THE BASILICA NEAR THE LAST CHURCH, WHICH CONSTANTINE BUILT ON THE VERY SPOT WHERE THE LORD'S CROSS, WHICH HAD BEEN LOST UNDER RUINS, WAS DISCOVERED LONG AFTERWARDS, WHEN THE EARTH WAS DUG UP AGAIN.
(1) This rectangular stone construction, the Church on the site of Calvary, has adjoining it on the east the Basilica built with great magnificence by King Constantine. It is also called the "Martyrium" and people say it is built on the site where, by the grace of the Lord (after two hundred and thirty-three years had gone by) the Lord's Cross was discovered, hidden underground, together with the crosses of the two robbers. (2) And between these two churches comes that renowned place where the patriarch Abraham set up an altar, and arranged a pile of wood on it, and took up his drawn sword to sacrifice Isaac his son. Today there stands there the large wooden table on which the alms for the poor are offered by the people. (3) I questioned Arculf further, and he added, "There is an open court between the Anastasis (the round church we have described above) and the Basilica of Constantine. It stretches as far as the Church of Golgotha, and lamps are burning in it continuously, day and night".
(transl. Wilkinson)
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