The Pious Queen, Saint Helena
The Pious Queen, Saint Helena
We commemorate her on the Feast of the Cross.
The Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates her on the 9th of Bashans, the day of her departure in the year 327 A.D. It also commemorates her on the 17th of Thout (27 September) on the Feast of the Cross. She is also remembered in the Synaxarium during the prayers of the Psalmodia, seeking her prayers together with those of her son, King Constantine… Our Greek Orthodox brethren build churches in her name, and celebrate her and her son on the 21st of May, while the Latin Church commemorates her on the 18th of August.
Her son, King Constantine, honored her by granting her the title Augusta, and gave her authority over the royal treasury. She spent generously and graciously on building churches, and gave to the poor and needy, both individuals and cities. The historian Eusebius of Caesarea said that during her travels in the eastern regions, she offered many proofs of her generosity as an empress, and of her royal kindness to the inhabitants of various cities, both as communities and as individuals. She also offered abundant assistance to the soldiers with utmost generosity.
As for her gifts to the naked and the homeless, they were very abundant. She gave some money, others large amounts of clothing, freed some from prisons, or from the slavery of service in the mines. She saved others from the violence of persecution, and restored yet others from exile (Book 3, Chapter 44).
She was very devout, attending church as a queen in simple and modest clothing, standing with great reverence among the crowds. She persisted in prayers, attended religious celebrations, and lived as a worshipper more than as a queen. She visited the holy places, enduring the hardships of travel in her old age.
The Lord revealed to her in a vision that she should go to Jerusalem and diligently examine the place of the glorious Cross. She went there and sought and uncovered three crosses. With her was Saint Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, and by a miracle God revealed the Holy Cross, as is evident from the Synaxarium of the 17th of Thout. She placed the Cross in a golden chest and entrusted it to the bishop, and kept a part of it for her son Constantine, who placed some of the holy nails in his helmet. Saint Helena built a church in Bethlehem at the grotto where our Savior was born, and built another church on the Mount of Olives at the place of the Savior’s Ascension.
She began building the Church of the Resurrection… and her son, Emperor Constantine, provided her with all the means to accomplish her sacred work, sending letters for that purpose to governors and bishops. This saint also dedicated many endowments to churches and monasteries and for the support of the poor. She held a celebration in Jerusalem for the consecrated virgins and served them herself. She built a church for the martyr Lucian in her birthplace, which her son named Heliopolis after her, Helena, in her honor.
This saint departed in the Lord in the year 327 A.D., at the age of 84. She wrote her will to her son the king and her imperial descendants, urging them to remain steadfast in a life of faith and righteousness.
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