There it remained for many years, until the Jews wished to make a pool, where the priests might wash the beasts, to purify them, previous to sacrificing them, and, unknowingly, they dug over the burial-place of the Holy Cross.31 This imparted such a virtue to the water of that pool, which was called Bethesda, that the sick were healed thereat, and an angel at times descended from heaven, and stirred the waters, and then whoever could get first into the waters was straightway healed of any infirmity he might have.32
We now come to the Crucifixion, and there was a lack of wood to make Christ’s cross—when, suddenly, from the depths of Bethesda, leaped up the tree of the Cross, and floated gently to land. One ran to the High Priest,33 and told him of the timely find of suitable wood, and he at once gave orders for it to be fashioned into a Cross.34 Then comes the mournful procession to Calvary, with our Saviour fainting under the weight of the Cross, and Simon the Cyrenean is pressed into the service to help Jesus.35 And then the Crucifixion.36