September feast days:

The Triumph of the Cross and the Archangels

Worksheets by Michelle Scott 2010

www.mum6kids.wordpress.com

www.thatresourcesite.com
The Triumph of the Cross 14th Sept.

In the year 326 an old woman by the name of

Flavius Julius Helena Augusta the Empress Mother
entered Jerusalem on pilgrimage from Rome. She
was a tough woman and was on one her missions of
determination. In this case she wanted to find out
what had happened to the Holy Cross that Christ
had been crucified on.

She questioned the bishop and others in the area

and soon found herself climbing the hill outside the
old city walls to a dilapidated temple to Venus. The
building had been erected by Hadrian in a bid to
hurt Christians and rid them of their holy places–
this being the place of the Crucifixion.

Not allowing such minor inconveniences as ill health

and old age to distract her Helena had the place
pulled apart and dug up. Soon she found herself
looking down on some large pieces of wood that
could only have come from a Roman crucifixion. As
it happened she had discovered the three crosses St Helena with the Emperor Heraclius
returning the True Cross to Jerusalem
used that day over 300 years ago. Two for the 1481. I think this is part of an altar
thieves Gestas and St Dismas and one for Christ. piece.

Helena had some sick people brought to the dig site and soon one cross was mak-
ing them well. This was the True Cross. She had part of it left in Jerusalem and part
sent back to Rome. I think she also had the cross of Dismas sent to Rome. She also
found the titular baring the inscription from Pilate stating that this was Jesus of Naz-
areth King of the Jews. That is in Rome too.

In 614 the invading Persian army took away the part of the Cross kept in Jerusalem,
but it was retrieved by the Emperor Heraclius in 628. He got it as a sign of goodwill
from the Muslim leader who was suing for peace to save the life of his infant son.
There’s something rather lovely in the idea that the Cross which saved so many,
saved one more.
The story goes that Heraclius carried the cross to Jerusalem. He was adorned in all
the finery of an Emperor; hardly surprising as he was one, and when he arrived at
the gate of Jerusalem he just couldn’t get in. He could not work out what the prob-
lem was until the Bishop Zacharias came up with a suggestion.
“Perhaps you should think about how Jesus came through Jerusalem carrying that
Cross?”
Heraclius had his little ways, but he could take a hint. He changed into the simple
clothes of a pilgrim and found walking into the city with the Cross was easy after all.

The feast of the Triumph or Exultation of the Cross was established after that.

Copyright © Michelle Scott 2010 for printing and photocopying for family use. Please pray for me and mine.
A Little Latin
Exaltatio Sanctae Crucis
Raising aloft the Holy Cross
Or Triumph or Exultation of the Holy
Cross.
Adorarmus te, Christie
We adore thee Christ
Et benedicimus tibi
And we bless thee,
Quia per crucem,
Because by Thy (Holy) Cross
Tuam redemisti mundum
Thou redeemed the world
Storytelling in art
Artists of the past knew a lot about how to
tell a story in their work. They would put
people from different times in the painting
if they helped tell the story. You might
remember see the Fra Angelico painting of
the Annunciation with Adam and Eve be-
ing banished from Eden in the same pic-
ture.
If you look at the painting of the Triumph
of the Cross you will see that Helena in
there too, even though she found the cross
a good 300 years before Heraclius recov-
ered it from the Persians.
The Crucifixion painting is by Andrea
Mantegna. It shows just that time, but there
are a lot of characters that we could pick
out in the painting. If you can find a bigger
version to look at try spotting: St Dismas,
St John, St Longines, Our Lady, St Mary
Magdelene, St Mary (wife) of Cleopas and
St (Mary) Salome.
There is also Christ’s robe. Can you find it?
Copyright © Michelle Scott 2010 for printing and photocopying for family use. Please pray for me and mine.
St Dismas is usually shown in art as
the thief crucified on the right side of
Jesus. Despite his own suffering he
managed to be sorry for his sins and
recognise the innocence of Christ. He
also recognised who Jesus is because
he asked “Remember me when You
come into Your Kingdom.”
Jesus promised that he would indeed
see heaven that very day.
In his last words Dismas showed a
lot of courage and faith.
He was given his name in the gospel
of Nicodemus, also known as the
Acts of Pilate. The name means Sun-
set or death and seems linked with
the Gospel story showing that Dis-
mas would have died at sunset when
his legs were broken. If you remem-
ber, the legs of the two thieves were
broken, and Jesus was pierced in the
side because He was already dead.
The bodies needed to be removed
by sunset as the Sabbath began at
sunset.
There is also an old legend that Dis-
mas had been going to rob the Holy
Family as they fled Herod’s slaughter
of the innocents. But Dismas was
rather taken with the baby Jesus and
didn’t rob the family after all.
Mary promised he would be re-
warded at the hour of his death.
 The feast of the Archangels is September
29th

