Saints Constantine and Helen celebrate May 21st

The Birth of the Saints

Ο Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, the founder of the queen of Constantinople, was born in the town of Naissos, present-day Nis in central Serbia, around the year 275. He was the eldest son in the Family.

His mother was St. Helen πvery pious and virtuous as a human being. He was born in the town of Drepano in Bithynia (Asia Minor) around the year 247, to a hotel father. This city was later renamed Elenopolis by M. Konstantinos, in honor of his mother. She married the Father of Constantine in 273 AD, ie 2 years before the Birth of the Emperor.

The construction of Vassilevousa (Istanbul) according to the Will of the Most High.

When Constantine made the relevant decision, he did not immediately choose Byzantium, but first thought of Naissos' birthplace, Sardinia (Sofia) and then Thessaloniki.

However, from the obstacles that arose, he understood that it was not God's will to go there and went to the ancient Sun, where it is said that the Achaeans had encamped in the war against Troy.

There he designed the city as big as it needed to be and even built its gates. But one night the Lord appeared to the pious king, urging him to choose another location for his capital.

Obeying the divine call, Constantine eventually ended up in Byzantium, whose position he considered the most suitable for his purpose and pleasing to God.

During the demarcation of the new city by Constantine, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him alone and guided him, leading him, until they marked the whole area, in which it was God's will for the capital to be built.

The Search, the Finding and the Wonderful points from the Holy and Animal Cross.

In the search for the Holy Cross, the honest queen encounters several difficulties.

According to an ancient tradition, the finding of the Holy Cross by the Saint is interwoven with the face of Saint Hieromartyr Kyriakos, bishop of Jerusalem.

Saint Kyriakos, a Jew by origin, with the original name of Judas, was the man who knew from his ancestors the place where the Cross of the Lord was hidden, but did not want to reveal it to Saint Helen.

She then ordered him to be put in a dry well for a week, when he was forced by hunger and thirst to point to the place of Golgotha and the Memorial of Christ.

The place had been occupied by the Jews, out of envy, and the pagans, seeing that it was worshiped by the Christians with reverence for the miracles performed there, had erected in this place a mosque of the goddess Aphrodite.

By order of the Saint, the mosque was demolished and the area was excavated, at which time Golgotha, the Holy Monument, the three Crosses, of Christ and the two robbers and the holy Nails (nails) of the Crucifixion were found.

The recognition of the Holy Cross was done with the following miracle: A dead woman was led to burial. Archbishop Makarios said to stop the funeral procession.

After a fervent prayer and placing the three Crosses successively and separately on the dead, oh the miracle!

She was resurrected when she was touched by the third Cross, the Cross of the Lord! Then the Saint ordered and the Holy Cross was divided.

She placed one part in a silver precious case and left it in Jerusalem, while the other carried it on a journey from Jerusalem to Constantinople.

It is from this second section, which left pieces in places, according to local tradition, which we will talk about in the next chapter.

The finding of the Holy Wood and the Holy Materials is honored by our Church on March 6.

With the miracle of the resurrection of the dead woman from the Cross, the above Jew Judas believes, is baptized and renamed Kyriakos, is later ordained a bishop (probably a bishop) in Jerusalem, and testifies against Julian of Paravatos (361-363). Our Church commemorates him on October 28.

Regarding the other two Crosses of the robbers, because the Saint could not distinguish who belonged to the "right" Good Robber and who to the "left" and because on the other hand she thought that for so many years buried with the Cross of Christ they too had taken blessing, and they should not be neglected, he ordered them to be dismantled, and by the alternation of their horizontal woods to form two new Crosses. So each of them contained a piece of the Cross of the Good Robber.

M. Konstantinos welcomed with great joy the Wood of the Holy Cross, which his mother carried with great reverence to Constantinople. But the pious emperor is also said to have placed the saints Ilos in the helmet and bridles of his horse, for protection and blessing in wars.

So after the blessed Eleni spent her life with prayer, humility and so many wonderful works and charities, she probably rested in the Lord in Constantinople around the years 328/329, at the age of about eighty years.

Her holy relic was transported to Rome by her son and deposited in the mausoleum (rotunda) known as Tor Pignattara, inside a majestic porphyry stone sarcophagus. This sarcophagus is now housed in the Vatican Museum.