SAINT HELENA

Sts. Matthew & Mark, Barrington, R. I.

Friday, May 22, 2026

 

 

St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine the Great, was born in Asia Minor in about the year 250. She was of humble origins. Saint Ambrose describes her as having started out as an innkeeper or “stable maid.” 

 

She eventually married Constantius Chlorus, and their son Constantine was born sometime around 274. In 293, Constantius became one of the two co-Emperors who each ruled half of the Roman Empire.

 

Constantius then divorced Helena in 294 to marry a woman of noble rank. Helena and Constantine were sent to the court of the other emperor, Diocletian. Helena never remarried and remained close to her son for the rest of her life. 

 

Following the death of Constantius in 306, Constantine was proclaimed Emperor of the Western half of the Roman Empire. He brought his mother back to public life, honoring her with the imperial title “Augusta.” As a devout Christian, Helena encouraged Constantine to end the persecution of the Church, and he did so with the Edict of Milan in 313. Constantine subsequently became Emperor of both halves of the Empire in 324.

 

In 326, Constantine sent Helena on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There, she supervised the construction of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. She is also credited with ordering the construction of the chapel at the site of the Burning Bush at Mount Sinai, later enclosed by Saint Catherine’s Monastery.

 

After the Bar Kokhba revolt 190 years earlier, the Emperor Hadrian built a Temple of Venus on the site traditionally identified as Golgotha and the Holy Sepulcher. Helena now ordered the temple demolished. Sure enough, the ensuing excavations uncovered a rocky hill with a burial chamber carved into a nearby cave. Then, paydirt: relics of the crucifixion were found at the bottom of a cistern, including three crosses, the placard bearing the inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” and assorted nails. 

 

To determine which cross was the true cross on which Jesus had died, Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem had a woman near death brought to touch the three crosses. Nothing happened when she touched the first two, but when she touched the third, she suddenly recovered. Constantine subsequently had the Church of the Holy Sepulcher built on the site. 

 

In 327, Helena returned to Rome, bringing with her portions of the True Cross and other relics, which were stored in her palace’s private chapel. The palace was later converted into the Basilica of the Holy Cross, where most of the relics remain to this day. Part of the true cross was later taken to Saint Peter’s Basilica and enclosed in a reliquary near the statue of Saint Helena holding the Cross, which stands in the crossing under the great dome.

 

(By the way: if you’ve heard the old canard that all the supposed relics of the True Cross in churches and shrines throughout the world would be enough to build a sailing ship, don’t believe it! That is anti-Church propaganda. Scientific studies conducted during the twentieth century showed that their combined volume amounts to only about half a cross. Virtually all properly certified relics of the True Cross can be shown to have come from the Cross that Helena unearthed in Jerusalem in 326. Whether that was the actual Cross on which our Lord died is, of course, a question for faith rather than history.) 

 

In any case, having completed her mission, Helena died around 330, with her son Constantine at her side. Fittingly enough, she is considered the patron saint of archeologists. The work of biblical archeology continues in the Holy Land to this day. I was just reading the other day about new discoveries at Bethsaida, the fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee that was the hometown of the apostles Peter, Andrew, and Philip. So, on today’s feast, it is perhaps fitting to pray for biblical archeologists and their ongoing work to illuminate the New Testament world for us.