St. Helena

Helena, the mother of Constantine I (The Great), was born about 248, possibly in Drepanum in Bithynia. She was serving at an inn there when she met and married Constantius Chlorus who became Co-Regent of the Western Roman Empire in 292. He divorced Helena to marry the step-daughter of the Emperor Maximianus, but his son by Helena remained loyal to his mother. When the son Constantine became Emperor in 308, he brought his mother to court and paid her great honor. Constantine had converted to Christianity and encouraged his mother to do so as well. She became very devout and zealous and devoted her life to doing good works, especially in the building of churches in Palestine.

Although she spent most of the later part of her life in Palestine, she probably died in the town of her nativity, which Constantine renamed Helenopolis, in about 330. Her remains were buried in the church of the Apostles in Constantinople but were removed to the abbey of Hautvillers near Rheims, France, in 849, as her veneration spread from the east to the west. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the 12th century English chronicler, claimed she was an English princess, which made her popularity in England grow.

Her fame and cult rest with the legend of her having discovered Christ?s cross. As the story goes, during the building of a church on Golgotha (where Constantine did build a church sometime before 337), the three crosses were discovered. Since the crosses looked alike, Helena touched a dead man with each of the three crosses in turn, and when Christ?s cross touched him, he was restored to life. This is why the cross is often called the True Cross. Helena divided the cross into three parts and took one to Rome, one to Constantinople, and left one in Jerusalem.

St. Helena?s feast day is August 18 in the west and in the east, she shares May 21 with her son Constantine; but the 'Invention of the True Cross' (as Helena designated the discovery) is celebrated on its own day, May 3.

In our window, Helena is shown holding the True Cross, which is how she is always depicted. Behind her are the workers digging to build the church where the crosses were discovered, and above her head is the True Cross. Other symbols in the window are her coat of arms and her saintly crown.