Life of Saint Helen

Helena's birthplace is not known with certainty. The 6th-century historian Procopius is the earliest authority for the statement that Helena was a native of Drepanum, in the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor. Her son Constantine renamed the city "Helenopolis" after her death in 330, which supports the belief that the city was her birthplace. Although he might have done so in her honor, Constantine probably had other reasons for doing so. The Byzantinist Cyril Mango has argued that Helenopolis was refounded to strengthen the communication network around his new capital in Constantinople, and was renamed simply to honor Helena, not to mark her birthplace.^[3] There was also a Helenopolis in Palestine (modern Daburiyya)^[4] and a Helenopolis in Lydia.^[5] These cities, and the province of Helenopontus in the Diocese of Pontus, were probably both named after Constantine's mother.^[2] G. K. Chesterton in his book 'A Short History of England' writes that she was considered a Briton by the British; supporting this, she is depicted as having golden hair. Some people believe that she came from Colchester in Essex; this being the Roman capital in Britain at the time, today the town has schools and places named after her, as well as her image appearing on the town hall and her son's name, Constantine, being used as the title for a particular road.

The bishop and historian Eusebius of Caesarea states that she was about 80 on her return from Palestine.^[6] Since that journey has been dated to 326–28, Helena was probably born in 248 or 250. Little is known of her early life.^[7] Fourth-century sources, following Eutropius' "Breviarium," record that she came from a low background. Saint Ambrose was the first to call her a stabularia, a term translated as "stable-maid" or "inn-keeper". He makes this fact a virtue, calling Helena a bona stabularia, a "good stable-maid".^[8] Other sources, especially those written after Constantine's proclamation as emperor, gloss over or ignore her background.^[7]

It is unknown where she first met Constantius.^[9] The historian Timothy Barnes has suggested that Constantius, while serving under Emperor Aurelian, could have met her while stationed in Asia Minor for the campaign against Zenobia. It is said that upon meeting they were wearing identical silver bracelets, Constantius saw her as his soulmate sent by God. Barnes calls attention to an epitaph at Nicomedia of one of Aurelian's protectors, which could indicate the emperor's presence in the Bithynian region soon after 270.^[10] The precise legal nature of the relationship between Helena and Constantius is also unknown. The sources are equivocal on the point, sometimes calling Helena Constantius' "wife", and sometimes, following the dismissive propaganda of Constantine's rival Maxentius,^[11] calling her his "concubine".^[9] Jerome, perhaps confused by the vague terminology of his own sources, manages to do both.^[12] Some scholars, such as the historian Jan Drijvers, assert that Constantius and Helena were joined in a common-law marriage, a cohabitation recognized in fact but not in law.^[13] Others, like Timothy Barnes, assert that Constantius and Helena were joined in an official marriage, on the grounds that the sources claiming an official marriage are more reliable.

Helena gave birth to the future emperor Constantine I on 27 February of an uncertain year soon after 270^[15] (probably around 272).^[16] At the time, she was in Naissus (Niš, Serbia).^[17] In order to obtain a wife more consonant with his rising status, Constantius divorced Helena some time before 289, when he married Theodora, Maximian's daughter.^[18] (The narrative sources date the marriage to 293, but the Latin panegyric of 289 refers to the couple as already married).^[19] Helena and her son were dispatched to the court of Diocletian at Nicomedia, where Constantine grew to be a member of the inner circle. Helena never remarried and lived for a time in obscurity, though close to her only son, who had a deep regard and affection for her.

Source:

Catholig.org, St. Helena

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=123

Contributions of Saint Helen to the Church

St. Helena lived a very pious and holy life. At a very advanced age she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While there, she located many of the sites made holy by Our Lord and recovered relics, which she then sent to Rome and Costantinople. With help from her son, Emperor Constantine the Great, she had a number of churches and shrines constructed to commemorate special sites in the Holy Land. Upon her death she was proclaimed a saint by popular acclaim. There was no formal process at the time for canonization. That did not come until about the 12th century.

Source:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_did_St._Helena_become_a_saint#ixzz1x6MaOZCZ

Virtues and Teaching of Saint Helen

Helena, like Constantine, was still ignorant of the true faith, till God, after having given the clearest proof of his miraculous preservation of the Church, deigned to call the emperors themselves, and to make Constantine the Great the declared protector of the Christian religion. Maxentius, son of Maximien Hercules, declared war against Constantine, and determined to give him battle at a place two miles distant from Rome. Constantine's army was inferior in numbers; but the former felt himself inspired to invoke the true God, whom he besought with the most earnest prayers to make himself known to him. This prince had an upright heart, and God heard him. About mid-day, when marching at the head of his troops, he beheld in the heavens a luminous cross, in the centre of which were traced, in characters of fire, these words: "By this sign thou shalt be victorious." The entire army witnessed this miracle; but no one was so sensibly struck by it as the emperor, who passed the whole day endeavoring to discover what this wonderful apparition signified.

It was to her son that Helena was indebted for the knowledge of the true religion. She was about sixty-four years of age when she received the light of the Gospel; but her conversion was so perfect that all her virtues were the moot heroic from that happiest moment of her existence. Mistress of the treasures of the empire, loved and respected by a son who, when near her, seemed to forget that he was master of the world, Constantine used every means in his power to anticipate her wishes. The dearest desire of Helena was to cause Christianity to flourish through the whole world. Although advanced in age, God prolonged her years in order that her examples might edify the Church, for the exaltion of which her son exerted all his energies. Her zeal and faith were incomparable, and Saint Gregory tells us that she kindled in the hearts of the Romans the same fire that consumed her soul. She assisted at the divine offices with exemplary assiduity; she decorated the churches with rich furniture and precious vessels; and she extended her munificence even to the chapels of the poorest suburbs.

Source:

Patron Saints for Girls: Saint Helena, Empress

http://saints.sqpn.com/ps4g10.htm