Saint Helena

Empress, Finder of the True Cross
(c. 250–330)

Saint Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine the Great, is one of the most important figures in the history of the Church, not for any theological or ascetic achievement but for the practical works of devotion and charity that marked her old age and that have left their mark on Christian worship to this day. She was born around 250, probably in Bithynia or possibly in Britain, of humble origins, and became the consort of the general Constantius Chlorus, by whom she bore the future Emperor Constantine. When Constantius was elevated to Caesar he put Helena aside in favour of a politically advantageous marriage, a repudiation she accepted with patience.

Her son Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312, which he attributed to the Christian God, led to the transformation of the empire and to Helena's own conversion to Christianity. Constantine honoured her with the title Augusta and gave her unlimited access to the imperial treasury. She used this wealth in three ways: she gave generously to the poor, she ransomed prisoners and exiles, and she built churches in the holy places of Palestine.

Around 326-328, at the age of nearly eighty, she undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where she supervised the excavation and identification of the sites of Christ's birth, death, and Resurrection. According to the tradition recorded by Eusebius, Socrates Scholasticus, and other early writers, she discovered during these excavations three crosses, one of which was identified as the True Cross on which Christ had died. She sent part of the relic to Rome and part to Constantinople, and the remainder was preserved in Jerusalem.

She built the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Eleona on the Mount of Olives, and contributed to the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. She died around 330, probably at Nicomedia. She is venerated as a saint in both East and West and her feast is celebrated on August 18th.