The Tale of the Cross Tree was a Christian legend originating back to at least the 10th Century AD.
[1] It is thought to have been a fable passed down by word of mouth, before being a written work by a Bulgarian priest, Jeremiah the Bogomil.
[3] Scholars are often wary before offering an interpretation of the story, however it is a majority consensus that the story is not meant to be taken literally and instead was tool for teaching people the basics of Christian religion in a format they understand.
Jeremiah, the first person to reportedly write down the tale, was a leader in a dualistic proto-protestant[4][5] sect at the time known as the Bogomils, who were said to have been in possession of many illegal apocryphal texts.
The text is similar in context to the Legend of the Holy Rood, but altogether distinct in story and tradition.