waterford cross arrived in ireland, she will continue her tour of the holy land. with the backing of her son, the emporor constantine she will transform the landscape. she builds churches on the side of christ s birth in beth leham and one to commonerate his last moment on earth. constantine made it legal to practice christianity. helena gave christians places to practice. before her arrival there were no christian buildings in this land. they met here to commemorate jesus assension but secretly met in caves. after helena christians can come
her influence upon her son, constantine, would change the fate of the roman empire and christianity. a decade after her death, her son constantine, now an old man, falls ill. after a lifetime of championing the cause of christianity he takes the final step and asks to be baptized. there was so much of constantine s life that did not lineup with being a christian. he was a violent man. but something i believe changed in the last year of his life. i think that he had a full conversion.
it was illegal. by penalty of death to be a christian. after that, you were free. constantine legalizes christianity throughout the empire. 14 years later, his mother is on her way to the holy land. i think that she was sent by the emperor constantine. he felt that the cross was very important, and he wanted to send her there to do something special. there is potentially a darker side to helena s journey. it follows on from a scandalous episode within the house of constantine.
here openly and publicly to remember this important part of their faith. for a religion that had been illegal for over 200 years it is a defining moment. she makes the holy land holy. the churches she built were ways of literally cementing in the ground christianity in the holy land. it reinstates it as the place where people want to go and remember jesus passion. arguably helena and constantine s biggest contribution to jerusalem was this, set to be built on the site where jesus was executed, but did they get the location right?
constantine discovers that his son crispus, his favorite son, has been having an affair with his second wife fausta. what we are told by the sources we have is that on the orders of his father, he is sent to a place on the coast of croatia. and he is put to death by poison. helena was crushed by this scandal. this was likely her favorite