page_title: Helena (empress)
section_title: Pilgrimage and relic discoveries
hierarchical_section_title: Helena (empress) / Pilgrimage and relic discoveries
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Illustration aus der Schedel'schen Weltchronik, Blatt 130v English: Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle
context_page_description: Helena, Helena Augusta, or Saint Helena, was an Empress of the Roman Empire, and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. Born outside of the noble classes, a Greek, possibly in the Greek city of Drepana, Bithynia in Asia Minor, she became the consort of the future Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus and the mother of the future Emperor Constantine the Great.
  Helena ranks as an important figure in the history of Christianity and of the world due to her influence on her son. In her final years, she made a religious tour of Syria Palaestina and Jerusalem, during which ancient tradition claims that she discovered the True Cross. The Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Catholic Church, and the Anglican Communion revere her as a saint; the Lutheran Church commemorates her.
context_section_description: Constantine appointed his mother Helena as Augusta Imperatrix, and gave her unlimited access to the imperial treasury in order to locate the relics of the Christian tradition. In 326–28 AD Helena undertook a trip to Palestine. According to Eusebius of Caesarea (260/265 AD – 339/340 AD), who records the details of her pilgrimage to Palestine and other eastern provinces, she was responsible for the construction or beautification of two churches, the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, and the Church of Eleona on the Mount of Olives, sites of Christ's birth and ascension, respectively. Local founding legend attributes to Helena's orders the construction of a church in Egypt to identify the Burning Bush of Sinai. The chapel at Saint Catherine's Monastery—often referred to as the Chapel of Saint Helen—is dated to the year 330 AD.
caption: St Helena in the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "100", "Image YResolution": "100", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:07:17 21:01:52", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "167", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "100", "Thumbnail YResolution": "100", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "398", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7971", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "241", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "309", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "\u0001\u0001\u0001\u0001", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[3, 0, 0, 0]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "257"}