Saint Helena, Empress of the West

The Roman world then had as emperors Diocletian and Maximian, who bore the title of Augustus. In 293, they associated two emperors of an inferior rank, under the title of Caesars; Diocletian gave this title to Galerius, and Maximian to Constantius Chlorus. But one of the articles of this association was that Constantius would repudiate Helena, in order to marry Theodora, the stepdaughter of Maximian. Constantius died in 306, recommending to the army, as his su Constantin Roman emperor whose conversion ended Christian persecutions. ccessor, Constantine, the son of Helena. According to Eusebius, he declared that he believed in the true God. It is unknown at what time Helena became a Christian; but Saint Paulinus informs us that she contributed to the conversion of Constantine. This is the occasion upon which this prince publicly embraced the true religion. Maxentius, one of his colleagues in the empire, had declared war on him. Constantine marched against him, and camped opposite the M ilvi Rome Birthplace of Maximian. an Bridge (today Ponte-Mole), two miles from Rome. His army was inferior in number, but he implored the protection of the true God. His prayer finished, as he was advancing with a part of his troops, a little after noon, he saw in the sky a luminous cross with this inscription: "By this sign you shall conquer." The following night, he had a vision in which Jesus Christ ordered him to have this cross represented and to use it as a banner in combat. He obeyed, and had the famous ban ner kno Labarum Imperial banner bearing the monogram of Christ. wn as the Labarum made. Maxentius was defeated, and the pontoon bridge, which he had thrown over the Tiber, having broken while he was fleeing, he drowned in that river. The Senate had a triumphal arch erected in honor of Constantine, which can still be seen in Rome. A statue was also erected to him in one of the city's squares, where he was represented holding a cross in his hand instead of a lance, and he ordered the following inscription to be engraved on the pedestal: "By this salutary sign, the true mark of courage, I have delivered your city from the yoke of tyranny, and I have restored to the Senate and the people of Rome their ancient glory."

Helena shared in this triumph: her son loved and respected her; he would forget that he was master of the world, and seemed to have power only to anticipate her desires. He had her proclaimed Augusta in all his armies and in all the provinces of the empire, and wished for medals to be struck in her honor where she is called *Flavia Julia Helena*. Above all Flavia Julia Helena Mother of Emperor Constantine, who discovered the True Cross. , she shared with Constantine the glory of firmly establishing the reign of Christianity throughout the empire. Rufinus says, speaking of her zeal and her faith, that both were "incomparable"; and Saint Gregory the Great assures us that she kindled in the hearts of the Romans the fire with which she herself was ablaze. Forgetting her dignity, she loved to be lost among the people in the churches, and her greatest pleasure was to attend the divine office. Mistress of the treasures of the empire, she used them only to perform good works: all the places where she passed felt the effects of her liberality; she was the mother of all the unfortunate. She had churches built, which she enriched with ornaments and vases of great price.

After the Council of Nicaea (325), Constantine sent people to Jerusalem to discover the sepulchre where Our Lord was laid, and where He so gloriously triumphed over death. A mountain of rubble, which the pagans had piled upon it to entirely abolish its memory, was therefore removed; and this tomb, which had been buried for so long, seemed to resurrect itself, to bear, by its resurrection, a brilliant testimony to the resurrection of the Savior. At the news of this happy discovery, the emperor wrote to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, to erect over this sepulchre a church that would rival the most superb edifices of the empire in magnificence. Saint Helena, although eighty years old, took charge of the execution of this pious work. She had at the same time an extreme desire to discover the cross upon which the Savior of the world had died; and her prayers were answered, as croix sur laquelle le Sauveur du monde était mort The cross upon which Jesus Christ was crucified, the central object of the feast. we have reported in the history of the Invention of the Cross.

She visited the holy places with extraordinary devotion and adorned them with sumptuous buildings; she recalled several exiled persons and restored freedom to those who were held in prisons or worked in the mines; she gave gifts to the communities, and distributed considerable alms in all the places she honored with her presence. The churches also felt the effects of her liberality. Before leaving Palestine, she had the virgins consecrated to the Lord assembled, and gave them a meal where she served them with her own hands. Upon returning to Rome, she felt that her last hour was Rome Birthplace of Maximian. approaching. When she saw herself on the point of departing from this world, she spoke to her son about the means of governing the empire in a manner consistent with divine law. Constantine held her hand when she expired; before drawing her last breath, she gave her blessing to this dear son, in the year 328.

The funeral of Empress Helena was celebrated with the greatest pomp. A brick mausoleum in the shape of a round tower was built to contain her body, inside which was placed her tomb, which is a porphyry urn; and Constantine erected in the middle of the great square of Constantinople a cross with statue s, one of whic Constantinople City where the saint exercised his ministry and patriarchate. h represented him, and the other his blessed mother.

She is represented with the cross which she seems to display by holding it upright; this fact recalls that we owe to her the discovery of the True Cross. Thus, in certain countries, one turns to the pious empress to find lost things. — However, the ancients preferred to paint Saint Helena kneeling with joy before the Holy Cross, after they had succeeded in recognizing this sacred wood by the miracles it produced upon its discovery.

[APPENDIX: VENERATION AND RELICS.]

The relics of Saint Helena were carried, in 849, from Rome to the Abbey of Hautvilliers, in the diocese of Reims. Alman, a monk of the same abbey, provided in 1695 the history of this translation, which was carried out with great pomp. He speaks of several miracles through the intercession of Saint Helena; he adds that he was an eyewitness to some of them, and that he learned of the others from the very persons upon whom they had been performed.

The porphyry urn that contained the body of the Saint was transported to the cloister of Saint John Lateran in 1627, under the pontifi Urbain VIII Pope who beatified Josaphat. cate of Urban VIII. The Chapter of this patriarchal church presented it to Pope Pius VI, who placed it in the Vatican cabinet. The two lions in relief on the lid, and the men on foot and on horseback sculpted around the urn, do not suggest any superstition, but rather the decadence of art. These figures, today heavily mutilated, are indeed of a heavy and coarse sculpture.

The mausoleum of Saint Helena was on the Via Labicana, currently called the road to Palestrina, and more than half of it can still be seen, about a mile from Rome.

The ashes of the holy Empress are today enclosed in a large antique porphyry bathtub, in the church of Ara Coeli.

At the time of the d estruction of the église d'Ara Cœli Roman church housing the ashes of the empress. monasteries in France, some religious of the Abbey of Hautvilliers secured the relics of Saint Helena. They gave them in 1521 to the Confraternity of the Holy Sepulchre then established in Paris and attached to them all the acts that attested to their authenticity. These relics, after having been examined with care, as well as the acts that were attached to them, were placed in a gilded wooden reliquary and deposited in the lower chapel of the church of Saint-Nicaise in Paris, where they are still venerated. A few years later, M. Tresvaux, Vicar General of Paris, having been charged with extracting a portion for the diocese of Reims, at the request of the Archbishop, Mgr the Cardinal de Latil, examined these holy relics himself with great attention and recognized with the other assistants that there were only embalmed flesh covered in bandages; that no bones were discovered, and that the head was missing, as well as the arms and legs; which explains and confirms the assertion of Italian authors, who assure that the ashes of this Saint are under an altar of the church of Ara Coeli, in Rome.

Acta Sanctorum; Continuators of Godescard; D. Mabillon.