Patriarch Kirill will perform the Rite of the Exaltation of the Cross in Polotsk

September 26, Minsk / Vladimir Vasilkov - BELTA /. A special service dedicated to the Exaltation of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, celebrated by the Orthodox Church on September 27, will be held this evening in all Orthodox churches of Belarus. In the Holy Cross Exaltation Church of the Polotsk Saint Euphrosyne Monastery, the Exaltation service will be conducted by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', who is on a visit to Belarus, BELTA correspondent reports. During the Exaltation of the Cross service, an image of the crucifixion is brought to the center of the church, and believers perform kneeling prayers and worship the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. A special feature of the divine service in Polotsk will be the exaltation of the recreated Cross of Saint Euphrosyne of Polotsk, a national shrine of Belarusians. The Exaltation of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord is one of the twelve great feasts of the Orthodox Church. The feast was originally established in memory of the finding of the Cross of the Lord in 326 by the equal-to-the-apostles Empress Helena, the mother of the first Christian emperor Constantine the Great. Since the 7th century, the memory of the return of the Cross from Persia by the Greek Emperor Heraclius (in the 620s) has been associated with this day. Both at the finding and at the installation of the Cross returned from Persia, the patriarch, in order to give all those gathered for the celebration the opportunity to see the shrine, would exalt, that is, raise the Cross, turning it to all four sides, and each time the people would reverently bow, exclaiming: "Lord, have mercy!". From this raising of the Cross, the feast received its name: Exaltation. Since the power of the Cross was revealed in the victories of the faithful sovereigns over their enemies and in the triumph of Christianity over paganism, the main hymn of the day of Exaltation is a prayer for the Christian people. According to the church charter, a one-day fast is established on this day in remembrance of the crucifixion sufferings of Jesus Christ. -0-