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| Helena, Mother of the Emperor Constantine.--Her zeal in the Erection of the Holy Church.
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Chapter XVII.—Helena395
| 395 Flavia Julia Helena, the first wife of Constantius Chlorus, born
of obscure parents in Bithynia, †a.d.
328. “Stabulariam hanc primo fuisse adserunt, sic cognitam
Constantio seniori.” (Ambr. de obitu Theod. §42, p. 295.)
The story of her being the daughter of a British Prince, and born at
York or Colchester, is part of the belief current since William of
Malmesbury concerning Constantine’s British Origin, which is
probably due to two passages of uncertain interpretation in the
Panegyrici: (a) Max. et Const. iv., “liberavit ille (Constantius)
Britannias servitute, tu etiam nobiles, illic oriendo, fecisti.”
(b) Eum. Pan. Const. ix., “O fortunata et nunc omnibus beatior
terris Britannia, quæ Constantinum Cæsarem prima
vidisti.” But is this said of birth or accession? Cf. Gibbon,
chap. xiv. | , Mother of
the Emperor Constantine.—Her zeal in the Erection of the Holy
Church.
The bearer of these letters was no less illustrious a personage than
the mother of the emperor, even she who was glorious in her offspring,
whose piety was celebrated by all; she who brought forth that great
luminary and nurtured him in piety. She did not shrink from the fatigue
of the journey on account of her extreme old age, but undertook it a
little before her death, which occurred in her eightieth year396
| 396 Crispus and Fausta were put to death in 326. “If it was not
in order to seek expiation for her son’s crimes, and consolation
for her own sorrows, that Helen made her famous journey to the Holy
Land, it was immediately consequent upon them.” Stanley, Eastern
Church, p. 211. | .
When the empress beheld the place where the Saviour suffered, she
immediately ordered the idolatrous temple, which had been there
erected397
| 397 i.e. of Venus, said to have been erected by Hadrian to pollute a
spot hallowed by Christians. | , to be destroyed, and the very earth on
which it stood to be removed. When the tomb, which had been so long
concealed, was discovered, three crosses were seen buried near the
Lord’s sepulchre. All held it as certain that one of these
crosses was that of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the other two were
those of the thieves who were crucified with Him. Yet they could not
discern to which of the three the Body of the Lord had been brought
nigh, and which had received the outpouring of His precious Blood. But
the wise and holy Macarius, the president of the city, resolved this
question in the following manner. He caused a lady of rank, who had
been long suffering from disease, to be touched by each of the crosses,
with earnest prayer, and thus discerned the virtue residing in that of
the Saviour. For the instant this cross was brought near the lady, it
expelled the sore disease, and made her whole.
The mother of the emperor, on
learning the accomplishment of her desire, gave orders that a portion
of the nails should be inserted in the royal helmet, in order that the
head of her son might be preserved from the darts of his enemies398
| 398 The traditional which identifies the nail in Constantine’s
helmet with the iron band in the famous crown of Queen Theodolinda at
Monza dates from the sixteenth century. | . The other portion of the nails she
ordered to be formed into the bridle of his horse, not only to ensure
the safety of the emperor, but also to fulfil an ancient prophecy; for
long before Zechariah, the prophet, had predicted that “There
shall be upon the bridles of the horses Holiness unto the Lord
Almighty399
| 399 Zech. xiv. 20 ἔσται τὸ ἐπὶ
τὸν χαλινὸν
τοῦ ἵππου
῞Λγιον τῷ
Κυρί& 251· τῷ
παντοκράτορι. lxx. | .”
She had part of the cross of our
Saviour conveyed to the palace400
| 400 This
portion Socrates says (i. 17) was enclosed by Constantine in a statue
placed on a column of porphyry in his forum at
Constantinople. | . The rest was enclosed
in a covering of silver, and committed to the care of the bishop of the
city, whom she exhorted to preserve it carefully, in order that it
might be transmitted uninjured to posterity401
| 401 Carried
away from Jerusalem by Chosroes II. in 614, it was recovered, says the
legend, by Heraclius in 628. The feast of the “Exaltation of the
Cross” on Sept. 14th, combines the Commemoration of the Vision of
Constantine, the exaltation of the relic at Jerusalem, and its
triumphal entry after its exile under Chosroes. In later years it was,
as is well known, supposed to have a miraculous power of
self-multiplication, and such names as St. Cross at Winchester, Santa
Croce at Florence, and Vera Cruz in Mexico illustrate its cultus.
Paulinus of Nola, at the beginning of the fifth century, sending a
piece to Sulpicius Severus, says that though bits were frequently taken
from it, it grew no smaller (Ep. xxxi.). | . She
then sent everywhere for workmen and for materials, and caused the most
spacious and most magnificent churches to be erected. It is unnecessary
to describe their beauty and grandeur; for all the pious, if I may so
speak, hasten thither and behold the magnificence of the buildings402
| 402 May
3rd has been kept since the end of the eighth century in honour of the
“Invention of the Cross” and the Commemoration of the
ancient “Ellinmas” was retained in the reformed Anglican
Calendar. | .
This celebrated and admirable
empress performed another action worthy of being remembered. She
assembled all the women who had vowed perpetual virginity, and placing
them on couches, she herself fulfilled the duties of a handmaid,
serving them with food and handing them cups and pouring out wine, and
bringing a basin and pitcher, and pouring out water to wash their
hands.
After performing these and other
laudable actions, the empress returned to her son, and not long after,
she joyfully entered upon the other and a better life, after having
given her son much pious advice and her fervent parting blessing. After
her death, those honours were rendered to her memory which her stedfast
and zealous service to God deserved403
| 403 Tillemont puts her death in 328. Eusebius (V. Const. iii. 47),
says she was carried ἐπὶ
τὴν
βασιλεύουσαν
πόλιν, by which he
generally means Rome, but Socrates (i. 17) writes, εἰς τὴν
βασιλεύουσαν
νέαν Ρώμην, i.e. Constantinople. There is a chapel in her honour in
the church of the Ara Cœli at Rome, but her traditional
burial-place is a mile and a half beyond the Porta Maggiore, on the Via
Labicana, and thence came the porphyry sarcophagus called St.
Helena’s, which was placed by Pius VI. in the Hall of the Greek
Cross in the Vatican. | .E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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