Procession of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord — August 1 / August 14 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, August 1 according to the Julian Calendar (August 14 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Procession of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.

According to the Greek Horologion of 1897, from ancient times there existed in Constantinople the custom of carrying the Precious Cross of the Lord through the streets of the city, the reason being the frequent spread of illness among the local inhabitants during the month of August. On the preceding day, July 31, the holy relic would be brought forth with honor from the church of the imperial court of Byzantium, where it was kept, and placed upon the altar of the Great Church of Hagia Sophia; the blessing of waters was performed. Then, on the following morning, the Precious Cross was carried out into the streets of the city, and for two weeks it was borne through the districts to sanctify the places and to ward off disease.

The feast of the Procession of the Precious Cross of the Lord must have been established in the ninth century. At first it was only a local feast, but from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with the spread of the Jerusalem Typikon, it became universal.