re: #295 danarchy

I think most of those “True Cross” relics are from the “True Cross” found by Constantine’s mom Helena. So probably predates the middle ages by a little bit. Probably about as likely to be from the wood of Jesus’ cross as my coffee table though.

Yep: according to legends, St Helena had three crosses dug up in Jerusalem,* but didn’t know which was which until they brought out a sick (or dead) woman who was healed (or resurrected) by the touch of the “true” cross. Methinks Old Nell just MAY have been scammed.

Don’t know how true it is, but I read somewhere that somebody had made an exhaustive study of the “Relics Of The True Cross”, and calculated that the extant fragments only added up to about 2 cubic feet of wood: IOW, only a fraction of what an actual cross would have been. Maybe the rest WAS made into coffee tables…..

*three hundred years or so later: right…….