Under This Sign You Shall Conquer* (I)

Constantine climbed to a high point and considered with perplexity the superiority of his adversaries when, under the midday sun, an immense cross made of stars appeared in the sky. These words were written in Greek around the cross: "Under this sign you shall conquer." The following night, Christ Himself appeared to the emperor and ordered him to make a cross similar to the one that he had seen in his vision and to place it like a standard at the head of his army. This sign of victory then sparkled again in the sky, and Constantine believed with all his heart that Jesus Christ was the only true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, who gives victory to kings and guides all things towards the end that He willed before the beginning of time. At sunrise, he had a large silver cross made and gave orders to have it placed at the head of his troops, instead of the imperial eagles, as a "sign of victory over death and a trophy of immortality." Consequently, Constantine began studying Christian doctrine and devoted himself assiduously to reading the Holy Bible. At the time of the decisive battle of Milvius Bridge on October 28, 312, the Cross gained the victory. His enemy Maxence, while fleeing, prepared to fight back from a pontoon bridge, which he had built, but the bridge collapsed under the weight and the tyrant was thrown into the sea to perish with all his officers, just like Pharaoh and his riders were engulfed by the Red Sea (cf. Ex 15). Giving thanks to God for this victory, which inaugurated a new era of history, Constantine made a triumphal entry into Rome, where the people greeted him as their liberator, savior and benefactor. He had crosses placed on the principal monuments of the city and a statue of the emperor holding the Cross in his hand was erected at once, as signs of victory and the emblem of the authority he had received from Christ.