The Lives of the Saints through 100 Masterpieces

Helena

The Lives of the Saints 114 Helena August 18 Helena was concubine to the Roman general Flavius Constantinus, but when he became emperor, under the name of Constantius Chlorus , he repudiated her in order to enter into a more advantageous union. However, Helena had given him a son who in his turn also became emperor, under the name of Constantine, which resulted in her being made the dowager empress. Having converted late in life to Christianity (while her son, who had legalized it, remained only a sympathizer), Helena left on pilgrimage to Jerusalem at age 80 to conduct there the first planned archaeological expedition in history. At her behest, a descendant of Zaccheus—at whose home Christ had spent an evening—revealed to her the location of Golgotha. She ordered the razing of the temple to Venus, which in the meantime had been built on the site; under its foundation, tradition holds, she found nails and three crosses. In order to tell the gibbet of Christ apart from those of the two thieves, a funeral procession was stopped, and the dead body touched by all three. One cross alone had the power to bring the corpse back to life, thus clearly identifying which one had borne Jesus. This “finding of the cross” quickly generated enormous interest— some 50 years later, Saint Ambrose would relate the event in his sermons . Helena had a church built upon Golgotha to house the holy relics, initiating, as well, the construction of the churches of the Nativity and the Holy Sepulcher. A piece of the cross was given to Constantinople while another portion was sent to Rome and kept at the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem. It is the scene of the discovery of the cross that has most inspired artists throughout the ages. However, at times Helena is simply represented in her imperial majesty, at the side of her son Constantine. Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734) The Finding of the Cross by Saint Helen Residenzgalerie, Salzburg ...