Summary

Helena was born in humble circumstances likely in Drepanum c. 248/9. In the early 270s she met the future Constantius I (Chlorus). Out of the relationship Constantine (the future emperor, ‘the Great’) was born c. 272/3. When Constantine became emperor in 306, she may have come to live at the imperial court in Trier. After 312 she lived in Rome at the Palatium Sessorianum. In Rome she embodied imperial authority and acted as Constantine’s delegate. In 317 she received the honorary title of nobilissima femina, and in 324 the title of Augusta. After the celebration of Constantine’s Vicennalia in Rome in 326, she went on a tour through the eastern provinces of the empire. Based on Eusebius’s account, her journey has often been interpreted as a pilgrimage. More likely, it was a diplomatic and political mission to gain the support of the Constantinian regime. She died in 328/9 and was buried in Rome in the mausoleum next to Ss. Marcellino e Pietri at the Via Labicana.

Helena acquired fame by an act for which she was not responsible: the discovery of the True Cross. The supposed Cross was found in Jerusalem during Constantine’s reign c. 330, but its discovery was only attributed to Helena at the end of the 4th century. The legend of Helena’s discovery of the Cross spread rapidly in various versions. It is through this myth that Helena remained known and became a role model for later Byzantine and western medieval empresses and queens.