Today the Orthodox Church celebrates the anniversary of the holiest Church of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (above). The Church was consecrated today in the year 335, and is believed to contain within its walls Golgotha, where Christ was crucified, and the empty tomb, where he rose from the dead. These sites were rediscovered by the Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, who travelled to Jerusalem in the 320s. She had the pagan temples of the city demolished, and digging beneath one of them, a temple of Venus, unearthed three crosses and some nails. But which was the cross of Christ? The Bishop of Jerusalem, Macarius, had all three crosses brought to the bedside of a sick woman. When she touched them, two of the crosses did nothing, but the third healed her, and was declared to be the true cross. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre continues to be run by the Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, the Armenian Apostolics, and the Coptic, Syriac and Ethiopian Orthodox, all in a great spirit of ecumenism, with the occasional punch up between monks.
‘The emperor’s mother erected over the place of the sepulchre a magnificent church, and named it New Jerusalem, having built it opposite to that old and deserted city. There she left a portion of the cross, enclosed in a sliver case, as a memorial to those who might wish to see it.’ Socrates of Constantinople, Church History
Today in 1224, Francis of Assisi had an extraordinary experience while praying on the remote mountainside at Verna in Tuscany. He reported seeing a six-winged angel on a cross, after which the five wounds of Christ started to appear on his own body – his hands and feet, front and back, had the mark of the nails of crucifixion, while his side had an open wound as if caused by a spear thrust. The nail marks were realistic, including nail heads and points made of flesh. The marks became known as the stigmata, a Latin word meaning ‘brand’ which comes from the Greek for ‘tattoo’. In time, Francis’s experience was reproduced by other Catholic stigmatics, either genuinely or by fakery.
‘Then that marvellous vision disappeared, leaving in the heart of St Francis an excessive fire and ardour of divine love, and on his flesh a wonderful trace and image of the Passion of Christ. For upon his hands and feet began immediately to appear the figures of the nails, as he had seen them on the Body of Christ crucified, who had appeared to him in the likeness of a Seraph.’ Little Flowers of St Francis
Philip II of Spain, the King who launched the Spanish Armada against Elizabeth I of England, died today in 1598. His second wife was Mary Tudor, which made him King of England during her reign. They were both avid Catholics, dispatching ships to the sea and heretics to the flames in a bid to deliver their subjects from Protestantism.
Today is the feast of St John Chrysostom, who lived in the 4th century and is one of the greatest preachers in the history of the Church. In the first half of his life, John (his nickname Chrysostom means ‘golden mouth’) was a priest in Antioch, where for 12 years he made his reputation as a powerful and practical preacher, although his reputation is toxified by his anti-semitism. In the second half, he was made Patriarch of Constantinople, but John was not a gifted or tactful politician, and his enemies forced him into exile. Banished by the Emperor to Armenia, he was later banished even further to Georgia, and died on the journey. His status today as a great saint lies in his sermons and theology, and in the liturgy he developed, which has been sung in the Eastern Orthodox Church ever since his time.
On this day in 509 BCE, the Ides of September, the great Roman temple to Jupiter Optimus Maximus (‘Jupiter the Best and Greatest’) was dedicated. The temple stood on the summit of one of the seven hills of Rome, the Capitoline, and played a central role in Roman civic life. Here the priests sacrificed, the senate met, and Roman triumphs climaxed. The temple was also a visible symbol of the favour of the gods on Ancient Rome.
Image: Berthold Werner