The Procession of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross
Troparion of the Precious Cross Tone 1
Save, O Lord, Thy people/ and bless Thine inheritance,/ granting to Orthodox Christians/ victory over their enemies,/ and by Thy Cross/ preserving Thy community.
O merciful Lord, Thou didst look down from heaven and receive the poor and wretched:/ come down to us who have become embittered by sin/ and through the prayers of the Mother of God grant mercy to our souls.
Let us praise the seven Maccabees/ with their mother, Solomone and their teacher Eleazar;/ they were splendid in lawful contest/ as guardians of the teachings of the Law./ Now as Christ's holy martyrs they are interceding unceasingly for the world.
The radiance of thy life and the triumph of thine austerity/ shone forth from Innisboffin's Monastery, O Father Rioch,/ illuminating the Irish nation and leading them from the darkness of paganism/ into the light of true belief./ Wherefore O holy one, intercede with Christ our God/ that we may be turned from the errors of our day that our souls may be saved.
Rejecting thy princely dignity and worldly position,/ thou didst retire to the desert, O righteous Kenneth,/ and as we rejoice in thy God-pleasing asceticism,/ beseech Christ our God that He will save our souls.
O Christ our God/ Who wast voluntarily lifted up on the Cross/ grant Thy mercies to Thy new people named after Thee./ Gladden with Thy power Orthodox Christians/ and give them victory over their enemies./ May they have as an ally/ that invincible trophy, Thy weapon of peace.
All my deeds have been vile, O merciful Savior,/ and I have fallen into the pit of despair,/ but, O Word, with heartfelt groanings I cry:/ O compassionate One, hasten to our aid/ for Thou alone art merciful.
Kontakion of the Holy Maccabees Tone 6
You seven pillars of the wisdom of God,/ you seven-branched candlestick of the Divine Light,/ you were great martyrs before the time of the martyrs,/ O supremely-wise Maccabees./ Together with them pray to the God of all/ that those who venerate you may be saved.
The Akathist Hymn To the Spiritual Ladder, The Precious Cross
The entire Akathist Hymn can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/canonical_orthodox_2000/akathist_holy_cross.html
Rejoice, O Tree most blessed!
Ekos 1
Angels from Heaven invisibly circle the life-bringing Cross in fear, and seeing it now brilliantly shed light-bestowing Grace upon the faithful, amazed they stand and cry to you such words as these:
Rejoice, O Cross, guardian of the world!
Rejoice, the glory of the Church!
Rejoice, thou that bountifully gush forth with healings!
Rejoice, thou that enlighten the ends of the earth!
Rejoice, Wood fragrant with life, and treasury of wonders!
Rejoice, fitly-joined, thrice-blessed, and bestower of Grace!
Rejoice, for thou art the divine footstool!
Rejoice, for thou wast ordained for the worship of all!
Rejoice, bowl of nectar, full to the brim!
Rejoice, torch of the radiance above!
Rejoice, thou through which the creation is blessed!
Rejoice, thou through which the Creator is worshipped!
Rejoice, O Tree most blessed!
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During the month of August, as diseases were particularly frequent, it was formerly the custom in Constantinople for the precious Wood of the Cross to be carried through the streets and squares of the city during these days to sanctify the place and to drive away diseases. On the thirty first of July they brought the Cross from the royal treasury and placed it on the Holy Table of the Great Church (of the Holy Wisdom). On the next day and on each subsequent day until the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God they processed with it throughout the whole city and exposed it for the veneration of the people. This is what is called the ‘Progress of the Precious Cross’.
The holy Maccabees, whose names are, Aveim, Antony, Gourias, Eleazar, Efsevonas, Acheim and marcellus, were Jews by race and strict observers of the ancestral laws. They flourished in the days of Antiochus, known as ‘Epiphanes’, king of Syria and a merciless enemy of the Jews. He enslaved their whole nation and committed many evil deeds, even against the sacred acts of their religion itself. Among other things he compelled them to eat swine’s flesh, which is forbidden by the law. It was then that these devout youths, who had been arrested with their mother and their teacher and ordered to abandon the precepts of the law, were subjected to ten thousand torments, as many as a tyrannical and savage imagination could think up. When they had nobly endured all these and shown through their deeds that reason is the ruler of the passions and can conquer them, if it wills to, they met their end gloriously in the midst of torments, giving up their lives for the observance the law of God; first their aged teacher Eleazar, then all the brothers in order of age. Their wonderful mother, Solomoni, filled with noble thoughts and rousing her woman’s mind with manly fervour (2 Maccabees 7,21), stood by the triumph of her children over the tyrant, encouraging each of them to the struggle for the faith and bravely enduring their pains through her hope in the Lord. When she saw that her youngest son had met his end, she threw herself last of all into the fire and was granted the same blessed end along with her children, in the year 168 before Christ. (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ephrem/august.htm)
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