relics. Amongst the relics exposed to the veneration of the prostrate multitudes, was a large portion of the true cross, enclosed in a gorgeous reliquary of glass and gold, The cross, with the two upon which the malefactors were crucified, were discovered by Saint Helena during the pontificate of St. Eusebius, who ascended St. Peter's Chair in the year 309, and was the thirty-second Pope in succession.. Of the three crosses discovered, that upon which Jesus Christ was crucified was identified by a miracle wrought by God through the instrumentality of Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, The nails and inscription were recovered at the same time. St. Helena presented one portion of the cross to her son, the emperor Constantine; for the second she erected the church of Santa Cruce in Jerusalem, near the church of Saint John of Lateran, in which it was long preserved in a gorgeous shrine. In the year 1620, Pope Urban VIII. enclosed a portion in a case of crystal and lapis lazuli, and committed it to the charge of the canons of St. Peter's, and that was it which was exposed on this evening. The Church commemorates the invention of the Holy Cross on the third of May. After the exposition of the relics, all retired in profound silence, with penitential hearts and tearful eyes. Outside, the moon, the glowing lamp of night, suspended from the azure concave dome of the firmament, was shedding her streams of silvery light around, and brilliantly illumined the bronze cross which surmounts the Egyptian obelisk in the centre of the piazza, on that side which faced the Vatican, where the Pope, the great Moses of the new dispensation, and his faithful people were congregated in prayer, whilst the opposite side, looking towards the world, was shrouded in the deepest shades. It recalled to my recollection the CRUX SPLENDIDIOR, CUNCTIS ASTRIS! 273 night when, as we read in Exodus, Moses and God's people, pursued by Pharaoh and his army, encamped on the shores of the Red Sea, which they were about to cross, when the pillar of light stood behind the Israelites, whom it brilliantly illuminated, and was dark on the other side, totally benighting the Egyptians, and throwing them into confusion. O my God! when on the last dread day of assize, the debris of a mouldering world shall be reduced to ashes; when the whole universe shall be rolled up as a parchment scroll that has been read, and the Son of Man shall be borne on the clouds of Heaven, preceded by the Cross, whilst the wicked will wither away at the glance of the Lord, oh! grant that that cross may be to me a sign of hope and confidence, and amidst the gloomy terrors, may beam on me a ray of mercy and of love! "O Crux splendidior, cunctis astris !" 66 "O Cross, more refulgent than the most brilliant star!" "Come not, O Lord, in the dread robe of splendour 66 Thou wor❜st on the Mount, in the day of thine ire: Lord, Thou rememberest the night, when Thy nation While Israel bask'd all the night in its beam. "So when the dread clouds of anger enfold Thee, 274 ANCIENT USAGE. Holy Saturday, N early Christian ages, Holy Saturday was devoted to the final examinations and instructions of the catechumens, and fervent prayer preparatory to the administration of the baptism and confirmation, which rarely terminated before midnight, and immediately after the first solemn mass of the glorious festival of the Resurrection was celebrated. It is therefore that all the ceremonies prescribed by the ritual for Holy Saturday refer first to the night, and then to the first dawning rays of the morning of Easter Day: for our present custom of celebrating these ceremonies early on Saturday morning, is a departure from the ancient discipline of the eight first centuries, when they were celebrated on Saturday nigh and Sunday morning. We may regard the present authorized usage of anticipating the recitation of the office and celebration of these ceremonies as an indulgence granted by the Church, to exempt the faithful, after the maceration of the penitential season of Lent, from the obligation of the midnight watching and prayer on the solemn vigil of the Resurrection. The first ceremony is that of producing new light, as all the former lights are extinguished after the Tenebræ. In some ancient churches, indeed, three concealed lamps were kept burning, emblematical of the three days Our Lord lay in the sepulchre-and the new light was produced from them, as significant of His resurrection. In other churches it was produced from a burning glass, emblematical of the Sun of Justice, "orient on high"; and in others it was struck from a flint, as light from the "rock". I. Cor., x. 4. Pope Zachary, in the year 750, alludes to the latter custom prevailing in Rome; and a century later, Pope Leo IV. corroborates this statement. The new fire and the five grains of incense are then blessed. In the Sistine chapel this ceremony takes place at the vestry door: in parochial churches it is performed at the porch. The procession now advances to the church, and the deacon, wearing a white dalmatic, maniple, and stole, carries a long cane, with three candles issuing from the one socket, to represent the mystery of the Trinity, the Triune God. The cardinal celebrant awaits the procession, which comes preceded by mace-bearers, from the Paoline Chapel. When the deacon arrives at the railings, one of the candles is lit, the deacon singing "Lumen Christi !" "the light of Christ!" All kneel, and the choir sings "Deo gratias", thanking God that the light which Christ revealed to us in this world of darkness, enables us now to see more clearly the profound mysteries of salvation, which the patriarchs and prophets saw so obscurely. This exclamation is thrice repeated, and the three candles are lit as the deacon approaches the altar. The light of the triple candle also signifies that our faith in the blessed Trinity is derived from Christ, now risen from the dead. The Paschal candle represents the body of Christ. The five grains of incense represent the aromatic spices with which His five wounds were embalmed in the sepulchre. It is at first unlighted, to represent Christ still dead, and is afterwards lighted to represent Him arisen to life again, and the subsequent lighting of the lamps and the candles on the altar from the same light, imply that He is the resurrection and the life, by virtue of which all the members of holy Church arise to the life of grace and a 2 276 PROPHECIES AND ORATIONS. blessed immortality, through and with their divine head. At this time the catechumens of old received their final instructions, and therefore that custom still prevails of reading the twelve lessons from the Old Testament called the Prophecies, to strengthen their resolution by forcibly showing them how plainly the predictions and ancient types were verified by the mysteries of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection. All the faithful united in prayer for them, and therefore an oration is said after each prophecy. This day was most appropriately chosen for the solemn administration of baptism, as the mystery of Christ being truly dead in the sepulchre, and coming out truly alive, is a lively figure of the sinner buried in the baptismal water as in a mystical grave, and His coming out of it resuscitated, alive, and arisen to the life of the children of light, of grace, and of Christ. Bellarmine, alluding to "Dominica in albis", in his treatise de Baptismo, lib. i. cap. 27, states that it was usual for the neophytes, who were clothed in white on Holy Saturday, when they were baptized, to wear those garments till the Sunday after Easter, and on that day they divested themselves of their white garments, and resumed their ordinary clothes, and that from this usage it derived its title of "Dominica in albis". St. Augustine, however, intimates that the neophytes wore their white garments during the octave of eight days from Holy Saturday till the Saturday following, which, was therefore called "Sabbatum in albis", and no longer, and that the next day derived its name from being the Sunday next following "Sabbatum in albis". In early ages the neophytes were baptized on Holy Saturday only, but in later times they were baptized on |