰ καὶ κολάζων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τότε ἔκδημος εἰς γῆν ἦν δραμὼν ἀλλοτρίαν· ἀλλ' ἀντανῆλθε καὶ τὰ τέκνα συλλέγει ἐκ τῆς ἀειδοῦς καὶ νόθου παροικίας καὶ προσκυνεῖται καὶ πλέον δοξάζεται, ὡς σωφρονίζων καὶ λυτρούμενος πλέον. ὦ Παῦλε, μύστα τῶν ἀπορρήτων λόγων, οὐκ ἔστι λοιπὸν μωρίαν τοῖς ἔθνεσι τὸν σταυρὸν εἰπεῖν· δραστικὸς γὰρ εὑρέθη καὶ φρικτὸς ὤφθη καὶ πλέον τοῖς ἔθνεσι. νῦν τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς, ὦ βασιλεῦ, μυσταρχίας ἔχεις τὸ κῦρος καὶ μακαρίζει τὴν χάριν τὴν σοὶ δοθεῖσαν πᾶσα χώρα καὶ Πόλις καὶ πᾶς ὁ κόσμος ἐκ μιᾶς συμφωνίας. τοῖόν σε Κωνσταντῖνος ὑμνήσοι μέγας· ἄλλος γὰρ ὑμᾶς εὐλογῶν οὐκ ἀρκέσει. φάνηθι, Κωνσταντῖνε, τῇ Ῥώμῃ πάλιν· κρότει τὸ τέκνον, πῶς λαβὼν πεφυρμένην ἔδειξε τὴν σὴν οὐσίαν σεσωσμένην. δέον σε νῦν μεθέντα τὴν ἄνω πόλιν ταύτῃ μεθ' ἡμῶν συγχορεῦσαι τῇ κάτω· στυγνὸν γὰρ εἶχες πνεῦμα καὶ τεθλιμμένον ἕως παλινδρομοῦντα καὶ νικηφόρον τὸν σταυρὸν ἔγνως, ὃν σὺ μὲν κεκρυμμένον τὸ πρῶτον εὗρες εἰς τὸν οἰκεῖον τόπον, τὸ σὸν δὲ τέκνον οὐ κεκρυμμένον μόνον, ἀλλ' εἰς καμίνους Περσικὰς ἀφιγμένον πρὸς τοὺς ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἀντανήγαγεν τόπους· ἔχεις δὲ τέκνον ἐκ Θεοῦ προμηθίας· ὡς ἄν γε Κωνσταντῖνος εὑρεθῇ πάλιν τοῖς ζωοποιοῖς ὠχυρωμένος ξύλοις. ὡς ἐκπέπληγμαι, πῶς ῥοπαῖς ἀντιστρόφοις πρὸ τῶν βασιλέων εὐσεβὴς αὐτοκράτωρ τὸ πῦρ ἀπῃθάλωσεν ἐμπύρῳ ξύλῳ, ὃ Χοσρόης μὲν ὡς ξύλον κατεφρόνει, εὗρεν δὲ λόγχην τῆς ἑαυτοῦ καρδίας. τίς τῇ τοσαύτῃ μυστικῇ στρατηγίᾳ λόγοις πτερωθεὶς ἢ διαπτὰς προσβάλοι; καὶ νῦν βαδίζεις ψυχικῶς ἡγνισμένος ὁδὸν γελῶσαν συγχορεύων Ἀγγέλοις. ὁ σταυρὸς ἐν σοὶ τοῖς ἐναντίοις νέα κιβωτὸς ὤφθη, τῆς δὲ κιβωτοῦ πλέον· ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἄχρι τῶν βελῶν τοῖς βαρβάροις πληγὴν ἐφῆκεν, ἡ δὲ τοῦ ξύλου τάσις ἔμψυχα τούτοις ἐξαπέστειλεν βέλη· Πάρθοι δὲ Πέρσας πυρπολοῦσι καὶ Σκύθης Σκλάβον φονεύει καὶ πάλιν φονεύεται, καὶ τοῖς ἑαυτῶν ᾑματωμένοι φόνοις πολλὴν ἔχουσι φύρσιν εἰς μίαν μάχην· αὐτὸς δὲ σιγᾷς στέμμα καὶ σκῆπτρον φέρων ὥσπερ βραβευτὴς τῶν παλαιστῶν ἐν μέσῳ, πολλοῖς παλαίσας, νῦν δὲ λύσας τὴν μάχην· τῷ σῷ δὲ λοιπὸν προσβλέπουσι νεύματι ἐξ ἀντιλόξου τῶν ἀγώνων οἱ μέσοι· ὅπου δὲ νεῦσις, ἡ πάλη δίκην ἔχει· εἰ δ' ἀντινεύσεις, καὶ τὸ τῆς