Helena (c. 255-330) 21st May

This column does not generally deal in canonized saints. But Helena, who has been downgraded to italics in the Anglican calendar, is still important in Greece, where her festival is combined with that of her son, Constantine the Great. And in our village, we know a lot of people called Costas or Eleni.

Few certain facts about Helena's life are recorded. She was born in Bithynia in Asia Minor, supposedly a barmaid or innkeeper, and she may (or more likely may not) have married Constantine's father, Constantius I Chlorus, a general in the Roman army who in due course acquired a more politically correct wife, and became one of the two joint emperors. He seems to have shown some interest in monotheism, and Helena at an uncertain date became a devout Christian.

Constantine, a soldier like his father, was proclaimed as successor on his father's death at York in 306. In the subsequent struggles for power, he famously but ambiguously declared for Christianity before the battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, and eventually became sole Emperor in 323, appointing his mother Dowager Empress.

In about 326, Helena went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. As well as unearthing the remains of the True Cross, she allegedly identified and excavated almost every spot of relevance to the Gospel story, 'with miraculous aid seldom now vouchsafed to archaeologists,' as Stanley Runciman put it. But her success had a profound effect on public opinion throughout the empire, and inspired a torrent of pilgrimages. She was also responsible for the foundation of the churches of the Holy Sepulchre and the Ascension. She died aged about eighty.

Charles Plouviez