Exaltation of the Cross

The origin, development and spread of the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross is traced on the basis of liturgical sources, and through a careful examination of the liturgical textual material, the meaning of the feast is analyzed with respect to its content. Among the important points receiving attention in this analysis are the place, function and significance of the Cross relic, and the theology of the Cross, or the process whereby the understanding of the Cross was shaped, as that was invested in the feast. The research is based on sources of Western liturgy from the early Middle Ages, and therefore has bearing on the period in the West in which a multiform liturgy, celebrated according to various indigenous local and regional traditions, gradually made way for one uniform Latin liturgy patterned on Roman models. The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross spread through the West from Rome within this context of standardization and Romanization. This raises questions about the uniformity and the Roman content of the feast. This study especially examines to what degree indigenous interpretations of the Cross, which were part of the legacy of the Hispanic and Gallican traditions in particular, continued to be preserved through the liturgical books of the early Middle Ages.