Overheard in the Sacristy

January 15, 2010. It’s one of the most ancient crosses in the world. But what makes this one so precious is what it holds in the middle: A small fragment of the Cross that Jesus was crucified on.

The Crux Vaticana is one of the most priceless gems in the Vatican’s collection of religious artefacts.  It was a gift from Byzantine Emperor Justin II to the city of Rome back in 580. Marred by its age and use, it now has regained its splendor after a challenging restoration.

The cross was designed by the emperors wife, Princess Sofia. It’s though she was the one who donated the pearls from her crown. The cross also dons sapphires and emeralds.

“It is a work of gilded silver, not too large, about 35 centimeters, with sheets of silver and it’s considered one of the greatest works of art of the Constantinople period. It is one of the oldest preserved in the world today”.

The most significant change is the ring of 12 pearls that now surround the piece of Jesus’ cross. The pearls were brought from Australia.
Another interesting aspect of the cross is that the back is decorated with plants, Emperor Justin’s signature which makes reference to Princess Sophia.

It has taken a year and a half of study and six months of work to make the restoration of this cross possible. The first step was to take it apart to find the original pieces.

“Many historians thought that the cross was a product of restoration of the 17th century. But it’s not. It’s the original. In fact, we have learned that 90 percent of it is original.”

The only part that remained intact was a crystal cube and the silver guarding the relic of the cross of Jesus.

The jewels that adorn the cross are typical of this historic moment and have a significant meaning. The embedded stones represent the 12 tribes of Israel also known as the Hebrew root of Christianity.

“The Constantine emperor asked for a large cross made of gold and gems to put on Mount Calvary in memory of the crucifixion of Christ. From that moment and for centuries, crosses were decorated with precious stones, especially those that include a piece of the cross of Jesus.”

A priceless treasure with a high religious, historic and artistic value that can be seen until Holy Saturday in the Treasure Museum of Saint Pete

The sedia gestatoria is a portable throne on which Popes were once carried. It consists of a richly-adorned, silk-covered armchair, fastened on a suppedaneum, on each side of which are two gilded rings; through these rings pass the long rods with which twelve footmen (palafrenieri), in red uniforms, carry the throne on their shoulders.

The sedia gestatoria is an elaborate variation on the sedan chair. Two large fans (flabella) made of white ostrich feathers—a relic of the ancient liturgical use of the flabellum, mentioned in the Constitutiones Apostolicae[1]are carried at either side of the sedia gestatoria.

The sedia gestatoria was mainly used to carry popes to and from papal ceremonies in the Basilica of St. John Lateran and St. Peter’s Basilica. The sedia was used as part of papal ceremony for nearly one millennium. Its origins are sometimes thought to date back to Byzantium where Byzantine emperors were carried along in a similar manner, but many sources indicate the use of the sedia is of a much earlier date, probably being derived from rituals accompanying the leadership of the ancient Roman Empire.

This throne was used more especially in the ceremonies at the coronation of a new pope, and generally at all solemn entries of the pope to St. Peter’s or to public consistories. In the first case three bundles of tow are burnt before the newly-elected pontiff, who sits on the Sedia Gestatoria, whilst a master of ceremonies says: “Pater Sancte, sic transit gloria mundi,” (Holy Father, so passes the glory of the world). The custom of carrying the newly-elected pope, and formerly in some countries the newly-elected bishop, to his church can be, in some instances, traced back very far and may be compared with the Roman use of the sella curulis, on which newly-elected consuls were carried through the city.

Ennodius, Bishop of Pavia (d. 521) records in his “Apologia pro Synodo”, Gestatoriam sellam apostolicae confessionis, alluding to the Cathedra S. Petri, still preserved in the choir of St. Peter’s at Rome. This is a portable wooden armchair, inlaid with ivory, with two iron rings on each side.

Besides the constant use of the Sedia Gestatoria at the coronation of the pope (which seems to date from the beginning of the sixteenth century), etc., it served in the past on different other occasions, for instance when the pope received the yearly tribute of the Kingdom of Naples and of the other fiefs, and also, at least since the fifteenth century, when he carried the Blessed Sacrament publicly, in which case the Sedia Gestatoria took a different form, a table being adjusted before the throne. Pius X made use of this on the occasion of the Eucharistic Congress at Rome in 1905.

Pope John Paul I at first declined to use the sedia gestatoria, along with the papal tiara and several other symbols of papal authority, but was eventually convinced by the Vatican staff that its use was necessary in order to allow crowds to see him. Pope John Paul II refused to use the sedia gestatoria completely; Benedict XVI has not, as of yet, restored its use. The sedia gestatoria has been functionally replaced in modern times by the motorized and secured “popemobile”. — Wikipedia

At Vespers for the Start of Advent AD 2009