Angels appear in Scripture all over the place

and they have been appearing in other writ-
ings and other people’s lives ever since. Arch-
angels have a special place and it seems even
from Scripture that there is a hierarchy among
the angels.
Over the years there has been the suggestion
of a number of Archangels but the Catholic
Church tends to recognise only three of them;
Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.

According to rabbinic tradition angels were

made and the war in heaven took place on the
Second Day of creation. It is why, the rabbi’s
explain, God did not see that it was good on
Day Two. Have a look in your Bible at Genesis
and see if you can find the missing “good
Angel of the Resurrection by William Mor- day”.
ris.1862. Probably a sketch for one of his
amazing stained glass windows.
Angels are pure spirit and have an astonishing
intellect. They have free will, but unlike hu-
mans they exercise it in a once and for all way. So God laid before them His plan of
salvation and they got to choose. Would they serve the Second Person Incarnate
and His purely human mother or not? Lucifer, one of the Archangels said “I will not
serve!” In Latin it is his famous saying “Non serviam” and it is the antithesis of be-
ing Christian.
A war broke out in heaven, St Michael
(his name means Who Is Like God?) took
charge of the army of God and cast Satan
out. Jesus says “I saw Satan fall like light-
ening from heaven.” (Luke 10:18).

In the Catholic Church we tend to remem-

ber only three Archangels; Michael who
leads the angel army and is the angel of
Israel. It may have been Michael who
wrestled with Jacob before he got his new
name of Israel. It may not have been.
We find that it is not just Israel that is
granted an angel. We know from the chil-
dren of Fatima that they were visited by
the Angel of Portugal. It seems that God
follows political lines and grants countries
This is by the prolific Gustav Dore
showing Jacob wrestling the angel.

Copyright © Michelle Scott 2010 for printing and photocopying for family use. Please pray for me and mine.
a guardian angel of their own. I think that illustrates His mercy very well.

Gabriel is God’s messenger. He is the one who visits Zachariah in the Holy of Holies,
Mary in her home to announce her pregnancy and Joseph in his dream to tell him to
take the Holy Family to Egypt. His name means “God is my strength”. He also
helped Daniel out with a difficult dream (Take a look at Daniel 8).

Raphael is found with Tobit and gets

rid of the demon coming after him on
his wedding night. He is the Archangel
associated with healing.

Uriel is another archangel but he tends

not to be remembered in the calendar.
Nevertheless there is a lot of artwork
around with him in it. The romantic
pre-Raphaelites rather liked him. He is
the angel of repentance and death.
Remember for Christians death is not
necessarily a bad or frightening thing;
it is a time to go before God and Uriel
is the angel to help at that moment.
He is also accredited along with St Mi-
chael with the defeat of the army of
Sennacherib. His name means “Light
of God,” which is probably why he is
the Archangel of Repentance. If some-
one turns to the Light of Christ they
repent.

