CHAPTER XLII

THAT HELENA AUGUSTA, CONSTANTINE’S MOTHER, HAVING VISITED THIS LOCALITY FOR DEVOTIONAL PURPOSES, BUILT THESE CHURCHES

FOR this empress, having resolved to discharge the duties of pious devotion to the Supreme God, and feeling it incumbent on her to render thanksgivings with prayers on behalf both of her own son, now so mighty an emperor, and of his sons, her own grandchildren, the divinely favoured Cæsars, with youthful alacrity (though now advanced in years, yet gifted with no common degree of wisdom), had hastened to survey this venerable land; and at the same time to visit the eastern provinces, cities, and people, with a truly imperial solicitude. As soon, then, as she had rendered due reverence to the ground which the Saviour’s feet had trodden, according to the prophetic word which says “Let us worship at the place whereon His feet have stood,” she immediately bequeathed the fruit of her piety to future generations.