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You have come to the website of Holy Cross Parish, a Roman Catholic faith community in the North West of Edinburgh.
We invite you to visit our churches, to pause for prayer and quiet reflection and hope you find them inspiring.
Ave crux, spes unica
Ave crux, spes unica is a Latin pious expression or motto meaning “Hail to the Cross, our only hope.”
The origins are thought to be a stanza of an ancient Roman hymn to the True Cross of Christ, dating back to the sixth century, Vexilla Regis Prodeunt (or just Vexilla Regis). The ninth stanza is as follows:
O Crux ave, spes unica,
hoc Passionis tempore!
piis adauge gratiam,
reisque dele crimina.
which roughly translates:
O hail the cross our only hope
in this passiontide
grant increase of grace to believers
and remove the sins of the guilty.
O hail the cross our only hope
in this passiontide
grant increase of grace to believers
and remove the sins of the guilty.