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Research atlas for early Christianity. Claims are tagged attested, traditional, or disputed. Copyrighted full texts, including CCEL editions, are not included.

DeChurched Atlas

Bridge · Debates

eventattested

Heraclius returns the True Cross to Jerusalem

630

Place: jerusalem

31.779, 35.230 · On the map

Attested (Sebeos; Byzantine chronicles). The exact date (629 or 630) is debated.

Heraclius returns the True Cross to Jerusalem
Altarpiece of the Holy Cross (Retablo de la Santa Cruz); Church of Blesa, Aragon, Spain. This panel shows Saint Helena and, anachronistically, Byzantine Emperor Heraclius taking the True Cross to Jeru Public domainSource page

In 630 Heraclius entered Jerusalem in triumph and restored the Cross, at the height of a Christian imperial mood that expected the end of the age. That same year Muhammad took Mecca and led the Tabuk expedition toward the Byzantine frontier. The Syriac Alexander Legend, which glorifies Heraclius, dates from these years.

People named here

  • Heraclius
  • Modestus

Where scholars disagree

For

  • Stephen J. Shoemaker — The Apocalypse of Empire (2018): imperial end-time expectations form a shared background with early Islam (title cited; not re-checked this turn)

Against

    No names on this side.

    Links

    Sequence

    Context

    Sources

    DeChurched Atlas — Early Christianity as history, from every source