Big Procession of Priests and Commoners
A procession of priests and common people,
all the professions represented,
parades through the streets, plazas, and gates,
of the famous city of Antioch.
At the beginning of the impressive grand
procession, a beautiful ephebe, dressed in white
holds up in his uplifted hands the Cross,
our strength and our hope, the Holy Cross.
The pagans, who were so arrogant in the past,
now shyly, timidly, and hastily
walk away from the procession.
Far away from us, far away let them stay
(so long as they do not renounce their error).
The Holy Cross advances. It brings
consolation and joy to every neighborhood
where Christians live in reverence and joy:
the devout come out from the doors of their houses
and in full exultation bow before it,
the power, the salvation of the universe, the Cross.
It is an annual Christian holiday.
But today it is celebrated, look, more elaborately.
At last, the state has been delivered.
The vilest, the detestable
Julian is no longer a king.
Let us pray for the most pious Jovian.
Manolis Aligizakis 