medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
St Helena is one of my interests, so I took this opportunity to write to Jan
Drijvers asking him if he could confirm my suspicion that there is really
not much early evidence showing H was Christian before her son. I also asked
about Helena's supposed connection with Arianism. Here's what he wrote back
to me:
"As far as I know, the first reference to
Helena converting Constantine is in a Frankish chronicle dating from
the 7th century; Chron. 2.42 ed. Krusch, MGH, SRM III, 66. Of course
Helena was converted by her son after 312 as Eusebius in his Life of
Constantine mentions. See further H.A. Pohlsander, Helena, Empress
and Saint, Chicago 1995, p. 24.
The connection with Arianism is also late. Philostorgius in
his Historia Ecclesiastica II 2,5 mentions that Drepanum was renamed
Helenopolis because of the esteem Helena had had for the martyr
Lucian who was buried in Drepanum. This Lucian was probably the
teacher of Arius. See for this my Helena Augusta, pp. 10-12."
Hope you find this helpful.
Best,
Karolyn
*****
Karolyn Kinane
[log in to unmask]
Department of English
University of Minnesota
207 Lind Hall
207 Church Street
Minneapolis, MN 55455
www.cmedst.umn.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Crockett <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 9:49 PM
Subject: [M-R] St. Helena's conversion <saints of the day 18. August
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>Helena (d. c. 330) ...She converted to Christianity in 312, when
it became legal.
from some ancient and, no doubt, defective memory of an even more ancient
and,
perhaps, defective source (Burckhardt??), i was under the impression that H.
converted early and was, perhaps, instrumental in the conversion of her son
(he must have gotten the crazy idea from *some*where, after all).
probably yet another OltZimer's hallucination, like Roch's miraculous
recovery
from the on-comming "plague."
i hate it when that happens.
i suppose that the "evidence" would rest on the [rimary testimony of a very
few (like, one?) sources: Eusebius(?).
either way, something of a seminal event, about which i would appreciate
being
updated on by anyone who might actually know something about the question.
best to all,
christopher
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