iscovery, may perhaps excite some interest, more especially as its
singular adventures, very distant in time, and recorded by different
writers, have never yet been brought together, and formed into one
connected narrative.

In the reign of the Emperor Constantine the Great, his mother Helena,
when almost an octogenarian, undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Her pious zeal was particularly directed to the search of the holy
sepulchre, and of the cross on which Jesus Christ had suffered; and,
according to her own judgment: at least, she was successful in both.
A vision, or perhaps a dream, disclosed the place of the Holy Sepulchre;
the three crosses were found buried near it, and that of the Saviour is
said to have been distinguished from the others by its healing powers
on the sick, and even restoring a corpse to life. This discovery caused
great and general rejoicing throughout Christendom.[3] The spot was
immediately consecrated by a church, called the New Jerusalem, and of
such magnificence that the celebrated Eusebius is strongly inclined
to look upon its building as the fulfilment of the prophecies in the
Scriptures for a city of that name.[4] A verse of the sibyl was also
remembered or composed, which, like all predictions after the event,
tallied in a surprising manner with the holy object so happily revealed.
The greater share of the Cross was left at Jerusalem, set in a case of
silver, and the remainder was sent to Constantine, who, in hopes of
securing the prosperity and duration of his empire, enclosed it within
his own statue on the Byzantine Forum. The pilgrims also, who thronged
to Jerusalem during a long course of years, were always eager, and often
successful, in obtaining a small fragment of the cross for themselves;
so that at length, according to the strong expression of St. Cyril, the
whole earth was filled with this sacred wood. Even at present, there
is scarcely a Roman Catholic cathedral which does not display some
pretended pieces of this relic; and it has been computed, with some
exaggeration, that were they all collected together, they might prove
sufficient for building a ship of the line. To account for this
extraordinary diffusion of so limited a quantity, the Catholic writers
have been obliged to assert its preternatural growth and vegetation,
which the saint already quoted ingeniously compares to the miracle of
the loaves and fishes.[5] That the guardians of this cross at Jerusalem
should