Procession of the Holy Cross

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August 1 is a multiple feast. First off, today marks the beginning of the Dormition Fast. Next it is the remembrance of the Procession of the Life-Giving Cross: on this day the True Cross was carried through the streets of Constantinople and laid on the altar of Hagia Sophia. Then on the eve of the Dormition, it was returned to its usual resting place near the palace. On both days, the clergy would pray for God’s blessings upon the city and the empire. Some places still do this with a relic of the True Cross being carried around the church.

It is also a day for the “Lesser Blessing of Water.” Normally holy water was blessed on the first day of every month except January, when it is done on Epiphany. That custom faded away, except for August. Special petitions are put in the Litany of Peace, and Psalm 142 is chanted. Then the hand-cross is put into the water by the priest, who chants the Troparion of the Holy Cross.

Finally, this is also the day to remember the Maccabean Martyrs, whose endurance during the persecution of the Jews by the Greek king Antiochus IV, who had launched a Hellenizing policy against all the Jews. This would force them to accept many Greek customs and abandon Jewish ones in violation of the Mosaic Law; worship at pagan altars; no longer sacrifice animals; and give up circumcision of their sons and male converts. The final blow was the erection of an altar to Zeus at the Temple itself. A Jewish priest, Mattathias Hasmonean, and his five sons raised an army in the wilderness, under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, one of the sons. Successful guerilla warfare and religious enthusiasm led to the successful cleansing of Jerusalem and the temple, commemorated by the Jewish feast of Hanukah every winter.

The story of the Maccabean Martyrs is recounted in the Bible: Salomonia witnesses the execution of her her seven sons and their teacher, Eleazar, after they refused to perform pagan sacrifices at the Temple. The tortures took place in front of Antiochus himself, and he offered to spare the youngest son that he could support his widowed mother. But Salomonia and the boy both refuse this clemency, and the boy was tortured to death. The mother threw herself upon her sons’ bodies and died of grief while praising God. The example of this family’s devotion to God and the Law were said to have inspired Judas Maccabeus himself to raise the army and fight the pro-Hellenist Jews and the Syrian army.