Helena, Saint

born с 248, Drepanon?, Bithynia, Asia Minor

died с 328, Nicomedia; Western feast day Aug. 18; Eastern feast day [with Constantine] May 21

Roman empress and mother of Constantine I.

She was the wife of Constantius I (Constantius Chlorus) before he became caesar (subemperor), and she bore Constantine before she was renounced for political reasons. She became a Christian under her son's influence. Implicated in the execution of her daughter-in-law (326), she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and had churches built in Jerusalem and Bethlehem on the sites of the Ascension and the Nativity. By the late 4th century she was reputed to have found Christ's cross.

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▪ Roman empress

also called  Helen  

born c. 248, Drepanon?, Bithynia, Asia Minor

died c. 328, Nicomedia; Western feast day August 18; Eastern feast day [with Constantine] May 21

 Roman empress who was the reputed discoverer of Christ's cross.

      Helena was married to the Roman emperor Constantius I Chlorus (Constantius I), who renounced her for political reasons. When her son Constantine I the Great (Constantine I) became emperor at York (306), he made her empress dowager, and under his influence she later became a Christian. She was devoted to her eldest grandson, Crispus Caesar (Crispus), whom Constantine made titular ruler of Gaul, but a mysterious embroilment in the imperial family culminated with the execution of Crispus and Fausta, Constantine's second wife and Crispus's stepmother. Thereafter, the story became current that Fausta had accused Crispus of attempting to seduce her—hence Crispus's execution (326). Fausta, in turn, was denounced by the grief-stricken Helena and was executed shortly afterward. Immediately after the double tragedy Helena made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She caused churches to be built on the reputed sites of the Nativity and of the Ascension.

      Before 337 it was claimed in Jerusalem that Christ's cross had been found during the building of Constantine's church on Golgotha. Later in the century Helena was credited with the discovery. Many subsequent legends developed, and the story of the “invention,” or the finding of the cross, enhanced by romances and confusions with other Helens, became a favourite throughout Christendom. The story was told again in Cynewulf's 9th-century poem Elene.

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