Feast of Sts Constantine and Helen

Today the Eastern tradition (Catholic and Orthodox) honors Sts Constantine and Helen. While the West might have ignored St Constantine’s elevation to sainthood, Rome nonetheless acknowledges and accepts the East’s devotion to him.

So much has been said, and will continue to be said, about Constantine and his religious faith.  I hold no doubts as to the sincerity of his faith. I do not think he was a cynical ruler using the Christian faith for political gains. If he were he could have done it so much better. He was deeply sorrowful for what the empire had done to the Christians, and worked to restore what it had taken from them in times past, something which would not have happened if he were only interested in using the Christian faith as a tool for political power.

More than anything else, the legends around Constantine which treat him as a power-mad ruler using a new, untried faith for his own gain comes out of the discredited legends surrounding the so-called Donation of Constantine and pagan anti-Christian polemical authors. Even though these legends have been dismissed, a biased interpretation of Constantine based upon them remains influential over Western Christian thought. If the black legend has hindered the English speaking world to properly understand Spanish history, so has Western abuse of Constantine affected a true understanding of the man and his mission in the world. To the East, he will always be St Constantine the Great, Friend of the Logos, and Equal to the Apostles. Yes, we know he was human, and he had many failings (like any saint); but we also recognize the way God used him like a new David, providing the way by which Christianity could finally find itself in the world and no longer be tempted by a spiritualistic, world-denying mentality. Of course, being in the world and involving ourselves in its structures has meant Christians are now facing different, and possibly even greater temptations, than those before Constantine; but that should not be used to dismiss his legacy and the important role Constantine has played in world history.

And so, with the rest of my Eastern tradition, I rejoice today in the feast of Sts Constantine and Helen and say:

O Lord, thy disciple Emperor Constantine, who saw in the sky the Sign of Thy Cross, accepted the call that came straight from Thee, as it happened to Paul, and not from any man. He built his capital and entrusted it to Thy care. Preserve our country in everlasting peace, through the intercession of the Mother of God, for Thou art the Lover of mankind.