The True Cross is the name for physical remnants that, by the Church tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, traveled to the Holy Land in 326–28, where she discovered the hiding place of three crosses that were believed to be used at the crucifixion of Jesus and of two thieves, St. Dismas and Gestas, executed with him, and a miracle revealed which of the three was the True Cross. Fragments of the Cross were broken up, and the pieces were widely distributed; in 348, in one of his Catecheses, Cyril of Jerusalem remarked that the "whole earth is full of the relics of the Cross of Christ." Most of the very small relics of the True Cross in Europe came from Constantinople after the city was captured and sacked in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade. They were carved up by the present bishops and divided with other very precious relics among the knights, who, after their return to the homeland, donated them to churches and monasteries.
The authenticator of the relic – Blessed Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster O.S.B. (†1954) was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and professed member of the Benedictines who served as the Archbishop of Milan from 1929 until his death. He became known as Ildefonso as a Benedictine monk and served as an abbot prior to his elevation to the cardinalate. He led the Milanese archdiocese during World War II and was known to have supported fascism at first. His views changed to opposition after the annexation of Austria and the introduction of Italian Racial Laws prompting vocal criticisms of anti-Christian aspects of Benito Mussolini's regime. His beatification was celebrated on 12 May 1996 in Saint Peter's Square.