Under This Sign You Shall Conquer* (II)

Helen, Constantine's mother, came from a poor family, but a Roman general had remarked her great qualities and asked for her hand in marriage before he was to become the emperor Flavius Constantius. She was a fervent Catholic, and she taught her son to know and love Jesus. In 306 when her son was proclaimed emperor by his army, Helen became a very important person, but she remained modest and only thought about doing good works for the poor, the prisoners and the oppressed. One of her greatest joys as a mother was to see her son declare, by the Edict of Milan in 313, that the Christian religion was to be the official religion of the Empire. Helen asked her son to build several churches, and a Basilica on the site where Saint Peter was put to death. In 324, she left for the Holy Land in order to discover the places where the Lord breathed and died, and she actually found the Cross of Jesus, which caused multiple miracles, as well as relics of the Passion. This we know from the writings of Saint Ambrose of Milan and Rufinus. She had basilicas constructed on Golgotha, on the Mount of Olives, in Bethlehem, and also a church in Nazareth, on top of the Holy House of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The walls of this house are now in Loreto, Italy. *In hoc signo vinces