(C.D. Stampley Enterprises, Charlotte, NC 2001). Used with permission.

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For those who are divorced or divorcing...

St. Helen (249-329)

Feast day: August 18

Husbands and wives whose marriage is coming apart or who have already gone through the pain of divorce have as their patron St. Helen. After more than 20 years of marriage, Helen's husband divorced her to make a politically advantageous match with a young woman who was a member of Rome's Imperial Family.

A medieval legend claims that St. Helen was a British princess, the daughter of King Cole, the "merry old soul" of the nursery rhyme. Nothing could be further from the truth. Helen was born at the opposite end of the Roman world, in the town of Drepanum in northern Turkey, and at the opposite extreme of the social spectrum, her father and mother were innkeepers. It was while she working at her parents' inn that Helen met a Roman soldier named Constantius Chlorus. He was a rough, powerfully built, pale-skinned man whose origins were as humble as Helen's: Constantius' father was a goatherd, his mother was the daughter of freedman, a slave who had been liberated by his master. But Constantius was a man of Ambition who saw in the military an opportunity to rise above his low birth. It's likely that he was already an officer when he met Helen.

The couple married in 270. Two years later they were in Serbia at Constantius' new post in the town of Nish. There on February 27, 272, Helen gave birth to a son. They named the boy Constantine.

We have no documents to tell us what happened to the family between the year of Constantine's birth and 288, the year Constantius was appointed governor of Dalmatia. At some point during that interval Constantius had won the confidence of the co-emperors, Diocletian and Maximian. Imperial patronage meant that Constantius was poised for great things; whether these great things would include Helen was another story.

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In those last years of the third century the Roman Empire had grown so vast and the troubles besetting it had become so complex that it was more than one man could manage. Emperor Diocletian (who came to the throne in 284) addressed this administrative dilemma by naming Maximian, a successful general, his co-emperor. Under this unique arrangement Diocletian would set policy and rule in the East while Maximian would rule in the West. Furthermore, each emperor would be assisted by a caesar who would be granted authority over a handful of provinces. In 292, Maximian selected Constantius to be his caesar and gave him the provinces of Gaul, Spain and Britain to administer. As a sign of special favor, the emperor urged Constantius to divorce Helen and marry Flavia Maximiana Theodora, Maximian's step-daughter. Finally Maximian and Diocletian arranged for 20-year-old Constantine to be taken into the household of Diocletian's caesar, Galerius, where the young man would finish his military training by fighting Rome's enemies in Egypt.

These were heady days for Constantius and Constantine, but it must have been a wretched time for Helen. After 22 years of family life, she found herself discarded by her husband and deprived of the company of her son.

We do not know what happened to Helen after Constantius divorced her. Ancient historians rarely take much notice of cast-off wives. But there is reason to believe that Helen settled in Trier in Germany, and this may be the place where she first became interested in Christianity. If so, Trier was a fortunate choice.

In 303 Diocletian and Maximian began an empire-wide persecution of the ChristiansÑthe most violent the Church had ever known. Thousands died for the faith, including such famous martyrs as St. Agnes, St. George, and St. Lucy. Yet the Christians in the provinces governed by Constantius Chlorus enjoyed relative peace. The law compelled Constantius to pull down churches and execute at least a few Christians, but compared to the terror unleashed in Rome, Palestine and Egypt, the Christians under Constantius' jurisdiction remained more or less undisturbed.

Although we can never be sure why Constantius proved so reluctant to persecute the Church more aggressively, one tantalizing clue has come down to us. He and Theodora had a daughter whom they named Anastasia, a name favored by Christians because it comes from the Greek word for resurrection. It is possible that Theodora, or Constantius, or both were secret Christians.

In 305, Diocletian and Maximian abdicated and passed the imperial crown to Constantius and Galerius. The following year Constantine, after 13 years in the East, joined his father on the Scottish border to put down a Pict uprising. It must have been a happy reunion for father and son, made even happier by their swift victory over the Picts. Yet only a few weeks after their campaign, Constantius fell ill and died at York. The troops proclaimed Constantine emperor. At once he hurried to Trier to establish his headquarters, consolidate his power, and visit his mother, Helen.

Constantine bided his time in Trier, waiting for the right moment to make a play for the empire. It was during those years that Helen was baptized; she was 60 years old at the time of her conversion. Constantine, however, remained a pagan.

Finally, in 312, Constantine marched on Rome. The day before a decisive battle with his rival Maxentius, the son of the old co-emperor Maximian, Constantine had a vision of a cross of light and the words "In this sign, conquer." While the vision was still fresh in his mind, Constantine called goldsmiths to his tent and ordered them to make a cross-shaped standard surmounted by the Greek monogram Chi-Rho, the first two letters in the name Christ. Led by the cross, Constantine's army went into battle against Maxentius' forces at the Milvian Bridge outside Rome. By the end of the day Maxentius was dead, his army scattered, and Constantine was victoriousÑas the vision had promised.

