Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Feast of Saint Helena

(Molly)

Today we celebrated the Feast Day of our daughter, Eleanor, whose patron saint is Saint Helena. Helena (sometimes called simply, Helen) was the mother of the Emperor Constantine. Helena was sent by her son on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It was on this journey that through a miracle, Helena discovered the True Cross on which Jesus was crucified. It is on this site that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands today.

Saint Helena is known for her piety and her fervent love of Christ during the days of the very early Church.

Orthodox Bulgarian Icon of Emperor Constantine and Saint Helena

On your Feast Day, Saint Helena, pray for us.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Wow! You celebrate a lot of feast days in August! What do you do special for your kids on their name-day? Just curious ... We usually have a special dessert. Sometimes it's more (like a coloring page or special prayer), sometimes it's less (because I didn't plan ahead) ... Since neither Greg nor I had this custom growing up, we are still figuring out what our tradition will be in our own family!

Molly said...

Sarah,
Actually all of (living) our kids' feast days are in August. One more yet to celebrate! (This wasn't on purpose.) We usually do a special dessert and prayer time. I have done coloring pages, etc, since the kids are so young. As they grow older, we'll do more. We didn't grow up with this tradition either, nor did we celebrate baptism days growing up. But it has become a fun family tradition! We make sure to tell the kids when other family members are celebrating their patrons' feast days, too.
We received a few notes and a very special phone call on the Feast of Saint Henry in July and also so on the Feast of Saint Blaise in February. A wonderful way to remember our son.