About Saints Constantine and Helen

By Fr. Nick Kotsis - Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if one were to rank the most influential people in terms of their legacy upon world history, a historian worth his salt, and not subject to the vacillations of revisionism or political correctness, would have to put Saint Constantine on that list.  It’s one thing that he had the foresight, intelligence, military acumen, and political sensibilities to forge a second capital of the Roman Empire which allowed the Empire to flourish for another 800 years and continue to last for a total of more than 1,100 years.  It’s another thing to understand that his faith in Christ completely, and to a certain extent, radically, changed the face of the Western world (and the world as a whole); and those changes are still present in our day and age. 

 
Saint Constantine allowed the Christian faith to be practiced freely.  From that point, it was like an explosion of the faith across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.  We cannot underestimate how much this changed the history of the world, let alone the millions upon millions of souls that found Christ through St. Constantine’s efforts.  Furthermore, one could easily argue that St. Constantine laid the foundations of religious freedom we hold so dear in our day and age.  
 
St. Helen, St. Constantine’s mother, was also instrumental in this whole process.  Her pilgrimage to the Holy Lands accomplished at least three important things: 1) she found the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of Christ 2) she built several churches in the Holy Lands over holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem 3) her church building programs helped establish the early architecture of church buildings that were to be constructed elsewhere (up until that time, because of intolerance towards Christians, the church building itself was not common – gatherings usually took place in people’s homes).  
 
May Saints Constantine and Helen continue to be honored and venerated in our Holy Greek Orthodox Church!
 
God bless,
Fr. Nick