Biography Saint Elena

Her father was the master of the hotel. She married the famous Roman warrior Changer. They happily lived together for eighteen years, until Constance was appointed ruler of Gaul, Britain and Spain. In connection with this appointment, Emperor Diocletian demanded that Constantius divorce Elena and marry his emperor, stepdaughter Theodore. In addition, the emperor took away eighteen -year -old Constantine to his capital in Nikomidia under the pretext of teaching his military art.

In fact, the family perfectly understood that he is actually a hostage to his father’s loyalty in relation to the emperor. At the time when these events occurred, Elena was a little over forty years old. She was torn from her husband for the sake of political benefit, and, obviously, the couple had never seen each other since then. She moved closer to her son, as far as possible, to the town of Drepanum, not far from Nikomidia, where the son could visit her.

Drepanum subsequently renamed Eleenopolis in her honor, and it was here that she met Christianity. Shortly after her appeal, Konstantin, who often visited her, met a Christian girl named Minervina in her house. After a while, young people got married. Two years later, the young wife died of a fever, and Konstantin gave them a little son, named Grip, to the care of his mother.

Fourteen years have passed. The father of Constantine, a military leader, who is warmly beloved by his soldiers, died. Konstantin, who showed considerable military valor, reached the title of tribune, and he, thanks to universal respect in the army, was elected the successor to his father. He became Caesar of Western lands. However, it was an unhappy alliance, and in the next few decades, Konstantin had to give more effort and time to fight his wife’s relatives than with the enemies of Rome.

In the year, on the eve of the battle against the troops of his Shurin Maxentia, Konstantin stood with his army near the walls of the capital. The next year, Konstantin published the Milan Edict, according to which Christianity received legal status, which laid an end to Roman persecutions that lasted for several centuries. Ten years later, Konstantin became the sovereign emperor of the eastern and western parts of the Empire, and in the year he exalted his mother, declaring her empress.

For Elena, who had managed to understand by that time how transient joy and bitterness of earthly glory, the imperial power itself was little attractive. However, she quickly realized that her new position gave her the opportunity to participate in the spread of Christian gospel, especially through the construction of temples and chapels in the Holy Land, in those places where the Lord lived and taught.

Since the destruction of the Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 from the birth of Christ, this land no longer belonged to the Jewish people. The temple was equalized with the ground, and on the ruins of Jerusalem, the Roman city of Eliya was built. Over the Calvary and the coffin of the Lord, the temple of Venus was placed. Elena's heart was flashed with the desire to cleanse the holy places from pagan filth and again devote them to the Lord.

She was already more than seventy years old when she went on a ship from the coast of Asia Minor to Palestine. When the ship sailed past the islands of Greece, she went ashore on the island of Paros and began to pray to the Lord, asking her to help her find his cross and promising to build a temple here if her petition was fulfilled. Her prayer was heard, and she performed her vow.

Nowadays, the Church of Ekatontapiliani, inside which is the temple, built then by St. Elena, is the oldest Christian temple of Greece. Arriving on the Holy Land, she ordered to demolish the temple of Venus and take out the wreckage beyond the city walls, but did not know where her servants should dig in order to find the cross in huge piles of lands, stones and garbage. She warmly prayed for reasoning, and the Lord came to her aid.

Here is how her life tells about this: the acquisition of the Holy Cross of the Lord came from the Nativity of Christ as follows: when the wreckage remaining from the buildings that stood here, Bishop Macarius, performed a prayer service at this place. People who digging the earth felt that fragrance came from the earth. So the cave of the Holy Sepulcher was found.

The true cross of the Lord was acquired with the help of a Jew by the name of Judas, who retained the ancient legend in his memory about his whereabouts. He himself, after gaining the great shrine, was baptized with the name Kiriak and later became Patriarch Jerusalem. He accepted the martyrdom under the Julian of the apostate; The church celebrates his memory on October 28.

Following the instructions of Judas, Elena found three crosses to the east of the cave of the Lord with inscriptions and nails that lay separately. But how did it be to find out which of these three crosses is the true cross of the Lord? Bishop Macarius stopped the funeral procession passing by and ordered to touch the deceased alternately with all three crosses. When the cross of Christ was laid on the body, this man was risen.

The Empress was the first to do the earthly bow in front of the shrine and applied to her.The people crowded around, people tried to squeeze forward to see the cross. Every year on a passionate Friday he was carried out for worship. A small part of the Holy Cross is now in Jerusalem. Over the centuries, small particles were sent through the temples and monasteries of the entire Christian world, where they are carefully, reverently stored as priceless treasures.

