The History of the Adoratio Crucis in the Roman Rite

This article traces the historical development of the Adoratio Crucis (Adoration of the Cross) on Good Friday, from its earliest attestation as an act of individual devotion to the relic of the True Cross in fourth-century Jerusalem (as recorded by the pilgrim Egeria), through its adaptation into the Roman liturgy via the Ordines Romani, the Old Gelasian Sacramentary, and the medieval Pontificals, to its codification in the Missale Romanum of Trent and its reform in 1955 and after Vatican II. The study highlights recurring themes -- the shift from relic veneration to symbolic veneration of an ordinary cross, the tension between suburbicarian and Gelasian traditions regarding Communion, and the movement from individual devotion to communal public worship -- arguing that the rite's history reflects a rich confluence of Eastern, Roman, Gallican, and Germanic liturgical cultures rather than a single unbroken Roman tradition.