Drăgănești-Vlașca, Teleorman County, Romania, May 5, 2025
Photo: basilica.ro
The full relics of the Empress St. Helen, mother of St. Constantine the Great, arrived in Romania on April 30 and will remain through May 8.
Romania is only the second Orthodox country to host the Equal-to-the-Apostles’ relics since they were taken to the West. St. Helen was initially buried in Rome and her relics were later moved to Constantinople. In 1211, they were taken to Venice by the Crusaders. In 2017, they were taken on pilgrimage for the first time, to Greece.
Photo: basilica.ro
The relics were brought for the annual pilgrimage of the Pantocrator Monastery in Drăgănești-Vlașca, Teleorman County, around Myrrh-Bearers Sunday, reports the Basilica News Agency. They were initially taken to the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest for several hours on April 30, after which they were taken the monastery, where they will remain until May 8. The monastery will be open around the clock throughout the stay of the relics.
In greeting her relics in Bucharest, His Holiness Patriarch Daniel of Romania recounted her life and legacy:
The Holy Empress Helen left us a spiritual legacy of inestimable value. Through her example of faith, piety and generosity, she represents Christian leaders, church founders and benefactors of the people. Through her pilgrimage to the holy places for the discovery of the Holy Cross, she is the first Christian pilgrim to the Holy Land to show the importance of seeking and venerating holy places and objects from the life of Christ and the lives of the saints.
Photo: basilica.ro
By finding the Holy Cross, St. Helen gave us a concrete symbol of Christ’s victory over sin and death. And by founding churches at the holy places, she laid the foundations of a pilgrimage tradition that continues to this day.
I urge you, therefore, beloved believers, to approach with reverence the holy relics of Holy Empress Helen, to ask for her intercession for your personal needs and for the good of the Church and our country, and to follow her example of faith and generosity.
Let us pray that, through the intercession of the Holy Empress Helen, the Risen Christ the Lord may strengthen us in faith and fill us with the joy of His Resurrection, to the glory of the Holy Trinity and our salvation.
St. Helen’s relics are carried into the Patriarchal Cathedral in the video below beginning at 14:50:
That evening, the relics were transported to the Pantocrator Monastery. It was reported that as of Saturday, May 3, more than 40,000 Orthodox faithful had come to venerate St. Helen.
On Sunday, May 4, the monastery celebrated its patronal feast of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. The Hierarchical Divine Liturgy was led by Metropolitan Panteleimon of Veria of the Church of Greece and a host of Romanian hierarchs and clergy.
Watch the Divine Liturgy for the monastery’s patronal feast:
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