August 18 + Saint Helena

Helena was a woman of humble means from Asia Minor. She married a Roman army officer who would become the future Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus, and their son Constantine was born in 272.

Constantius, rising in the ranks of the Roman Empire, divorced Helena in order to marry Emperor Maximian’s daughter for the sake of political gain. When their son Constantine became Roman Emperor in place of his father, Helena was given the imperial title “Augusta” and was treated like royalty.

Helena converted to Christianity later in life. After her son legalized Christianity, she was fervent in spreading the faith and using her royal position and influence to build churches across the Empire.

When Helena was in her 80’s, she made a decision that would transform her life. She organized a small group to travel to the Holy Land to find the actual Cross on which Jesus was crucified. She knew that this undiscovered relic was the foundation and the life-giving heart of the Christian faith. Helena first received the inspiration for this holy mission in a dream.

Once in Jerusalem, Helena found that pagan temples were built on top of all the holy places from Jesus’ life, which prevented Christians from worshiping there. Although she faced many challenges in her holy pursuit, Helena learned that the Cross was believed to be buried underneath the spot where the Temple of Venus stood.

She had the pagan temple demolished and carefully excavated, and there discovered Jesus’ tomb (the Holy Sepulchre), three crosses, a board with Pilate’s inscription, and the nails which had pierced Jesus’ Sacred Body.

Unsure which of the three crosses was the one on which Jesus was crucified, the local bishop, St. Macarius, had all three crosses touched to the corpse of a dead man as well as to the body of a woman with an incurable illness. When one of the crosses brought the dead man to life and instantly cured the sick woman, they knew they had discovered the life-giving Cross of Jesus. The year was 326 A.D.

The Cross of Christ was elevated and celebrated, and Christians flocked to venerate it. Helena sent pieces of the True Cross back to Rome and Constantinople, and had a large church built to mark the site as the actual location of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, known today as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

While in Jerusalem, Helena visited all the holy places of Jesus’ life and built many churches over their locations, including in Bethlehem (the Church of the Nativity), the Mount of Olives (the Church of the Pater Noster), and the Garden of Gethsemane. Without her work, the memory of those sacred sites would have been lost.

Helena had a true love and zeal for Christ and His Cross. She teaches us that if we have true love for Christ, then it must culminate in a desire for His Cross. May her feast encourage us to desire to embrace the life-giving Cross as she did, because through it the victory over sin and death has been won.