My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE. Ο ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΩ ΜΕΣΩ ΗΜΩΝ! ΚΑΙ ΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΣΤΑΙ.

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THE SIGN OF THE CROSS: ITS POWER, MEANING AND MIRACLES (Part II)

C. God Reveals the Power of the Holy Cross with Supernatural Events

The Lord Himself with supernatural events and amazing revelations revealed during different occasions in a vociferous manner that the sign of the Cross constitutes His symbol and the invincible trophy of the faithful. We shall present a few examples from the innumerable ones that are preserved in the Ecclesiastic History, the Holy Fathers of the Church and the Synaxarion (book) of the Lives of the Saints.

The well known Ecclesiastic Historian Eusebius of Caesaria (+ 340 A.D.), a contemporary of Saint Constantine, describes lucidly and irrefutably the most renown event of the appearance of the bright Cross in the presence of Constantine the Great the Roman Emperor and later Saint of the Church, with the inscription "By this, Conquer" ("En touto Nika") and in fact during broad daylight with all the men of his army as witnesses.
Apart from the above supernatural appearance of the Sign of the Cross another one happened, again in front of innumerable witnesses when Constantius, the son of Saint Constantine was king and Saint Cyril was Archbishop of Jerusalem. The miracle is described by Saint Cyril himself to the king in his letter, in which the he says that during that day (7th May 346 A.D. during the period of Pentecost) around the 3rd hour, there appeared in the sky the sign of the Cross, huge, brilliant, spanning from Holy Calvary to the Mount of Olives. Not one or two saw it but all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And it did not appear for only a moment but for many hours remaining hanging in the firmament. And it was so brilliant that it was brighter than the sun's rays and that is why they could not watch it clearly during noon. Seeing this miracle, the people of the city ran to the Temple of the Resurrection. Everybody glorified our Lord Jesus Christ with one mouth, having by now been taught from these events that the most sacred dogma of the Christians does not rest in human wisdom that convinces with words and logic but in the proofs given by the spiritual gifts and the miraculous powers. And the dogma is not preached only by people but is testified by God Himself from Heaven.
The commemoration "of the appearance of the Holy Cross in heaven" is celebrated on the 7th May, the day of its appearance.
The holy great Martyr Efstathios (+ 20th September) was found worthy to have a wondrous vision, thanks to which he converted from idolatry (paganism) to the Christian faith. Sensible, sober, charitable and just, even though an idolater, Saint Efstathios (who was then called Plakidas) attracted to himself the grace of Christ who was revealed to him in an unusual manner. Specifically, while hunting one day in the forest, he saw at a distance a most beautiful and large stag, which, while walking away, would turn its head every so often and would observe him eye to eye. The Saint spurred his horse to catch up with it but he could not. His friends followed him but in vain. After a while they decided to abandon the effort because their horses were exhausted. Only the Saint was determined to ride after the untiring stag. Finally, full of sweat, he and his horse reached a great crevice. The stag easily jumped over to the other side, where it stopped and was looking at the Saint. The horse though could not jump over so he decided to stop. Then with indescribable surprise, the Saint saw between the horns of the stag a brilliant Cross that bore the Crucified Lord and heard a voice telling him: "Plakida, why do you hunt Me? I am Christ Whom you do not know but you please Me with your good works. For your sake, therefore, I appeared to you on this stag. Your charities and good works have pleased Me. For this I appeared to you, for it is not just that a person like you not to know the Truth...." These things and many more the Lord told him, before sending him to the local bishop, who baptized him together with his whole family, giving him the name Efstathios.

Three of the innumerable examples of Divine revelations regarding the Sign of the Cross are the ones we described above, which teach us that the Sign of the Cross is the seal of Christ.

D. The Sign of the Cross is Miraculous

To support with more evidence the veneration that the Church accords to the Cross and to present vividly the power of the Holy Cross as a Sign of Christ, we will describe a few sporadic miracles - most of them form the Lives of the Saints - that occurred at various times with this All-Holy Symbol.

Saint John the Theologian (+ 26th September) healed in the island of Patmos, Greece the paralyzed idolater (pagan) priest of Apollo by making the sign of the Cross on him.

Saint Anthony the Great (+ 17th January) wishing to put to shame certain idolaters (pagans) who went to offend him, brought before them some demon-possessed persons and told them: "Either you cleanse them with your musings and any other art or sorcery you want, invoking your idols, otherwise if you cannot, give up your polemics against us and you shall see the power of the Cross of Christ". And at that moment he invoked the Lord, making the sign of the Cross on the demon-possessed three times. Immediately they were raised form the demons and were healed, glorifying God.

When Saint Epiphanios, Archbishop of Cyprus (+ 12th May) was still a young, 10 year old child, an unruly calf seriously wounded him in the thigh and threw him down, unable to get up. A pious Christian, Cleovios, made the sign of the Cross three times on his wounded member and immediately the little Epiphanios was healed and stood up. The same Saint, much later, made the sign of the Cross on the daughter of the king of Persia and relieved her immediately from the demon that tormented her.

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"-- Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George