[1] Kitchin wrote "Lift High the Cross" in 1887, while he was the Church of England Dean of Winchester, for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

It has been suggested that the hymn was inspired by the story of Constantine the Great's conversion to Christianity after seeing a cross with "In hoc signo vinces" on it.

[1] "Lift High the Cross" was first published in the United States in 1974 by Donald Hustad in Hymns for the Living Church and since then has appeared in a number of different hymnals outside England.

In 1989 the hymn was included in The United Methodist Hymnal, but with a replacement first verse as the original was considered to be too militaristic.

[1] However, there has been a view from Christian scholars that the hymn is an endorsement of the Gospel of John's description of the Passion (remembered on Good Friday) and focuses on the cross as a source of agony rather than as a throne of Jesus.