When Constantius became co-Regent of the West in
292, he forsook Helena to marry Theodora, the step-daughter of the
Emperor Maximianus Herculius, his patron. But her son remained faithful
and loyal to his mother. Upon the death of Constantius, in 308,
Constantine, who succeeded him, summoned his mother to the imperial
court, conferred upon her the title of Augusta, ordered that all honor
should be paid her as the mother of the sovereign, and had coins struck
bearing her effigy.
Her son’s influence caused Helena to embrace
Christianity after his victory over Maxentius. From the time of her
conversion she led an earnestly Christian life and by her own influence
and generosity favored the wider spread of Christianity. She had many
churches built in the West where the imperial court resided.
Despite
her advanced age, in the year 324, at the age of sixty-three, she
undertook a journey to Palestine where she had resolved to bring to God,
the King of kings, the homage and tribute of her devotion. When she
“had shown due veneration to the footsteps of the Savior,” she had two
churches erected for the worship of God: one was raised in Bethlehem
near the Grotto of the Nativity, the other on the Mount of the
Ascension, near Jerusalem. She also embellished the sacred grotto with
rich ornaments.
Everywhere she went, Helena Augusta visited
churches with pious zeal and enriched them by her benevolence. Her
generosity embraced not only individuals but entire communities. The
poor and destitute were the special objects of her charity.
Her
memory in Rome is chiefly identified with the church of S. Croce in
Gerusalemme, built in honor of the true Cross. Also enshrined in the
basilica are the other relics of the Passion of Our Lord which the
Emperor’s mother had brought back to Rome from the Holy Land.
Constantine
was with his mother when she died, at the advanced age of eighty years
or thereabouts. This must have been about the year 330, for the last
coins which are known to have been stamped with her name bore this date.
Her body was brought to Constantinople and laid to rest in the imperial
vault of the church of the Apostles. In 849, her remains were
transferred to the Abbey of Hautvillers, in the French Archdiocese of
Reims.
Wednesday, August 18, 2021
St. Helena of Constantinople
Helena
was born about the middle of the third century on the Nicomedian Gulf.
The daughter of a humble innkeeper, she became the lawful wife of the
Roman general Constantius Chlorus and bore him a son, Constantine, in
the year 274.
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