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| Concerning Helena, the Mother of the Emperor; she visited Jerusalem, built Temples in that City, and performed other Godly Works: Her Death.
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Chapter II.—Concerning
Helena, the Mother of the Emperor; she visited Jerusalem, built Temples
in that City, and performed other Godly Works: Her Death.
About this period, the emperor,
having determined upon erecting a temple in honor of God, charged the
governors to see that the work was executed in the most magnificent and
costly manner possible. His mother Helena also erected two
temples,1143
| 1143Eus. V. C. iii. 41, 47; Soc. i. 17.
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the one at Bethlehem near the cave where Christ was born, the other on
ridges of the Mount of Olives, whence He was taken up to heaven. Many
other acts show her piety and religiousness, among which the following
is not the least remarkable: During her residence at Jerusalem, it is
related that she assembled the sacred virgins at a feast, ministered to
them at supper, presented them with food, poured water on their hands,
and performed other similar services customary to those who wait upon
guests. When she visited the cities of the East, she bestowed befitting
gifts on the churches in every town, enriched those individuals who had
been deprived of their possessions, supplied ungrudgingly the
necessities of the poor, and restored to liberty those who had been
long imprisoned, or condemned to exile or the mines. It seems to me
that so many holy actions demanded a recompense; and indeed, even in
this life, she was raised to the summit of magnificence and splendor;
she was proclaimed Augusta; her image was stamped on golden coins, and
she was invested by her son with authority over the imperial treasury
to give it according to her judgment. Her death, too, was glorious; for
when, at the age of eighty, she quitted this life, she left her son and
her descendants (like her of the race of Cæsar), masters of the
Roman world. And if there be any advantage in such
fame—forgetfulness did not conceal her though she was
dead—the coming age has the pledge of her perpetual memory; for
two cities are named after her, the one in Bithynia, and the other in
Palestine.1144
| 1144Helenopolis in Palestine not mentioned by Soc. i.
17, 18. Was the site of this city at the convent of Mt. Carmel or at
St. Helena’s towers, near the Scala Tyriorum? For the Bithynian
city, cf. Procopius, de Ædificiis v. 2; cf. also Philost.
ii. 12; Eus. Chronicon (Hieron.), under a.d. 331.
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Such is the history of Helena.
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