Empress Helena in Jerusalem, having learned where the Holy Cross was buried, demolished the temple of Venus and found 3 crosses under it. Then Patriarch Macarius told her to place one by one on the dead man they were carrying. When they placed the third cross, the dead man came to life. The empress made a silver coffin and placed the Holy Cross in it. When Emperor Chosroes conquered Jerusalem, he took the Holy Cross with him. After 14 years, Emperor Heraclius returned it to Jerusalem. He carried it on his back. But suddenly he stopped, unable to take a step further. Patriarch Zacharias saw an angel preventing the emperor from walking under the Cross in his luxurious clothes, and on the path along which the Lord carried him barefoot and humiliated. And the emperor, in miserable clothes and barefoot, brought the Holy Cross into the Church of the Resurrection.

Saint Plakyla the Empress. Venerable Martyr Macarius of Thessalonica. Venerable Mary of Tarsus.