The Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the 14th of September marks the lifting up of the True Cross before the Christians in Jerusalem after the consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335 AD. The lifting up of the Cross as a sign or standard to follow and venerate has been a long-established concept in Christian history. In virtually every depiction of Christ’s descent into hades and his resurrection, he carries the Cross as a scepter or banner. And from ancient prayers and chants to modern Christian hymnody, “the Cross is lifted over us, we journey in its light.“
But in Western tradition, there’s one hymn that for its antiquity, universality, and ubiquity stands above the others in its appropriateness on the Feast of the Holy Cross and as a processional song as the Cross is marched before us: The Royal Banners Forward Go. Written in 569 by Venantius Fortunatus, Vexilla Regis prodeunt was chanted as a portion of the True Cross was processed into the new monastery of Saint-Croix in Poitiers. Over time, the hymn was assigned liturgical use as the processional chant while the Sacrament is removed from the Repository to the Altar on Good Friday, and as the Vesperal hymn during Passiontide and for the feasts of the Finding (May 3) and the Exaltation (Sep 14) of the Holy Cross.
The following English translation comes from the greatly revered Anglican priest and scholar John Mason Neale:
The royal banners forward go,
The Cross shines forth in mystic glow;
Where He in flesh, our flesh who made,
Our sentence bore, our ransom paid.Where deep for us the spear was dyed,
Life’s torrent rushing from His side,
To wash us in that precious flood,
Where, mingled, water flowed and blood.Fulfilled is all that David told
In true prophetic song of old,
Amidst the nations, God, saith he,
Hath reigned and triumphed from the Tree.O Tree of beauty, Tree of light!
O Tree with royal purple dight!
Elect on whose triumphal breast
Those holy limbs should find their rest.Blest Tree, whose chosen branches bore
The wealth that did the world restore,
The price of humankind to pay,
And spoil the spoiler of his prey.Upon its arms, like balance true,
He weighed the price for sinners due,
The price which none but He could pay,
And spoiled the spoiler of his prey.O Cross, our one reliance, hail!
Still may thy power with us avail
To give new virtue to the saint,
And pardon to the penitent.To Thee, eternal Three in One,
Let homage meet by all be done:
As by the Cross Thou dost restore,
So rule and guide us evermore. Amen.
