Helena was married to the Roman emperor Constantius I Chlorus, who renounced her for political reasons. When her son Constantine I the Great became emperor at York in 306, he made her empress dowager, and under his influence, she later became a Christian. She was devoted to her eldest grandson, Crispus Caesar, whom Constantine made titular ruler of Gaul, but trouble within the imperial family culminated with the execution of Crispus and Fausta, Constantine’s second wife and Crispus’s stepmother.


Thereafter, the story became current that Fausta had accused Crispus of attempting to seduce her - hence Crispus’s execution in 326. Fausta, in turn, was denounced by the grief-stricken Helena and was executed shortly afterward. Immediately after the double tragedy, Helena made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She caused churches to be built on the reputed sites of Christ’s Nativity (in Bethlehem) and Ascension (near Jerusalem).

Credits: PA; Author: PA;

Before 337 it was claimed in Jerusalem that Christ’s cross had been found during the building of Constantine’s church on Golgotha, under a temple of Venus that had been demolished at the site. Later in the century, Helena was credited with the discovery.