Akathist to the Precious Cross (14/27 Sept)

The main feast-day for the Cross is the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-giving Cross on the 14th September, which remembers when St Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and discovered the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. The Akathist Hymn mainly references this event in its verses. A pdf version can be viewed below:

Akathist to the Precious Cross.pdf

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Other days when the Cross is remembered include the 1st of August (the procession of the Cross) and the Third Sunday of Lent. Every Friday remembers the Crucifixion of Christ, so the Akathist Hymn is also suitable for any Friday.

It may seem odd that the Cross - an inanimate object - is addressed as a person and has prayers dedicated towards it. The personification of inanimate things is a common practice in Old Testament writings and is even used in the Psalms to address the city of Jerusalem. In the Orthodox Church, not only the Saints, but even miracle-working icons of the Saints can have feast-days dedicated to them. The Cross is the archetype of this concept of inanimate "pieces of wood" being treated as though living things. Although made of dead wood, and used specifically as an instrument of death, the Cross was turned into a source of life and miracles through Jesus Christ. This is why in the Akathist hymn as elsewhere (including in the New Testament), the Cross Jesus was crucified upon is called "a Tree"; what was dead and used for death has become alive and a source of life by the power of the Resurrection.