Helena, mother of Constantine I
Flavia Julia Helena, also known as Helena of Constantinople and in Christianity as Saint Helena, was a Greek Augusta of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great as well as a Canonized saint in both Catholic and Orthodox Churches for her pivotal role in the spread of Christianity. She was born in the lower classes traditionally in the city of Drepanon, Bithynia, in Asia Minor, which was renamed Helenopolis.
Helena ranks as an important figure in the history of Christianity. In her final years, she made a religious tour of Syria Palaestina and Jerusalem, during which ancient tradition claims that she discovered the True Cross. The Eastern Orthodox Church, Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Anglican Communion, and the Lutheran Church revere her as a saint.
File:Trier fresco, 310 CE.jpg|thumb|A fresco from Trier, Germany, possibly depicting Helena, c. 310
Early life
Though Helena's birthplace is not known with certainty, Helenopolis, then Drepanon, in Bithynia, following Procopius, is the one supported by most secondary sources, and by far the most likely candidate for her place of origin. If so, it would make her a Greek speaker or possibly bilingual. Her name is attested on coins as Flavia Helena, Flavia Julia Helena and sometimes Aelena. Joseph Vogt suggested that the name Helena was typical for the Greek-speaking part of the Roman Empire and that therefore her place of origin should be looked for in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. No Greek inscriptions have been attested dedicated to Helena during her lifetime, which may be because her fame was not as great in the Greek East as in the Latin West where she resided as empress. The 6th-century historian Procopius is the earliest authority for the statement that Helena was a native of Drepanon, in the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor. The name Helena appears in all areas of the Empire, but is not epigraphically attested in inscriptions of Bithynia and it was also common in Latin-speaking areas. Procopius lived much later than the era he was describing and his description may have been actually intended as an etymological explanation about the toponym Helenopolis. On the other hand, her son Constantine renamed the city "Helenopolis" after her death around AD 330, which supports the belief that the city was indeed her birthplace. The historian Cyril Mango has argued that Helenopolis was refounded to strengthen the communication network around Constantine's new capital in Constantinople, and was renamed simply to honor Helena, not to necessarily mark her birthplace. However, according to historian Julia Hillner, Constantine's nephew, Emperor Julian, granting city status to a nearby village in Bithynia and naming it Basilinopolis in honor of his own mother, Basilina, who was undoubtedly from Bithynia, provides solid evidence that the renaming to Helenopolis marked Helena's birthplace. Constantine named two other locations after Helena: Helenopolis in Palestine, apparently due to Helena's renowned pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and the province of Helenopontus in the Pontus, which was in the same region as Drepanon, but further to the east. Two other locations have been named after Helena: a vicus Helena in northern France, and an oppidum Helena in the Pyrenees, which took its name due to Emperor Constans, a grandson of Helena, being murdered there, and corresponded with a prophecy which predicted that Constans would die in the arms of his grandmother. Other suggestions about her birthplace, without strong documentation, are Naissus, Caphar or Edessa, and Trier.The bishop and historian Eusebius of Caesarea states that Helena was about 80 on her return from Palestine. Since that journey has been dated to 326–28, she was probably born around 246 to 249. Information about her social background universally suggests that she came from the lower classes. Fourth-century sources, following Eutropius' Breviarium, record that she came from a humble background. Bishop Ambrose of Milan, writing in the late 4th century was the first to call her a stabularia, a term translated as "stable-maid" or "inn-keeper". He makes this comment a virtue, calling Helena a bona stabularia, a "good stable-maid", probably to contrast her with the general suggestion of sexual laxness considered typical of that group. Other sources, especially those written after Constantine's proclamation as emperor, gloss over or ignore her background. Some ancient historians, "pagan and therefore hostile to the family... suggested that as a girl she had been one of the supplementary amenities of her father's establishment, regularly available to his clients at a small extra charge."
Both Geoffrey of Monmouth and Henry of Huntingdon promoted a popular tradition that Helena was a British princess and the daughter of "Old King Cole" from the area of Colchester. This led to the later dedication of 135 churches in England to her, many in around the area of Yorkshire, and revived as a suggestion in the 20th century in the novel by Evelyn Waugh.
