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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

St. Helena is Saint of the Week

ST. HELENA is Saint of the Week in the Catholic Herald:
The 80-year-old woman who discovered the Cross upon which Jesus was crucified

St Helena (August 18), the mother of Constantine, became celebrated for her charity to the poor and to prisoners


By Spiritual Life on Monday, 15 August 2011

Helena (c 249-c 329) was the mother of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor. She is held up to reverence as the discoverer of the Cross upon which Jesus was crucified.

[...]
St. Helena did travel around the Holy Land looking to locate relics and sites associated with Christian origins, but Eusebius doesn't refer to her finding the true—or any—cross, and the story only surfaces a generation or two later, so it should be taken with a good grain of salt.

In any case, the article has some interesting background on her.