The Holy Emperor Constantine and His Mother Helen
Constantine's parents were Emperor
Constantius Chlorus and the Empress Helena. Chlorus had other
children by another wife, but from Helena he had only Constantine.
After his coronation Constantine fought three great battles: one,
against Maxentius, a Roman tyrant; the second, against the Scythians
on the Danube and the third, against the Byzantines. Before the
battle with Maxentius, while Constantine was greatly concerned and in
doubt about his success, a brilliant Cross appeared to him in the sky
during the day, completely adorned with stars and written on the
Cross were these words: "By this Sign Conquer." Astonished,
the emperor ordered a large cross to be forged similar to the one
that appeared to him and that it be carried before the army. By the
power of the Cross he achieved a glorious victory over the enemy who
was superior in members. Maxentius was drowned in the Tiber river.
Immediately after that, Constantine issued the famous Edict of Milan
in the year 313 A.D. to halt the persecution of Christians. Defeating
the Byzantines, Constantine built a beautiful capital on the
Bosphorus which from that time on was called Constantinople. Before
that, however, Constantine succumbed to the dreaded disease of
leprosy. As a cure, the pagan priests and physicians counseled him to
bathe in the blood of slaughtered children. However, he rejected
that. Then the Apostles Peter and Paul appeared to him and told him
to seek out Bishop Sylvester who will cure him of this dreaded
disease. The bishop instructed him in the Christian Faith, baptized
him and the disease of leprosy vanished from the emperor's body. When
a discord began in the Church because of the mutinous heretic Arius,
the emperor convened the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, 325.
A.D., where the heresy was condemned and Orthodoxy confirmed. St.
Helena, the pious mother of the emperor, was very zealous for the
Faith of Christ. She visited Jerusalem, discovered the Honorable
Cross of the Lord, built the Church of the Resurrection on Golgotha
and many other churches throughout the Holy Land. This holy woman
presented herself to the Lord in her eightieth year in 327 A.D.
Emperor Constantine outlived his mother by ten years. He died in
Nicomedia in his sixty-fifth year in 337 A.D. His body was interred
in the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Constantinople.
© Copyright, Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Western America
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