Type: Relic of the True Cross of Jesus

Age 300 AD

Era: Byzantine

The most precious relic preserved by the Byzantine Church was the “True Cross”, claimed to be the actual cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. Discovered in the 320s, the Cross had been venerated by generations of pilgrims by the seventh century. IN 614 AD the Persians invaded the Byzantine East. They took Jerusalem, looting the pillaging the pilgrimage sites and carried away the Cross to Ctesiphon (the imperial capital of the Parthian Empire). The Cross remained in Persian hands for fourteen years. In 628 AD the Emeror Heraclius defeated the Persian military, recovered what they had lost, and returned the Cross to its place of honor in Jerusalem. The Cross remained in Jerusalem for another five centuries. Used as a standard in battle by the Crusaders, it was captured at ‘Horns of Hattin’' just outside of the Sea of Galilee in 1187 by the Muslims and was taken to the Great Mosque in Cairo, where it was placed under the entrance so the Muslim worshipers walked over it on their way to prayers. When the Cross was returned to Jerusalem from Persia in 630 AD, these tokens were issued as souvenirs of celebrations. They are small clay or terra-cotta “medallions,” made by pressing a lump of clay into a (probably wooden) mold. Itis said that a small piece of the Cross was burned and the ash mixed with the clay. There are two types of tokens here, the first is Type-1-Showing Constantine in imperial robes on the left side and Helena in robes and widows veil on the right kneeling before the Cross. The Second type, which shows a Greek cross with the letters HNEI in the angles, reading “behold the appearance (of the Cross).”