Saint Elena lived in Jerusalem for two years, managing the restoration of holy places.

She developed plans to build majestic churches in places related to the life of the Savior. However, the modern temple of the Holy Sepulcher is not the church that was erected under St. Helena. Including there is the coffin of the Lord and Calvary. Under the floor, from the back of the Calvary Hill, there is a church in honor of St. Helena with a stone plate at the place of gaining the cross.

The Church of the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem is the one that the empress erected. There are other churches, in the creation of which she took a direct part, for example, a small temple of the Ascension of the Lord on Eliono Gora now owned by Muslims, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin near Hefsimania, the Church in the memory of the appearance of the three angels at the Mamvriysky oak, the church on Mount Sinai and the monastery near the city of Larnak in Cyprus.

In addition to the fact that Saint Elena invested huge energy and strength in the revival of the holy places of Palestine, she, as he tells life, remembering her own years of her life in humiliation and oblivion from the rich and powerful world, regularly arranged large dinners for the poor of Jerusalem and its environs. At the same time, she put on a simple working dress and helped to serve dishes.

When she finally returned home, she was waiting for a bitter, mournful news. Her beloved grandson of Crisp, who became a valiant warrior and had already shown himself in the military field, died, and, as some believed, not without the participation of her stepmother, who did not want this popular young commander to be an obstacle to the imperial throne of her own three sons.

Proceedings in the Holy Land tired her, grief lay on his shoulders with a heavy burden. After the news of the death of Chrisp, she lived for only a year and died in a year. Now her relics are most part in Rome, where the crusaders were transported, moreover, particles of its relics are stored in many places of the Christian world. Emperor Konstantin survived his mother for ten years. The church celebrates the memory of the holy equal -to -the -apostles of Konstantin and the mother of his queen Elena on May 21 according to the old style.

What happened to the Life -giving Cross of the Lord after its acquisition? After St. Elena found the life -giving cross of the Lord in the year, she sent part of him to Constantinople, the second part in the same year was taken to Rome, she left another part in the temple of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. There, this third part remained for about three centuries, up to a year, when the Persians, led by their king, Khozroza crossed the Jordan and captured Palestine.

They brutally treated Christians, destroyed the church, killed priests, monks and nuns. They carried away the sacred vessels and the main jewel - the cross of the Lord from Jerusalem. Patriarch of Jerusalem Zachariah and many people were captured. The household was superstitious that, having seized the cross, he would somehow gain the power and power of the Son of God, and he solemnly hoisted the cross near his throne, on his right hand.

The Byzantine Emperor Heracles - many times offered him the world, but the household demanded first to renounce Christ and worship the sun. This war became religious. Finally, after several successful battles, Heracles defeated Khozroi in the year, who soon overthrew the throne and killed his own son Sirai. In February, Sira made peace with the Romans, freed the Patriarch and other captives and returned the life -giving cross Christians.

The cross was first taken to Constantinople, and there, in the temple of St. Sofia, September 14 on September 27, the celebration of his second exhibition was held in the new style. The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord is established in memory of both the first and second celebration. In the spring of the year, Emperor Heracles took him to Jerusalem and personally hoisted him to his former honorary place in gratitude to God for the victory granted to him.

When he was approaching the city, holding a cross in his hands, the emperor suddenly stopped and could not move on. The Patriarch Zachariah, who accompanied him, suggested that his magnificent robe and the royal would not combine with the appearance of the Lord himself, humbly carried his cross. The precious cross was still imprisoned in a silver casket. Representatives of the clergy checked the safety of the seals and, opening the casket, showed the cross to the people.

Since that time, Christians began to celebrate the day of the erection of the Cross of the Lord with even greater reverence. On this day, the Orthodox Church also recalls the miracle of the phenomenon in the sky of the Cross of the Lord as a sign of the impending victory of Emperor Constantine over the troops of Maxentia. In the year, Heracles, retreating under the onslaught of the Muslim army and anticipating the fast capture of Jerusalem, took the cross with him to Constantinople.

In order to avoid his full loss in the future, the cross was divided into nineteen parts and distributed them to the Christian churches - Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Roman, Oshzov, Cyprus, Cretan, Askalo and Damascus. Now particles of the Cross of the Lord are stored in many monasteries and temples around the world.