Empress Helena

Empress Helena

Born around 248 into an aristocratic family, she was the wife of Constantine I Chlorus, Constantine's father. He later divorced her in order to remarry for political reasons. Once his son became Emperor in 306, she converted to Christianity and acted as an advisor for him. She had a very good relationship with Crispus, his first nephew, whom Constantine made governor of Gaul. 

However, as I mentioned in a previous blog, Crispus and his step-mother were sentenced to death by Constantine in 326, for reasons that remain unknown. After this tragedy, which deeply affected Empress Helena, she decided to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where she ordered the construction of a series of churches in both Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, one of the churches ordered by Helena

And this is where the story becomes interesting. During the building of a church on Golgotha, the hill where Jesus was crucified, under a former temple of Venus, a Roman goddess, the Christ's Cross was discovered. As a result, Emperor Constantine ordered the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Empress Helena holding the True Cross of Jesus

Of course, we don't know for sure if Helena really found the True Cross or it was just propaganda to boost the popularity of Constantine and Christianity throughout the empire. Keep in mind that, at this point, the majority of the Roman citizens still worshiped their own pagan gods, and the Christian communities represented a tiny proportion of the population.