Flavia Julia Helena Augusta St. Helena

Helena, mother of Constantine the Great was credited with having discovered the fragments of the True Cross and the tomb in which Jesus was buried at Golgotha. Born in ca 250 in Drepanum Bithynia, (later renamed Helenopolis after her), Helena was the concubine or wife of Flavius Constantius and they had a son, Constantinus in ca. 272. In 293 Constantius was raised to the rank of Caesar (deputy emperor) by the emperor Maximian, and was forced to marry the emperor’s daughter, Theodora. When Constantine became emperor, Helena restored the Sessorium, an imperial palace outside of Rome and converted to Christianity. In 324, when Constantine became emperor of the whole empire, she was raised to the rank of Augusta and she took the name ‘Our Lady Flavia Augusta Helena’ or ‘ Our Lady Fl. Jul. Helena, Most Pious Augusta,’ and coinage was issued with her portrait. After palace intrigues, in ca. 327, Helena traveled to the Holy Land where she visited the churches built by her son and adorned them with monuments including Mamre, Bethlehem and Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives. She is associated with the legend that she found the True Cross, the rock of Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre. Helena died in Rome in ca. 330 where she was buried in a newly constructed basilica.

Author of biography: A. R. Birley
Includes bibliography? Yes

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