I am going to honest and tell you that choosing a saint for this month was not an easy task. First there was really only one event that I knew of and it was the beheading of John the Baptist which I really didn’t feel inspired to write about. So about some internal battle I took the diplomatic route, closed my eyes, and pointed to one. So for this month we have St. Helena of Constantinople! In Greek she may be known as Helen.
Most of you probably know her as Constantine’s mother but she was also the driving force behind his conversion to Christianity and is supposed to have discovered the True Cross. The True Cross is the actual cross that Jesus was crucified on. She performed many acts of charity and built many churches in Rome in her day. Helena’s husband divorced her because she wasn’t up to his standards in political ranking but after his death when her son became emperor he brought her back into public life. She never remarried.
Her feast day is August 18th and her porphyry sarcophagus (which is the coffin that is believed to have held her remains) is actually at the Vatican Museum. She is the patron saint of a variety of things including: against thunder, against fire, difficult marriages, divorced people, converts, and archaeologists.
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thank you for introducing us to all the different saints..there are so many of them..I especially love Saint Anthony…he is the Saint of lost objects and I tell you with the family that I have I ask him almost daily to help me find something and he’s always there to help out and the object is always found 🙂
I don’t remember hearing much about St. Helena of Constantinople. You would think they would have taught us more about her and several of the other saints when we were in Catechism classes. I wish they would have spent more time on teaching us about the different saints and why the became a saint. Thanks to you I am learning more about them.
Awesome choice to post about here and recognize. I loved how She performed many acts of charity and built many churches in Rome. Looking forward to reading about many others to come.
It is interesting to read the post about saints. I am not so familiar with the saints so I do enjoy hearing about them and what they are known for.
i did not know this. you learn something new every day. i will read up on her because she seems like a very interesting woman. thanks for the knowledge.
I’m glad you choose St. Helena of Constantinople instead. I remember a little about her from CCD and I’m glad that you refreshed my memory. I like that she is the patron saint of a variety of things. I like variety and she must have been a women with great strength, of course, all the saints were. A women in that time dealing with the issues she choose to stand up for, could not have been easy at all. Well, that’s why she’s a saint as my mother would say! Thanks for the refresher.
Browsing through your posts and I love these saint ones. Always learning something new! Would love to see you continue these.