Constantine's story is inseparably linked to his mother, the Empress Helena, whose efforts led to the discovery of the tomb where Jesus was believed to have been buried (over whichthe Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built) and who brought back relics of the True Cross and, Tradition says, the Holy Robe of Christ, from the Holy Land to Europe. Both Constantine and Helena are cinsdered saints in both the Byzantine and Roman churches.
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT (272-337):
Religion and the State
at the dawn of Europe
'Visions of the Cross', by the School of Raphael, fresco, 1520-1524, Vatican Apostolic Palace.. The central frame depicts Constantine before the Battle of Ponte Milvio and the cross he saw in the sky with the tag, 'In hoc signo vinces' - By this sign, you will conquer'.
Vatican City, 17 April 2012 (VIS) - "Constantine the Great. The Roots of Europe" is the title of an international academic congress to be held in the Vatican from 18 to 21 April. The event was organised by the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences to mark the 1700th anniversary of the battle of Ponte Milvio and the conversion of the Emperor Constantine.
The congress was presented this morning at a press conference held in the Holy See Press Office, by Fr. Bernard Ardura O. Praem., president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences; Claire Sotinel, professor of Roman history at the University of Paris-Creteil and a member of the Ecole Francaise in Rome, and Giovanni Maria Vian, director of the "Osservatore Romano" newspaper.
"The conference", Fr. Ardura explained, "is the outcome of effective academic cooperation with important cultural institutions such as the Vatican Secret Archives, the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Italian National Research Council, the Ambrosian Library and the Sacred Heart Catholic University in Milan". It is also taking place "with the cooperation and contribution of the European Union delegation to the Holy See, the Lazio Regional Council and the Pontifical Lateran University".
This congress is the first of two, the second of which will be held in Milan in 2013 to mark the 1700th anniversary of the promulgation of the Edict of Milan, which established freedom of religion in the Roman empire and put an end to the persecution of certain religious groups, particularly Christians.
While the 2013 congress will concern itself with what is known as the "Constantinian revolution", this year's event will focus on the environment in which Constantine lived and on relations between Christians and the Roman empire prior to the year 313.
Participants will "examine the relationship between religion and the State, the idea of religious freedom in the empire, and religion from the point of view of the emperor and the senate", Fr. Ardura said.
One key area will be the conversion and baptism of Constantine himself, and his attitude towards Christians following the battle of Ponte Milvio, which took place on 28 October 312 and led to the death of his rival Maxentius.
Contemporary and later Christian historians, influenced by the narrative of Eusebius of Cesarea, saw Constantine's victory as the result of divine intervention.
Fr. Ardura pointed out that "from a purely strategic-military viewpoint the battle was not very important, but it soon became the founding symbol of the new world which came into being when Constantine found Christianity. Indeed, ... the era of imperial persecution against Christians was about to come to an end, giving way to the evangelisation of the entire empire and moulding the profile of western Europe and the Balkans; a Europe which gave rise to the values of human dignity, distinction and cooperation between religion and the State, and freedom of conscience, religion and worship."
"Of course these things would need many centuries to come to maturity, but they all existed 'in nuce' in the 'Constantinian revolution' and therefore in the battle of the Milvian Bridge".
For her part, Claire Sotinel explained that attentive and critical historical analysis "facilitates our understanding of what happened following the victory at the Milvian Bridge, helping us in the twenty-first century to reflect on important issues such as the interaction between religions and political power, the creation of religious pluralism, and the possibility of coexistence among different religions".
Now, the Chief Rabbi of Rome
claims that Constantine's conversion
launched anti-Semitism in Europe
by GIacomo Galeazzi
Translated from
Constantine the Great is raising a controversy in Rome, 1700 years since the Roman emperor converted to Christianity under the sign of the Cross.
The Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardi Di Segni, claims that "Constantine's conversion changed everything, and had such an impact on history that it is closely linked to anbti-Jewish persecution".
But Vatican historians say otherwise. "There was not the least shade of anti-Semitism", sayinbg that a black legend on Constantine continues to be fed today by those "who do not look kindly on the contributions of Christians to the public life".
Di Segni, however, calls Constantine's conversion "an epochal watershed, which divided history into a before and after
[NO! That distinction belongs only to the birth of Christ!] which led to a tragic upheaval that his successor, the Emperor Julian tried to set right, but for which Christians unfairly called him 'the Apostate'.
He adds that to deny the role of Constantine in anti-Jewish persecutuon was "to go against every available historical evidence", not to mention the question of "his conversion was sincere, or simply a political move".
Jewish persecutions started after the fourth century, said one of the historians participating in the Congress, who also blamed a popular book called Constantine's Sword, by James Carroll, for disseminating historically unfounded data about Constantine and his time.
Giovanni Maria Vian, in his paper, cited a Marxist study by Italian historian Santo Mazzarino who called Constantine " the most revolutionary statesman that Europe had".
Vian says, "Constantine has often been denounced for his autocracy but he was the most tenacious defender of religious freedom", a fallacy that, he says, Paul VI often deplored. Vian says that Constantinen advocated "a healthy secularity which remains a model for relations between Italian society and the Church".
I have not had time to find - or put together - a brief account that will do justice to Constantine and his complex multifaceted history. I hope I will have something when his next feast day comes around (May 21).
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 19/04/2012 10:55]