Saint Constantine the Great?

[colliric]

I opened up an encyclopedia of the Catholic Saints and I am not surprised at all that it’s “Saint Constantine” and not “Emperor Constantine”.

I did not actually know St Constantine the Great is actually one of the saints in heaven! but I am not at all totally surprised. I have always disagreed with historians who have cast him as “Politically motivated” because of the fact his mother was christian (and is also a Saint).

His feast day is may 21st. This was a nice surprise.

 

[DoxRox]

There are some of us Orthodox who take his name (you know, we’re old-school).

Hagiography is not without its controversy. God seems to surprise us just when we think we know exactly what makes a saint.

 

[saylo]

Just from memory…wasn’t it Constantine that had a vision of the Cross in the sky with the words, “By this sign you shall conquer.” ? His mother (Helen?) had her son bring as many Christian artifacts from Jerusalem to Rome.

 

[colliric]

Just from memory…wasn’t it Constantine that had a vision of the Cross in the sky with the words, “By this sign you shall conquer.” ? His mother (Helen?) had her son bring as many Christian artifacts from Jerusalem to Rome.

He actually saw the sign of the Cross in front of the Sun according to my copy of the encyclopedia Britannica. His mother is a Saint, and according to both popular myth and partially(but not fully) historically evidenced fact was the person who first set foot in Christ’s vacated Tomb when it was rediscovered(along with Calvary itself) in the 4th century AD on the site where the Orthodox Church of the Holy Sepulcre(or Tomb) is. She is said to have found inside crucifixion nails, two thorns(from the Crown, they are of a plant believed only to grow in Israel),
a shroud(This is interesting hypothesis by “pro-Turin as real Shroud and Relic” historians and would explain alot… But you never know with God!), the sign that Pilate wrote and stuck on the cross, and the Cross itself(she actually found all 3 Crosses used on that day stored in the Tomb, including that of the “Good Thief”) and a few other relics.

She did oversee the destruction of the Roman Temple that was over the site and also what we would today call the “archelogical dig”. But weather or not she was the first person to set foot in the tomb is another matter altoghether, but it is certainly likely. But she is a Saint.

 

[saylo]

When St. Helen went to Jerusalem to bring the artifacts back to Rome her son had not yet converted, I could be off on this assumption. Nonetheless it was through the authority and power of her son as a Caesar that she was able to convince the rabbis there to cooperate.

Funny, in these days we witness abuse of power and Constantine used his power to promote everlasting life via the knowledge of Son of God.