Today marks the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14/27, called Holy Cross Day in England. The feast commemorates the consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in AD 335, in which the true Cross of Christ was kept as a precious relic. The nun Egeria, who visited Jerusalem in about 381–384, described seeing the relic taken from its silver casket on this day and ‘exalted’, that is, lifted up for public display and veneraton. See St Helen Finds the True Cross in The Copy Book.
The accompanying hymn is by Adam of St Victor (?-1146), and makes several Biblical allusions including the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath near Tyre: see 1 Kings 17:8-24. This translation is by Charles Buchan Pearson (1807-1881), Prebendary of Sarum and Rector of Knebworth, who uses the Anglo-Saxon word Rood for the Cross.