Son Constantine News Today

City she reclaimed. >> helena is the person that takes jerusalem from a sleepy capital and turns it into a place we are all looking to for a spiritual message. >> for centuries devoted pilgrims have come here to mark their fate with a symbol now recognized the world over. >> at the time of jesus, a cross was a very negative image. it was a place of brutal horrible execution and death. after constantine and helena it becomes a contract with the transcendent. >> without the story of the discovery ...

Grandson. >> this must have been devastating for her. >> but the scandal is about to get bigger. >> constantine discovers from back channels that perhaps fausta had manufactured all of this, that she favored her own sons for the throne and that she set crispus up to be murdered. >> he orders that she be put in a bath chamber, the doors locked, and the fire stoked up to the point that it cooks her to death. >> as the self-proclaimed christian emperor, hes engaged

B.c., the roman empire has been ruled by pagans. then in 312 a.d., helenas son constantine has a dramatic change of faith. >> the story goes that on the eve of a great battle outside rome, he has a vision. >> he sees a cross of light in the sky and he hears a voice tell him, by this you will conquer. he takes it to mean by the symbol of the cross. by christianity, hes going to become the lone emperor, the supreme figure in the known world. >> he wins the battle and becomes the first christian em...

Waterford cross arrived in ireland, she will continue her tour of the holy land. with the backing of her son, the emporor constantine she will transform the landscape. she builds churches on the side of christs birth in beth leham and one to commonerate his last moment on earth. >> constantine made it legal to practice christianity. helena gave christians places to practice. before her arrival there were no christian buildings in this land. they met here to commemorate jesus assension but secret...

>> her influence upon her son, constantine, would change the fate of the roman empire and christianity. >> a decade after her death, her son constantine, now an old man, falls ill. after a lifetime of championing the cause of christianity he takes the final step and asks to be baptized. >> there was so much of constantines life that did not lineup with being a christian. he was a violent man. but something i believe changed in the last year of his life. i think that he had a full conversion.

>> it was illegal. by penalty of death to be a christian. after that, you were free. >> constantine legalizes christianity throughout the empire. 14 years later, his mother is on her way to the holy land. >> i think that she was sent by the emperor constantine. he felt that the cross was very important, and he wanted to send her there to do something special. >> there is potentially a darker side to helenas journey. it follows on from a scandalous episode within the house of constantine.

Here openly and publicly to remember this important part of their faith. >> for a religion that had been illegal for over 200 years it is a defining moment. >> she makes the holy land holy. the churches she built were ways of literally cementing in the ground christianity in the holy land. >> it reinstates it as the place where people want to go and remember jesus passion. >> arguably helena and constantines biggest contribution to jerusalem was this, set to be built on the site where jesus was ...

Constantine discovers that his son crispus, his favorite son, has been having an affair with his second wife fausta. >> what we are told by the sources we have is that on the orders of his father, he is sent to a place on the coast of croatia. and he is put to death by poison. >> helena was crushed by this scandal. this was likely her favorite

>> constantine abandoned his first wife to marry the noble woman fausta. fausta has given him three young sons. but her husbands likely successor is his eldest son crispus. >> he was the golden boy. he had a successful military career. he had been made cesar by his father. >> on the face of it, the christian family at the center of the roman empire are united. but a scandal is about to erupt. >> christian sources tend to hush-hush about it. they dont want to say anything. but the pagan sources j...