Legend holds that after Constantine was proclaimed Caesar then Emperor, he ordered that all honor be paid to his mother, Flavia Iulia Helena to make up for the neglect paid her by her former husband, Constantius Chlorus. After her conversion to Christianity, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, and sent her on a quest to find the cross and nails used to crucifyJesus. She was led to the place they were buried by Judas (not Judas Iscariot), who would become Bishop Cyriacus. Several miracles were claimed, to prove the authenticy of these items, and St. Helena returned with a piece of the cross and the nails. Though the details vary with the story, it is widely held that one nail was used to make a bridle, one was used to make the Helmet of Constantine and two were cast into the Adriatic Sea.
Legend holds that after Constantine was proclaimed Caesar then Emperor, he ordered that all honor be paid to his mother, Flavia Iulia Helena to make up for the neglect paid her by her former husband, Constantius Chlorus.
The bridle of Constantine, for instance, is believed to be identical with a relic of this form which for several centuries has been preserved at Carpentras, but there is another claimant of the same kind at Milan.
Constantine's trust in his friends and generosity to the unworthy, with its consequences on the tax-payers, reminds strikingly of some of our own soldier-presidents, whom we love and admire without approving all their acts.
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