Book I, Ch. 17 — Helena , Mother of the Emperor Constantine.--Her zeal in the Erection of the Holy Church.

The bearer of these letters was no less illustrious a personage than the mother of the emperor, even she who was glorious in her offspring, whose piety was celebrated by all; she who brought forth that great luminary and nurtured him in piety. She did not shrink from the fatigue of the journey on account of her extreme old age, but undertook it a little before her death, which occurred in her eightieth year . When the empress beheld the place where the Saviour suffered, she immediately ordered the idolatrous temple, which had been there erected