rigin of the cult of relics to
the words contained in Acts, v, 15: "Insomuch that they brought forth
the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at
the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them."

In the year 325, Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, the
first Christian Emperor of Rome, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where
she was alleged to have discovered the wood of the true Cross. This,
according to tradition, was found, with two other crosses and various
sacred relics, under a temple of Venus, which stood near the Holy
Sepulchre. And the true Cross was identified by means of a miraculous
test; for when a sick woman was touched with two of the crosses, no
effect was apparent; but upon contact with the true Cross, she was
immediately restored to health.[166:1] Such is the legend.

Of the four nails found in the place where the Cross was buried, one was
said to have been sent to Rome. Another the Empress Helena threw into
the Gulf of Venice, to allay a storm; while the other two were sent by
her to Constantine, who welded one of them to his helmet, as an amulet,
and affixed the other to his horse's headstall.

Among the classic peoples, symbols of their gods were used by physicians
in writing prescriptions for material remedies, as invocations or
charms, and were credited with the same wonderful healing powers which
were ascribed to holy relics, blessed medals and amulets, and in later
times to many purely superstitious remedies.[167:1]

The worship of relics naturally afforded a strong impulse to visit
sacred places, and especially Palestine.

Generally speaking, the prized relic, a piece of the true
cross, whether possessed by a church, a crowned head or a
private individual, is a minute speck of wood, scarcely
visible to the naked eye, set sometimes on an ivory tablet,
and always inclosed in a costly reliquary. M. Rohault de
Fleury, who calculates that the total volume of the wood of
the original cross must have been somewhere about 178,000,000
cubic millimetres, has made a list of all the relics of which
he can find any record, and the sum of their measurements
amounts to only 3,941,975 cubic millimetres, or about one
forty-fifth of the amount of wood necessary to reconstruct the
original cross. In the United States there is not an
authenticated relic of the cross as large as half a