Relics, Empire, and Faith

“The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world” is a colloquial saying that originated in a mid-19th-century poem by William Ross Wallace. We can certainly say that the hand of Helena of Constantinople rocked that cradle of influence across the centuries. Her son Constantine was the emperor who took Christianity from a persecuted minority to a position of political power in the 4th century CE. 

The details of Helena’s backstory have a Cinderella-esque quality: a housemaid marries a high-ranking military leader and becomes the mother of an emperor. But like any fairy tale, it was not without pain. Constantius divorced Helena in order to marry a woman of higher social standing, and Helena and Constantine were sent to live in obscurity. They returned only after the death of Constantius, at which point his troops declared Constantine the emperor. 

Helena was highly revered by her son, who declared her the dowager empress, renamed towns in her honor, and supported her search for the True Cross. After converting to Christianity, Helena traveled throughout the Holy Land searching for relics and building churches, including the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and a church on the Mount of Olives. These actions earned her the title Protector of Holy Places. 

In a world without the internet and where travel was dangerous and slow, relics grounded Christians in the mystical elements of their faith. To modern Christians, relics can seem quaint or even foolish, but in the ancient world, they offered a tangible connection to the divine. Helena’s faith led her on a journey to bring those connections back to the people. 

Stories of God’s miracles in the world were shared primarily through oral tradition. Most households did not own Bibles, the Prayer Book was not yet a thing, and worship was not always conducted in the language of the people. So Helena’s gift to the people was not simply the relics themselves, but the stories and devotion they inspired.  

When Constantine convened the bishops at Nicea in 325 CE to codify the central tenets of the Christian faith, Christianity was moving from the margins into the mainstream. Such a shift required a more unified front, which meant internal conflict needed resolving. The relics Helena brought from the Holy Land played a part in this transformation. By claiming the True Cross, the emperor gave public credibility to a religion that had once been persecuted. Helena’s role in this movement should not be minimized. By drawing imperial attention to the Holy Land, she helped establish patterns of pilgrimage and political interest that would shape Christian history for centuries.

Yet whenever Christianity aligns itself closely with political power, upheaval and controversy follow. Had Constantine and Helena aligned themselves with Islam, Zoroastrianism, or Greco-Roman myth, the world would likely be a different place today. Their choices, their actions, and their faith moved Christianity from a religious sect on the fringes of society to the frontlines of the world. 

When looking at the story of Helena, I find myself holding tension. On the one hand, she played a pivotal role in preserving sites and traditions important to the Christian faith. On the other hand, she also became part of the ongoing story of injustice committed in the name of Christ. Replacing the idols of Rome with relics of dubious origin does not fully align with a theology proclaiming “All are welcome.” We can thank her for the preservation of significant sites in the Holy Land while also acknowledging that the land itself remains fraught with controversy to this day. Sacred to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam alike, Israel and the city of Jerusalem continue to carry the weight of history, faith, and conflict.  

Looking at the life of any saint requires pondering the complications of history. Does the good they did stand the test of time? In Helena’s case, I think it does. The dowager empress raised her son and used the imperial treasury to impart pieces of the Holy Land throughout the Roman Empire. These relics inspired faith in many for centuries, even when they were sometimes misused. Faith is a gift, as the apostle Paul continually reminds us.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. 
—Ephesians 2:8-9, NRSVUE