Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/August 18 2007

Flavia Iulia Helena, also known as Saint Helena, Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople (ca. 250 – ca. 330) was consort of (though may have been married to) Constantius Chlorus, and the mother of Emperor Constantine I.

Many legends surround her. She was allegedly the daughter of an innkeeper. Her son Constantine renamed the city of Drepanum on the Gulf of Nicomedia as "Helenopolis" in her honour, which led to later interpretations that Drepanum was her birthplace. Constantius Chlorus divorced her (c.292) to marry the step-daughter of Maximian, Flavia. Maximiana Theodora]]. Helena's son, Constantine, became emperor of the Roman Empire, and following his elevation she became a presence at the imperial court, and received the title Augusta.

At the age of 80, Helena was said by some accounts to have been placed in charge of a mission to gather Christian relics, by her son Emperor Constantine I, who had recently declared Rome as a Christian city. Helena travelled the 1400-plus miles from Rome to Jerusalem. Hadrian, a previous emperor, had built a Temple to Venus over the site of the Jesus' tomb, near Calvary. According to legend, Helena entered the temple and chose a site to begin excavating, which led to the recovery of three different crosses. Refusing to be swayed by anything but solid proof, Helena, according to the story, touched pieces of the crosses to sick men; when a man touched by a cross suddenly recovered, Helena declared the cross with which he had touched to be the true cross. She also found the nails of the crucifixion. Helena left Jerusalem and the eastern provinces in ca. 327 to return to Rome, and after her journey to the East Helena died in the presence of her son Constantine.

Attributes: Cross

Patronage: archeologists; converts; difficult marriages; divorced people; empresses; Helena, Montana

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