Sacred Calendar

The Roman year ordered for memory, penance, feasts, saints, and the daily pilgrimage of the faithful.

Calendar standard

Pre-1955 Roman usage

The calendar follows the universal Roman year under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X, with the Roman Martyrology preserved as a distinct daily witness.

The day is presented for prayer, recollection, study, and perseverance in the City.

Daily observance

Today in the City of God

The Church keeps this day in holy time. The Pilgrim's Companion gathers the feast, daily quote, Martyrology, meditation, prayer, and related chapters into one daily path through the City.

Choose a date

Daily observance

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Monday, September 14, 2026

Season: Time after Pentecost

The day is set within the Roman year so its feast, Martyrology, daily quote, prayer, and reading path may be received together without blurring their proper sources.

Today's pilgrimage

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Rank: Greater Double

Color: red

Quote for the day

St. Paul

God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians 6:14, Douay-Rheims

Roman Martyrology

Roman Martyrology - September 14

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, when the em- - peror Heraclius, after defeating king Chosroes, brought it back to Jerusalem from Persia. — At Rome, in the Appian road, during the persecution of Decius, blessed Cornelius, pope and martyr, who, after being banished, was scourged with leaded whips, and then beheaded with twenty-one others of both sexes. — On the same day, were condemned to capital punishment Cserealis, a soldier, and his wife Sallustia, who had been instructed in the faith by the same Cornelius. — In Africa, in the time of the emperors Valerian and Gallienus, St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, most renowned for holiness and learning. It was near the seashore, six miles from the city, that he consummated his martyrdom by decapitation, after enduring a most painful exile. The festival of the Saints Cornelius and Cyprian is kept on the 16th of this month. — There suffered also in the same place the holy martyrs Crescentian, Victor, Kosula, and Generalis. — On the Salarian road, at Rome, during the persecution of Diocletian, Sf. Crescentius, the young son of St. Euthymius, who ended his life by the sword, under the judge Turpilius. — At Treves, the holy bishop Maternus, a disciple of the blessed apostle Peter, who brought co the faith of Christ the inhabitants of Tongres, Cologne, Treves, and of the neighboring country. — The game day, the birthday of St. John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, who was sent into exile through the conspiracy of his enemies, but was recalled by a decree of the Sovereign Pontiff, Innocent I. He died on the way from the ill-treatment he received at the hands of the soldiers who guarded him. His feast is celebrated on the 27th of January, the day on which his sacred body was taken to Constantinople by Theodosius the Younger.

Highlighted saint

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The Cross lifted up as the sign of victory.

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross honors the instrument of Our Lord's Passion as the sign of redemption and triumph.

It teaches the Church to glory not in worldly success, but in the Cross by which Christ conquered sin, death, and the devil.

Virtue to practice

Glorying in the Cross.

Error to resist

The dream of Christianity without sacrifice, penance, or contradiction.

For the pilgrim in exile

Look steadily at the Cross. The sign that humbles the world is the sign that steadies the pilgrim.

Imitate today

  • Make the Sign of the Cross with reverence.
  • Accept humiliation in union with Christ.
  • Boast only in the Cross of Our Lord.

Sources

  • Galatians 6:14, Douay-Rheims.
  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, September 14.

From Matins

The Cross, the one sacrifice, and the triumph of Christ.

Matins - Third Nocturn - Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Pope St. Leo the Great, Sermon on the Lord's Passion

Thy Cross is a well of blessings for all.

Doctrine taught

  • The Breviary keeps the Exaltation of the Holy Cross by joining the recovered relic to the deeper triumph of Christ crucified.
  • St. Leo teaches that faith sees more in the lifted Cross than the wicked saw: the judgment of the world, the casting out of the prince of this world, and the drawing of all things to Christ.
  • The Cross reveals the end of the shadows and the fulfillment of sacrifice, for the one oblation of Christ's Body and Blood fulfills every former offering.

For the pilgrim in exile

Glory in the Cross without softening it. Catholic victory is not escape from redemptive shame, but Christ reigning through the sacrifice by which death is turned into life.

Sources

  • The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. IV, Autumn, Third Nocturn for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, lessons vii-ix.
  • Bute 1908 is used here as an accessible pre-Pius X Breviary witness and is cited distinctly from the 1936-1937 Benziger / Burns Oates edition.

Breviary Witness

The Cross lifted as the sign of conquest.

Matins - Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Breviary witness

  • The Breviary office exalts the Cross as the instrument of redemption and the standard of Christ's victory.
  • The Church does not hide the Cross to make faith easier; she lifts it up because salvation was won there.

For the pilgrim in exile

Reject a soft Christianity that wants Christ without sacrifice. The pilgrim must learn to glory in the Cross, not merely survive it.

Sources

  • Roman Breviary, Matins lessons for September 14, Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
  • John 12:31-36, Douay-Rheims.

Gospel of the day

When I shall be lifted up.

Exaltation of the Holy Cross - John 12:31-36

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.

What Our Lord teaches

  • Christ conquers by the Cross, overthrowing the prince of this world through sacrifice.
  • The faithful must walk while they have the light, not postponing conversion until the heart is dull.

Virtue to practice

Embrace the cross given today without theatrical complaint.

Error to resist

The dream of a Christianity without sacrifice, penance, or contradiction.

For the pilgrim in exile

Look at the Cross until fear grows smaller. Our Lord does not ask you to carry every future sorrow at once; He asks for today's cross, carried near Him.

Sources

  • John 12:31-36, Douay-Rheims.
  • Traditional Roman Gospel for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Meditation

The Church Made Public

Pentecost teaches that the Holy Ghost does not create private religious enthusiasm detached from doctrine, worship, and authority. He gathers, sends, teaches, and strengthens the visible Church. The remnant must therefore seek fire without disorder and zeal without novelty.

Related paths

Walk the day through the City.

Prayer

The day should become prayer.

O Lord, make my charity patient without weakness, firm without harshness, and always ordered toward the salvation of souls.

Thought for the pilgrim

Charity is clearest when it remains joined to truth.

Practice

The day should become obedience.

Perform one hidden act of charity without seeking notice or return.

Source notes

Universal Roman Calendar under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X

Fasting and abstinence according to the laws observed in 1952

Daily quotations and pilgrimage excerpts should come from Scripture, Fathers, Doctors, saints, traditional popes before 1958, traditional catechisms, approved devotional works, or received liturgical texts.

The Roman Martyrology, Baltimore, 1916, published by John Murphy Company; the local 1916 text is displayed and traceable to its source lines.

  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xvii–xxviii.