Cross, Invention of The

Cross, Invention of the the name given in the Roman Catholic Church to a festival which commemorates the finding of the alleged true cross of our Savior, and which is celebrated on the 3d of May. An order of friars, founded in honor of the invention of the cross, and carrying in their hand a staff, on the top of which was a cross, received the name of Croisiers (Fr. croix, cross), corrupted into Crouched or Crutched Friars. They came to England in the 13th century, and had monasteries in London, Oxford, and Ryegate. The festival of the Elevation of the Cross (September 14) commemorates its re- erection in Jerusalem by the emperor Heraclius, after it had been carried away by the Persians. SEE CROSS, EXALTATION OF.