ABSTRACT
Cynewulf’s poem is closest to a short Latin story called in most early manuscripts not Acta Cyriaci but simply Inventio Sanctae Crucis. There are a number of early manuscripts of this version which differ only in some minor details; one of them is an eighth-century St. Gall manuscript which probably came from an insular exemplar. The pattern of narrative and meaning established in this core section is one which is repeated in varied ways in the other, smaller sections, but nowhere in such a well developed state. In the opening section, Constantine’s experience begins in doubt, fear, and confusion, rises to heady excitement in battle, and reaches its Christian goal in his conversion and baptism. Motherhood has also always been an attribute of Church from early times down to the recent decretal Mater et Magistra. It was another of those figural meanings which was so common that St. Eucherius again felt the need only of a brief, shorth and explanation.
