On Saturday 14 September 2024, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross – which constitutes, together with the feast of Saint George, the most important and moving religious event of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George – a representation of the Delegation of Tuscia and Sabina, led by the Delegate, Nob. Attorney Roberto Saccarello, Knight Grand Cross of Jure Sanguinis with Gold Star, attended Mass in Viterbo at the Church of the Holy Trinity-Shrine of the Madonna Liberatrice, center of the spiritual life of the Delegation.
The Mass was celebrated at 6.30 pm by the Parish Priest, Father Giuseppe Cacciotti , OSA, with Constantinian knights acting as altar servers. The Mass was in celebration of the liturgical feast which evokes the Cross as a sign and instrument of our salvation, a source of holiness and a revealing symbol of the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death.
At the end of the Mass, the Constantinian knights gathered before the Most Holy Crucifix in the Constantinian Chapel to recite the prayer to the Crucifix, with a special intention for the deceased confrères.
The splendid 16th century wooden crucifix was restored by the Delegation of Tuscia and Sabina and exhibited again for worship on 8 April 2018, during the solemn inauguration of the Constantinian Chape. This took place in the presence of the Grand Master, HRH Prince Pedro of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria, Count of Caserta, Head of the Royal House of the Two Sicilies; of the Grand Prefect, HRH Prince Jaime of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Noto; and of the late President of the Constantinian Order’s Royal Commission for Italy, Duke Diego de Vargas Machuca, accompanied by the High Officers of the Royal Commission for Italy. This event has been memorialized by the artistic marble epigraph displayed in the oratory.
The Order’s Delegation of Tuscia and Sabina – since its establishment in 2002 by decree of the 31st Grand Master, the Infante of Spain HRH Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria, of happy memory – chose the church of the Santissima Trinità as the center of its spiritual life. It was built by the Augustinian Hermits in Gothic form in 1256 and rebuilt in 1745. In it the Blessed Virgin Mary is particularly honoured, invoked with the Title of Liberatrix due to the prodigious events of 28 May 1320 and for having liberated the People of Viterbo over the centuries during wars and disasters.
With the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Church celebrates a feast of great significance which commemorates the discovery and exaltation of the Cross on which Christ was crucified. This holiday is deeply rooted in Christian tradition and represents a moment of reflection and gratitude for the sacrifice of Jesus and the redemption brought by His Cross. The feast also takes on great significance for the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, since according to tradition the Holy Cross appeared in 312 A.D. to the Emperor Constantine before the battle at the Milvian Bridge, near the City, against Maxentius, making him victorious. And the primitive nucleus of the Constantinian Order would therefore have been formed by fifty Comites chosen for the personal guard of the Emperor, who had been entrusted with the imperial Labarum on which the Cross and the monogram of Christ shone.
