Helena, mother of Constantine I

Saint Helena
Eastern Orthodox icon of Saint Constantine the Great and his mother Saint Helena
Empress; Mother of Constantine the Great
Born	c. 250 Drepanum, Bithynia, Asia Minor
Died	c. late 329 Rome
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Churches Oriental Orthodoxy Anglican Communion Lutheran Church
Canonized	Pre-Congregation
Major shrine	The shrine to Saint Helena in Saint Peter's Basilica
Feast	August 18 (Roman Catholic Church); May 21 (Lutheran & Orthodox Churches); May 19 (Lutheran Church); 9 Pashons (Coptic Orthodox Church)
Attributes	Cross
Patronage	archeologists, converts, difficult marriages, divorced people, empresses, Helena, the capital of Montana

Flavia Julia Helena (Ancient Greek: Ἑλένη, romanized: Helénē; AD c. c. 250 – c. 329), or Saint Helena was Constantine the Great's mother and a Roman empress (Latin: augusta). Helena was a wife or concubine of Constantius I before he became a Roman emperor. In Christianity, Helena is a saint because Christian historians during Late Antiquity wrote that she found the relics of the True Cross in Jerusalem. Helena's tomb was the Mausoleum of Helena outside Rome.

Helena's sarcophagus in the Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican Museums, Rome

Head relic of Saint Helena in the crypt of Trier cathedral