Marriage to Constantius
It is unknown where she first met Constantius. The historian Timothy Barnes has suggested that Constantius, while serving under Emperor Aurelian, could have met her while stationed in Asia Minor for the campaign against Zenobia. A legend has it that upon meeting they were wearing identical silver bracelets; Constantius saw her as his divinely-sent soulmate. Barnes calls attention to an epitaph at Nicomedia of one of Aurelian's protectors, which could indicate the emperor's presence in the Bithynian region soon after AD 270. The precise legal nature of the relationship between Helena and Constantius is also unknown. The sources are equivocal on the point, sometimes calling Helena Constantius' "wife", and sometimes, following the dismissive propaganda of Constantine's rival Maxentius, calling her his "concubine". Jerome, perhaps confused by the vague terminology of his own sources, manages to do both.Some scholars, such as the historian Jan Drijvers, assert that Constantius and Helena were joined in a common-law marriage, a cohabitation recognized in fact but not in law. Others, like Timothy Barnes, assert that Constantius and Helena were joined in an official marriage, on the grounds that the sources claiming an official marriage are more reliable.
Helena gave birth to the future emperor Constantine I on 27 February of an uncertain year soon after 270. At the time, she was in Naissus. In order to obtain a wife more consonant with his rising status, Constantius divorced Helena some time before 289, when he married Theodora, Maximian's daughter under his command. The narrative sources date the marriage to 293, when Constantius was appointed caesar of Maximian, but the Latin panegyric of 289 refers to the new couple as already married. Helena and her son were dispatched to the court of Diocletian at Nicomedia, where Constantine grew to be a member of the inner circle. Helena never remarried and lived for a time in obscurity, though close to her only son, who had a deep regard and affection for her.
After Constantine's ascension to the throne
Constantine was proclaimed augustus in 306 by Constantius' troops after the latter had died, and following his elevation his mother was brought back to the public life in 312, returning to the imperial court. She appears in the Eagle Cameo portraying Constantine's family, probably commemorating the birth of Constantine's son Constantine II in the summer of 316.She lived in the Horti Spei Veteris in Rome which she converted into an even more luxurious palace.
According to Eusebius, Helena was converted to Christianity by Constantine.
She was first given the title of nobilissima femina. He later appointed her as Augusta in 324, following the defeat of his rival Licinius. According to Eusebius, he gave her unlimited access to the imperial treasury.
Pilgrimage and relic discoveries
In AD 326–328 Helena undertook a trip to Palestine. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, who records the details of her pilgrimage to Palestine and other eastern provinces, and Socrates Scholasticus, she was responsible for the construction or beautification of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and the Church of Eleona on the Mount of Olives; sites of Christ's birth and ascension, respectively. Local founding legend attributes to Helena's orders the construction of a church in Egypt to identify the Burning Bush of Sinai. The chapel at Saint Catherine's Monastery—often referred to as the Chapel of Saint Helen—is dated to the year 330. However, a number of modern scholars believe this trip also had a political purpose, in addition to pilgrimage. Scholars believe that Eusebius' account led to later legends connecting her with the True Cross.The True Cross and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
She is most famous for the discovery of the True Cross, for which she was not responsible. Emperor Hadrian had built during the 130s a temple to Venus over the supposed site of Jesus' tomb near Calvary, and renamed the city Aelia Capitolina. Accounts differ concerning whether the temple was dedicated to Venus or Jupiter. According to Eusebius, Constantine destroyed the temple of Venus and discovered the burial site of Jesus in the spot. Later legends had Helena destroying the temple.According to tradition, Helena ordered the temple torn down and, according to the legend that arose at the end of the 4th century, chose a site to begin excavating, which led to the recovery of three different crosses. The legend is recounted in Ambrose, On the Death of Theodosius and at length in Rufinus' chapters appended to his translation into Latin of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, the main body of which does not mention the event. Then, Rufinus relates, the empress refused to be swayed by anything short of solid proof and performed a test. Possibly through Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem, she had a woman who was near death brought from the city. When the woman touched the first and second crosses, her condition did not change, but when she touched the third and final cross she suddenly recovered, and Helena declared the cross with which the woman had been touched to be the True Cross.
On the site of discovery, Constantine ordered the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Churches were also built on other sites detected by Helena.
The "Letter From Constantine to Macarius of Jerusalem", as presented in Eusebius' Life of Constantine, states:
Sozomen and Theodoret claim that Helena also found the nails of the crucifixion. To use their miraculous power to aid her son, Helena allegedly had one placed in Constantine's helmet, and another in the bridle of his horse. According to one tradition, Helena acquired the Holy Tunic on her trip to Jerusalem and sent it to Trier.