Spring: Constantine orders Licinius (now a private citizen in Thessalonike) put to death. The younger Licinius is also put to death most likely at this time as well.
20 May - 26 July: Constantine convokes the first general council of the Christian Church--Council of Nicaea. 325 May 23 beginning of the Council of Nicaea.
25 July 325 - 25 July 326: The celebration of Constantine's vicennalia, the twentith anniversary of Constantine's reign as an Augustus. Beginning of Constantine's 20th anniverisary (Vicennalia) at Nicomedia; Constantine is in Nicomedia until September 15.
14 September: Helena discovers the Holy Cross.
Construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Jerusalem), the Church of the Nativity (Bethlehem), and the Church on the Mount of Olive (site of the Ascension in Jerusalem) begins.
1999 chronology:
Spring: Constantine orders Licinius (now a private citizen in Thessalonike) put to death. The younger Licinius is also put to death most likely at this time as well.
20 May - 26 July: Constantine convokes the first general council of the Christian Church -- Council of Nicaea.
25 July 325 - 25 July 326: The celebration of Constantine's vicennalia, the twentith anniversary of Constantine's reign as an Augustus.
Helena converts one of the rooms in her palace in Rome (the Palatium Sessorianum) into a chapel. This chapel later becomes Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.
| |
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Church of the Nativity
Church on the Mount of Olive
A comparison of two translations from chapter 3 of the Vitae Constantini relative to the imperial entrance at the Council of Nicaea:
When the whole council had with proper ceremony taken their seats, silence fell upon them all, as they awaited the Emperor's arrival. One of the Emperor's company came in, then a second, then a third. Yet others led the way, not some of the usual soldiers and guards, but only of his faithful friends. All rose at a signal, which announced the emperor's entrance; and he finally walked along between them, like some heavenly angel of God, his bright mantle shedding luster like beams of light, shining with the fiery radiance of a purple robe, and decorated with the dazzling brilliance of gold and precious stones.
Averil Cameron and Stuart G. Hall (translators), Eusebius, Life of Constantine (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), p. 125.
As soon, then, as the whole assembly had seated themselves with becoming orderliness, a general silence prevailed, in expectation of the emperor's arrival. And first of all, three of his immediate family entered in succession, then others also preceded his approach, not of the soldiers or guards who usually accompanied him, but only friends in the faith. And now, all rising at the signal which indicated the emperor's entrance, at last he himself proceeded through the midst of the assembly, like some heavenly messenger of God, clothed in raiment which glittered as it were with rays of light, reflecting the glowing radiance of a purple robe, and adorned with the brilliant splendor of gold and precious stones.
the online edition of the Vitae Constantini.
1999.05.03 12:36
architectural agendas - crossed archaeology
As it happens, today, May 3, is the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross, and St. Helena (the recently proclaimed first master architect of Christianity) is the person attributed with having found the Holy Cross--a very interesting (and saintly) combination of archaeology and architecture.
see: 8201d.
1999.05.12
recollection of the day's events
I went to the University of Pennsylvania's Van Pelt Library to photocopy sections of Stephan Borgehammer's How the Holy Cross was Found. Borgehammer presents a convincing case for dating Helena's journey to Palestine two years earlier than the traditionally accepted 326 date. If Helena was not in Palestine in 326, then it is possible that she was in Trier at that time, specifically after the execution of her grandson Crispus, who, although killed at Pola, resided with his wife at Trier. It was in 326 at Trier that the royal palace of either the Empress Helena or that of Crispus and his wife Helena was torn down prior to the erection of a double basilica.
1999.08.18 17:34
18 August -- the feast of Saint Helena
After a dozen years of busily building churches in Rome, did Helena see as her next mission to start a similar [church] building boom in the Holy Land, that is, once Constantine became ruler of the eastern half of the Empire?
|