The Commemoration of the Consecration of the Sanctuaries of the church of Resurrection in Jerusalem .

Today we celebrate the consecration of the sanctuaries of the church of Resurrection inJerusalem in the year 326 A .D . In the twentieth year of the reign of Emperor Constantine andafter the meeting of the Holy Council at Nicea, the saint Queen Helena told her son Constantinethat she had vowed to go to Jerusalem to receive the blessings of the holy places and to search forthe wood of the life-giving Cross . He rejoiced at this, gave her much money, and sent her in thecompany of a large number of soldiers .When she arrived there and received the blessings of the holy places, she searched for the wood ofthe Cross and found it after much toil . She praised it with great veneration and paid to it muchreverence and honor . She commanded the building of the sanctuaries of the Resurrection, theGolgotha, Bethlehem and the manger, the upper room of Zion, Gethsemane and other sanctuaries,and that they be inlaid with pearl and covered with gold and silver .There was in Jerusalem a saintly bishop who advised her not to do that, saying, "After a whileforeign people will come and seize this place and destroy it and take the precious stones and thesilver and the gold . But it is preferable to construct the buildings well and give the remainder of24the money to the poor and the needy ." She accepted his advice, gave him the money and set himin charge of the work .When she returned to her son and told him what she had done, he rejoiced, and sent large sums ofmoney and commanded to pay the workers their wages in full so they would not complain .When the building of the holy places was finished in the thirtieth year of the reign of EmperorConstantine, he sent vessels and precious vestments for the altars . He sent word to theArchbishop of Constantinople and to St . Athanasius, Pope of Alexandria, to take their bishopsand to go to Jerusalem where they would meet the Archbishop of Antioch and the Bishop ofJerusalem, to consecrate these sanctuaries .They tarried there until the sixteenth of the month of Tute, when they consecrated all the altarsthat had been built . On the seventeenth day they marched with the Honorable Cross around all theholy places where they worshipped God, offered the offerings, and venerated the Cross andhonored it . Then they returned to their chairs .Their prayers be with us to the last breath . Amen .