Titulus Crucis

Titulus Crucis (Latin for "Title of the Cross") is a piece of wood claimed in to be a relic of the True Cross, kept in the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. Christian tradition holds that the relic is part of the cross's titulus (inscription). It is generally either ignored by scholars or considered to be a medieval forgery.

The board is made of walnut wood, 25 × 14 cm in size, 2.6 cm thick and has a weight of 687 g. It is inscribed on one side with three lines, of which the first one is mostly destroyed. The second line is written in Greek letters and reversed script, the third in Latin letters, also with reversed script.

The Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was built about AD 325 by Saint Helena (the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great) after her pilgrimage to the Holy Land, during which she reportedly located the True Cross and many other relics which she gave to the new church. The Titulus Crucis is alleged to have been among these relics. At the time of Egeria's pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 383 a "title" (titulus) was shown as one of the relics at Jerusalem : "A silver-gilt casket is brought in which is the holy wood of the Cross. The casket is opened and (the wood) is taken out, and both the wood of the Cross and the title are placed upon the table." The 6th-century pilgrim Antoninus of Piacenza describes a titulus in Jerusalem and its inscription: it said Hic est rex Iudaeorum ("Here is the king of the Jews"), while the one kept in Rome shows Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum ("Jesus the Nazarene king of the Jews"). He also described the wood as nut.

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