On the Holy Cross

Saint Nektarios composed this work in 1914 at the behest of the Metropolitan of Athens “in order to refute erroneous positions and deluded human teachings which are held out of a complete ignorance of the historical appearance of the Holy Cross.” Having gained independence from the Ottomans, the Greeks found themselves under the increasing cultural influence of Western Europe, and with that came iconoclastic Protestant tendencies, including a disdain for the veneration of the Holy Cross. In this book, Saint Nektarios seeks to educate Orthodox Christians and strengthen their faith in the Cross of Christ, drawing deeply and widely from biblical, historical, and patristic sources, as well modern scholarship, to cover the spiritual, historical, liturgical and symbolic aspects of this ancient, significant, and most cherished Christian tradition and refuting the challenges to it.