Saint Helena. Picture courtesy Catholic Forum.
'One account says she was "a common woman not different from strumpets."'

By Andrew Chapman.

Flavia Iulia Helena was born in the middle of the third century, possibly in Drepanum in Bithynia - which later became Helenopolis. She is believed to have been of low birth: one account says she was 'a common woman not different from strumpets', another that she was an innkeeper or an innkeeper's daughter.

She appears to have gone up in the world by becoming the concubine of Flavius Valerius Constantius (who was later the Roman emperor and married someone else for political reasons) - he died in Britain (in York) on a campaign against the Picts in 306. (An English tradition from the Middle Ages in fact states that Helena was the daughter of an English prince, though this seems unlikely.)

The most famous result of Helena and Constantius' relationship was a son, who was to become none other than Constantine the Great. We know little of Helena between around 289, when Constantius became emperor and married, and Constantius' death: in 306 young Constantine (born c272) was proclaimed his father's successor, and Helena seems to have joined his court in Trier and later Rome.

Coins of this period depict Helena as 'nobilissima femina' (most noble woman) and in 324 she was given the imperial title of Augusta. (The following year saw the Council of Nicaea that led to the Nicene Creed.) It is believed that Helena was converted to Christianity in 312, perhaps by Constantine himself.

In 327, Helena, almost 80 years old, undertook what has been described as a pilgrimage to Palestine. According to Eusebius, she cared for the poor and needy and founded churches on her journey to visit and pray at the places where Christ had walked. One of these churches was the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, and this period seems to have established her saintliness.

However, another interpretation of the pilgrimage suggests there were political reasons for improving Constantine's popularity in the east. One reason for its waning was that in 326 Constantine had ordered the murder of both his wife fausta and his oldest son Crispus. And one account says that Fausta was killed only after Helena had rebuked Constantine for the murder of Crispus - in whuch case perhaps the trip to Palestine was in mourning, penance or indeed temporary self-imposed exile.

In the fourth century a legend spread that while in Jerusalem Helena had discovered the remains of the True Cross, and this led to her canonisation. She allegedly found three crosses, and a woman with an incurable disease touhced one of them and was healed. Another tradition says she also found the remains of the Magi, now in the shrine at Cologne Cathedral. Her feast day is 18 August (21 May in the Orthodox churches) and she is the patron of converts, archaeologists, empresses and divorcees.

A sudden halt in the production of Helena coins suggests that she died at the end of 328 or in early 329. She died in the presence of her son, and was buried in a mausoleum in Rome - her sarcophagus is now at the Vatican Museum.

Other 'H' saints

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), the Sybil of the Rhine, is famed to this day for her healing powers, vision-inspired writings and, most of all, her musical compositions. She has not actually been canonised, but has been beatified and is often referred to as 'Saint Hildegard'. Her feast day is 17 September.

Hugh of Lincoln (1135-1200) was the son of a lord of Burgundy and joined the Carhusian order in 1160. In 1175 he became of the first Carthusian monastery in England and became renowned for his holinessL he was made bishop of Lincoln in 1181, rebuilding the cathedral after the earthquake of 1185. Legend has it that he was guarded by a swan which followed him everywhere, hence his patronage of swans, as well as the sick. His memorial day is 17 November.

• Other Saints in the series

Find out more about the saints:
• Catholic Forum
• Catholic Encyclopaedia