Saints Constantine and Helen – Feast Day May 21
Saints Constantine and Helen – Feast Day May 21
Saints Constantine and Helen share a feast day which is celebrated on the 21st of May.
Saint Helen
Helena of Constantinople – Cima da Conegliano, Giovanni Battista: Saint Helena 1495 – National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC, United States).
Saint Helen of Constantinople c. 250-328 AD, said to have been a Christian from birth and thought to have been born in Depranum (modern Trapani) in Bithynia, was the mother of Roman emperor Constantine I, (c. 272 – 337).
After Helen was divorced by her husband, Constantius I Chlorus, father of Constantine I, she is not mentioned again in history until 306 AD, the year Constantine became emperor, when she went to live with him in Byzantium, which he had made his new capital and renamed Constantinople after himself (modern day Istanbul).
After Constantine had his son Crispus and wife, Fausta, executed after accusations of alleged immoral crimes, Helen made her famous pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Legend has it that whilst in Jerusalem Helen found Christ’s true cross and built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher.
Helen’s Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
Church of the Holy Sepulcher – Jerusalem
In Jerusalem, the story goes that Helen found three crosses, one of which was the cross of Christ along with the nails. (The cross of Christ is a subject of controversy within the church).
Apparently three sick people touched the crosses, one touched the first cross but nothing happened, again, when the second person touched the second cross, nothing, however, when the third person touched the cross of Christ, he was healed as if by a miracle.
Here, on the spot where this miraculous cross was discovered, Helen is said to have established the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Helen is also considered as the founder of the Church of the Nativity.
The Death of Helen
Sarcophagus of Saint Helen – Museo Pio-Clementino – Vatican
Helen died at the age of 80 in around 328 AD and was buried in the newly built basilica on Via Labicana in Rome.
Today her sarcophagus is in the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican.
By the time of her death she was already associated with many monuments in Rome, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, and was also depicted on many coins.
Relics of Saint Helen
Trier Cathedral, Germany – the Skull of Saint Helen – mother of Constantine the Great.
What is said to be the skull of Helen is displayed in the Cathedral of Trier, Germany.
There are also relics at the basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli in Rome, the Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles in Paris, and at the Abbaye Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers.
Helen is the patron saint of archaeologists, converts, difficult marriages, divorced people, empresses, Saint Helena Island and new discoveries.
Saint Constantine
Emperor Constantine, Parts of Giant Marble Statue in Capitoline Museums, Rome
Constantine I, or Constantine the Great, is known for his conversion to Christianity in 312 CE and the ensuing Christianization of the Roman Empire.
The Conversion of Constantine
The Emblem of Christ Appearing to Constantine – Constantine’s conversion – painting by Peter Paul Rubens, 1622 – Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Constantine is said to have become a Christian when, in 312 AD, before preparing for the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in Rome, he is said to have had a vision of the words “By this shalt thou conquer” on a pillar forming a cross in sky beneath the sun.
The following night, Christ appeared before him in a dream, bestowing on him the power of the Cross.
The next morning Constantine ordered a banner of victory be made, depicting the cross and the name of Jesus Christ.
Constantine and his men went on to win the battle and entered Rome in triumph.
Council of Nicaea
Council of Nicaea in 325, depicted in a Byzantine fresco in the basilica of St. Nicholas in Demre, Turkey.
In 325 Constantine called the first Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, where the Creed that forms the belief system of Christians was created.
Death and Relics of Constantine
The Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople, 330 – While very little remains, it still has great historical and architectural importance – An image from a Vatican Codex Vat.gr.1162 (12th century) believed to be a representation of the Church of the Holy Apostles
In 324, in the ancient city of Byzantium, Constantine laid the foundations of the new capital of his empire and on May 11, 330, named it after himself, Constantinople.
Constantine died on May 21st in 33, at the age of sixty five; his relics were transferred to Constantinople where they were buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles.