You could draw your favourite archangel and write a little about what he has done in Scripture and
Tradition.
Have a good look at the artwork in these worksheets and see if it inspires you when drawing your
own angels.
Remember although we know angels are pure spirit and have no body they have appeared as adult
men or even strange creatures to the prophets and saints. Their wings represent their mission be-
tween heaven and earth. Their haloes show they are holy.
Fallen angels/demons are shown with bat wings, tails and cloven hooves and horns to symbolise that
they are not at all holy; but are creatures of darkness not light.
The artistic symbols help us understand their nature a little better.

But don’t be fooled by mere art and remember that demons can appear as angels of light even though
they are not. We must always pray for discernment.

Copyright © Michelle Scott 2010 for printing and photocopying for family use. Please pray for me and mine.
Archangel
Whose name means:
Whose attributes are:
Is in scripture:
 This is a very famous paint-
ing– an Icon in fact– by a
man called Rublev.
He painted a few of these I
believe. While it shows three
angels they are not just an-
gels, they are God.

It is the first hint in Scripture

that God is a Trinity.
Have a look in your Bible at
Genesis 18 and 19. This is
the story of how The Lord
came to Abraham as three
men-or three angels and
Abraham welcomed them
and treated them with true
hospitality.
Abraham has bread and
wine brought to them and
they are seated under the
shade of a tree.
A baby is promised and then
there is to be severe judge-
ment on Sodom. Now if you
look at both these Icons the
first by Rublev, the second by and unknown painter, you will see how the story is
layered. The three angels are clearly the
Holy Trinity. Who do you think is
which?
What clues can you see that might tell
you?
In the second Icon who are the three
people at the bottom of the painting?
Behind each figure is extra clues, the
House behind the first figure, the tree
behind the second and the mountain (in
the second Icon) behind the third.
Look closely at the hands of all three
angels and say what you see in both
icons.
How are they robed? What do you think
of the colours of their robes?
What does the food on the table repre-
sent? Is it just food or is it more than
that?

Copyright © Michelle Scott 2010 for printing and photocopying for family use. Please pray for me and mine.
Look at this page when you have studied the Icons and read the Scripture.

Christ sits at the centre under the tree of Mamre which is also the Tree of Life and
the tree or cross of the crucifixion. His hand touches the table-altar and is held in
the way many icons of Christ show him. Two fingers stretched out to show He is of
two natures both fully human and fully divine; while his thumb and other two fin-
gers tell us He is part of The Holy Trinity. He stretched out His hand over the bread
and wine that is to become the eternal sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist (His Body,
Blood, Soul and Divinity).
God the Father sits under His House- “My Father’s House” as Christ called the Tem-
ple. It is also the Church that Christ established as the Kingdom on earth. He holds
the staff with both hands, His authority is paramount and the staff is a symbol of
authority and fatherhood. He wears a see through robe of kingly red over the eter-
nal colour blue.
On the opposite side of the table/altar sits the Holy Spirit in the green robe of Life
and in the second icon He sits beneath the mountain where so many come to see
the Spirit of God.

Rublev enthrones them as befits their rank. The unknown artist has done the same,
but he then paints in three more figures. There are Abraham and Sarah offering the
hospitality due their guests and between them is the Promise God made; Isaac,
which means laughter, for Sarah laughed when she heard the promise.
From the line of Isaac with come the Saviour.

But there is also judgement and from the moment this meal is over the three men
head off to Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham is able to beg for the cities, but still
there was only Lot who could be saved with his daughters.

There are those who insist that the cities were only destroyed because they did not
offer hospitality to the Three Men who entered Sodom in search of Lot. There is mi-
nor merit perhaps to this view, but lacking hospitality comes from a much more se-
rious root. The sins that went on in both cities were horrendous and in the story of
Lot we are given a good idea of just how horrendous those sins were.

This painting by Botticini

shows the three hierar-
chies of the angels with
Mary assumed into
heaven through them.
First; Cherubim and
Seraphim with Thrones/
Ophanim.
Second: Dominions, Vir-
tues and Powers.
Third: Principalities,
Archangels and angels.

Copyright © Michelle Scott 2010 for printing and photocopying for family use. Please pray for me and mine.