THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

WIRRAL CHURCH DEDICATIONS
of Vera Cruz, because their churches
were believed to have contained fragments
of the True Cross.
Of the authenticity of this discovery
there is much doubt, but many facts are
known about St. Helen, derived, for the
most part, from the history of Eusebius,
a contemporary. St. Ambrose states that
she was an innkeeper's daughter, and this
was the general belief. Be this as it may,
Constantius, the nephew of the reigning
Emperior Claudius, met her and married
her, this resulting in the birth of a son who
became Constantine the Great, the first
Christian Emperor of Rome. For his
mother the Emperor showed the greatest
honour. She was styled Augusta and
Imperatrix, and gold coins were stamped
bearing her image. Eusebius states that
'*she seemed from her tender years to
have been taught by the Saviour Himself,"
and that, though nearly eighty years of
age, she " had a youthful spirit and the
greatest healthiness both of body and of
mind." Her visit to Jerusalem is histor-
ical, and while in Palestine she founded
the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
History records that she was a noble and
gracious woman, and worthy of canonis-
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