Perhaps to console his mother for years of neglect, Emperor Constantine showered honors on Helen. He granted her the imperial title Augusta, renamed her birthplace Helenopolis, and had coins struck bearing her image. In Rome, Constantine gave Helen as her residence the Sessorian Palace, part of whichÑincluding Helen's private chapelÑsurvives today as the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

The following year, 313, Constantine published the Edict of Milan which guaranteed toleration to Christians throughout the Roman Empire. Overnight, bishops, priests and deacons who had been living in hiding became honored members of the young emperor's court. Inconspicuous house-churches began to be replaced by grand basilicas, with Constantine himself financing the construction of three basilicas in Rome: St. Peter on the Vatican Hill, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and the church known today as St. John Lateran. Constantine himself became a catechumen (although he put off baptism until he was on his deathbed).

Yet Helen's family troubles were not over. As a young man Constantine had married a woman named Minervina. They had a son, Crispus, whom Constantine trained to be a warrior. By the time he was 21, Crispus had scored impressive victories over the Germans and the Franks. Yet Crispus' most dangerous adversary was back in Rome.

Like his father, Constantine had put aside his first wife to make a politically advantageous marriage with a woman from the Imperial Family. Constantine's new wife, Fausta, gave birth to three sons in quick succession. It looked like the start of a dynasty, but none of Fausta's sons would be emperor unless Crispus was out of the picture. Determined to advance her own children, Fausta whispered to Constantine that his eldest son was plotting against him. With a suddenness that stunned both Christian and pagan members of his court, the emperor ordered Crispus' arrest and execution.

Fausta's triumph was short-lived, however. Crispus had not been dead long when Constantine began to have second thoughts about his wife's motives. The more he considered the situation, the more convinced he became that Fausta had manipulated him into murdering his own son. In his remorse and rage, Constantine compounded his guilt by ordering the death of his wife. She was executed in her own bath, locked in an overheated steam room where she suffocated. One can only imagine how Helen felt about these two violent crimes committed by her own son on members of his own family.

Soon after Fausta's execution, Helen announced her decision to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Tradition says that she went to Palestine with the express purpose of uncovering the Cross and the Tomb of Christ. Some historians suggest that Helen's pilgrimage was actually to expiate Constantine's terrible crimes. Whatever her reason, once Helen arrived in Jerusalem she found that it would be more difficult than she imagined to venerate Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre: the site was covered by a temple to Venus built almost 200 years earlier by the Emperor Hadrian.

Helen ordered the temple torn down, and it was during the dismantling that the tomb of Christ and three wooden crosses were uncovered. The story of how Helen knew which cross was Christ's has come down to us with minor variations. Some stories say that a dying old woman was laid upon each cross, other stories say that the crosses were applied to a sick boy, or to a blind child. But all the versions agree that the cross which wrought a miraculous cure for the sufferer was recognized as the Cross of Our Lord.

On the site of her great discovery Helen built the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. Then she went on to Bethlehem where she built another church over the cave where Christ had been born. Finally, she built a third basilica on the Mount of Olives where Christ had ascended into Heaven. Constantine, who financed his mother's building program, named the Ascension church the Eleona in honor of his mother.

In 328, Helen, now 80 years old, returned to Rome. She brought with her large pieces of the Cross and enshrined the relics in her palace's private chapel where they can still be seen today. In 329, Helen died, with her son Constantine at her side. The massive red porphyry sarcophagus in which Constantine buried his mother is on display in the Vatican Museum, and the relics of St. Helen are entombed in the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, overlooking the Roman Forum.

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Prayer to the saints is a powerful thing.

Now, with Saints for Every Occasion, readers can quickly find help for any challenge they face – no matter how large or small. Author Thomas J. Craughwell profiles 101 patron saints from various continents, cultures and times – from saints who were contemporaries of Christ, to modern patrons like Padre Pio and Faustina Kowalska. Each saint lived heroically in difficult times and circumstances, providing powerful examples of how to turn almost any obstacle into a source of grace. Along with old favorites such as St. Anthony and St. Jude, Craughwell offers patrons for specifically modern concerns, including, for example, saints to watch over astronauts, internet users and environmental activists. Beautifully illustrated and entertainingly told, Saints for Every Occasion features 101 patron saints readers will seek out time and again.

“An excellent resource for home and classroom use.” – Publisher’s Weekly {/tabs}