It was also at that time that Saint Constantine the Great was vouchsafed a vision. For this reason, he sent his blessed mother Helen to Jerusalem that she might search for the Precious Wood of the Holy Cross. It was still buried or rather hidden away out of malice (hatred) in the Holy Land where our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and buried, by the ungrateful people of the Jews. Socrates and Sozomen mention that the haters of Christ had covered the spot of the crucifixion. By design, they were instrumental in the construction of a temple to Aphrodite (Venus) that they might blot out the memory of Jesus. When the location came to be known to the St. Helen, she ordered the temple cast down and the earth removed.

In July of 315 A.D., Rome celebrated the Decennalia, the tenth anniversary of Constantine since he had been proclaimed Augustus in Eboracum in the British Isles. He had, during the last ten years, lived in Mediolanum, August Treverorum, Arelate, and Sirmium. Constantine went to Rome and accepted all of the honors bestowed upon him, with one important exception. He refused to make the traditional sacrifices to the pagan gods.

Constantius died on the 25th day of July, in the year 306 A.D., at the age of fifty-five. Eusebius the Church Historian tells us that Constantine was forthwith appointed by Constantius, who thereupon breathed his last. He reposed on the imperial couch in the royal palace, giving thanks to God in all things. He was surrounded by a devoted circle of his loving sons and daughters.

Constantine the Great and ever-memorable first emperors of the Christians, the Byzantine autocrat, and builder of Constantinople, was born at Naissus, present-day Nis of Dardania in the area that now belongs in today's Serbia and Croatia, 274 A.D.

Patrick (Patrikios), the sacred hieromartyr, and his companions--the holy Martyr Akakios, Menander, and Polyaenos--were accounted worthy of the crown martyrdom at Prousa of Asia Minor during the rule of Julian the consular governor.