CONSTANTINE AND HELEN

When Emperor Constantine the Great (272–337) died in Nicomedia on May 22, 337, it was obvious to many that, along with grief, those around him perceived what was happening as the heavenly birth of a new saint. The Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of Saint Constantine and his mother Helen on June 3 (May 21).

Ancient Christians called the days of death of martyrs - birthdays. Constantine, who first stopped the persecution of Christians with the Edict of Milan (313), and then made Nicene Orthodoxy after the First Ecumenical Council (325) the religious confession of the Empire, was perceived by many as a confessor of the faith. Circumstances were favorable to what was happening.

His burial at the Basilica of the Apostles in Constantinople, a tombstone decorated with sculptural images of the 12 Disciples of Christ, contributed to the fact that he began to be called Equal-to-the-Apostles. Constantinople, which became the resting place of the emperor, was perceived as an originally Christian city that opposed Rome on the Banks of the Tiber, still full of idols (cf. Acts 17:16). In different places of the empire, numerous shrines built by him, or in his name, already reminded of Constantine the Great.

These are the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Basilica of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives; this is the already mentioned Basilica of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople; the famous golden octagonal temple in Antioch; Lateran Basilica, and many other churches in Rome, and other capitals and cities of the Empire to the very outskirts.

It is noteworthy that the original veneration of Constantine as a saint spread throughout the Orthodox East; The Orthodox Christian West was much more skeptical about the immediate canonization of the emperor. Moreover, the commemoration of Constantine as a saint, equal to the Apostles and even a confessor, began with the Arians.

In the last period of his life, Constantine clearly favored this heretical party, and even prepared to rehabilitate Arius, but the latter died suddenly.

In accordance with the Eastern Orthodox tradition of the time, Constantine was baptized on his deathbed. That is, in accordance with Orthodox dogmatics, which is still valid, his sins were forgiven at baptism. He died justified. Then Orthodox Christians thanked God for the end of the persecution and asked Constantine to intercede for the Church and the World in the Kingdom of Heaven.