Lifted Up… The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The Roman Calendar names tomorrow's feast the Exaltatio Sanctae Crucis. The Byzantine books name it Ἡ Παγκόσμιος Ὕψωσις τοῦ Τιμίου καὶ Ζωοποιοῦ Σταυροῦ, the Universal Elevation of the Precious and Life-giving Cross. Both titles are built upon a verb of raising, and both attach that verb to an object which no one in the ancient world would have thought raisable in any sense but the literal and the degrading.