Iconographer: Father Micheal
Commemorates on: May 21
This great and renowned sovereign of the Christians was the son of Constantius Chlorus (the ruler of the westernmost parts of the Roman empire), and of the blessed Helen. He was born in 272, in (according to some authorities) Naissus of Dardania, a city on the Hellespont. In 306, when his father died, he was proclaimed successor to his throne. In 312, on learning that Maxentius and Maximinus had joined forces against him, he attacked and mightily conquered him. The following day, Constantine entered Rome in triumph and was proclaimed Emperor of the West by the Senate.In 324 he became monarch over the West and the East. Under him and because of him all the persecutions against the Church ceased.. In 325 he gathered the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea. In 324, in the ancient city of Byzantium, he laid the foundations of the new capital of his realm, and solemnly inaugurated it on May 11, 330, naming it after himself, Constantinople. Falling ill near Nicomedia, he requested to receive divine Baptism, and when he had been deemed worthy of the Holy Mysteries, he reposed in 337, on May 21 or 22, the day of Pentecost, having lived sixty-five years.