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Paper short abstract

The wood of the Holy Cross, at once object and vegetal substance, functions as a medium of redemption from original sin. The vegetal essence of wood absorbs the sacred values of the cruciform symbol, values that it amplifies when the cross or the church is fashioned from a single piece of wood.

Paper long abstract

Once upon a time there was a great man, / And he took a great axe, / And he went to the great forest, / And he cut a great tree, / And he built a great church. In Romanian popular culture, the motif of the church made from a single piece of wood is attested. Such is the case of the “One wood” church, from Vâlcea County, which, according to local tradition, was founded in the sixteenth century from the timber of a single oak. Our own field research has revealed further instances of this motif, such as the description of a wooden roadside cross from Argeș County. The motif may be situated within a broader constellation of symbolic structures, particularly those pertaining to the “sacred tree” and to the belief in the inherent capacity of certain vegetal substances to become invested with sacrality. On one level, legends of the type “The Cross of Jesus” record the divine injunction given to Adam’s youngest son: to plant a root above his father’s head. From this root grows the tree from which Noah’s Ark is built—an archetypal realization of the “one wood” motif—and from which the Cross of the Crucifixion is also fashioned. Thus, is fulfilled the divine promise that Adam, and humanity as a whole, would be redeemed from sin through the wood of the Holy Cross. On another level, numerous Romanian legends establish associations between specific tree species (fir, maple, willow) and the sacred dimension.