Today is the Christian holiday of Saint Emperor Constantine and Empress Helena. The Church proclaimed this imperial Roman couple, son and mother, as saints, since Emperor Constantine the Great, with the Edict of Milan in 313, allowed Christians the freedom to confess their faith.
Emperor Constantine the Great was born in 274 in Niš, then Naisus, into a non-Christian family. He lived at the court of Emperor Diocletian, where, as a hostage who would ensure his father’s loyalty, he acquired exceptional learning.
As a young man, he participated in military campaigns, which led him to the rank of military tribune. After his father’s death in 306, the army proclaimed him co-ruler of the northwest of the Roman Empire.
Constantine’s reign was not peaceful—he fought three decisive battles: against Maxentius, the tyrant in Rome; against the Scythians on the Danube; and the third against the Byzantines.
According to Christian teaching, a brilliant cross appeared to him in the sky, adorned with stars, on which was written “By this conquer.”
The emperor, amazed, ordered a large cross, similar to the one that appeared to him, to be forged and carried before the army. By the power of the cross, he gained a glorious victory over numerically superior enemies. Later, he himself was baptized.
He then decided to do everything to find the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. He sent his mother, Empress Helena, to Jerusalem with great treasure to search for the Lord’s Cross. When she found it, she built the Church of the Resurrection on Golgotha and many other churches in the Holy Land.
With the Edict of Milan in 313, Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official religion and forbade the persecution of Christians. At the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325, he helped in the fight against heresy.
He died at the age of 65 and was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Their cult is particularly nurtured by Greeks and Romanians.
It is celebrated as a family patron saint day and is the city’s patron saint day in Niš.
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Source: RTS, Photo: Društvene mreže