IV – St. Constantine – The Emperor
Originally written by me in December 2006
The name of Jesus Christ in Greek is translated as IHCOYC XPICTOC or the 4-letter abbreviation ICXC. Robert Place has Constantine carrying the chi-roo, or chi-rho, or chi-ro, which is the monogram of Christ, X (chi) P (rho), in the shape of a cruciform. Constantine supposedly saw this sign in a vision which caused him to uphold and allow Christianity as a religion–the first Emperor of the Roman Empire to do so.
[Note to all conspiracy theorists -- Perhaps this is where Windows XP comes from too? On no, secret messages from Microsoft about Bill Gates being the true Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. I shall write a book and call it The Gates Code.]
[Note to those remorseful about the evil, modern, secular bastardization of the word "Christmas" by replacing it with "Xmas" -- Xmas does actually keep Christ in Christmas, but thank you for your comments and have a great Xmas.]
Legalizing Christianity as the religion of state, is the reason that Constantine is a saint, although he seems to be much more popular in Eastern orthodox faiths. That makes sense since the old city of Byzantium was changed to Constantinople by him and became his seat of power and the capital of the Empire, and the very seat of Eastern orthodoxy.
I have two favourite snippets from Robert Place on Constantine:
“As a saint, he does not always measure up to a modern standard of enlightened morality.”
He had his son killed and boiled his wife alive–hardly what one expects from a devoted family man, but he was an Emperor and they will exhibit paranoia and murderous protective measures when feeling their security threatened.
“It was Constantine’s sons who, after his death, enacted laws to persecute Pagans and heretics and set precedence for the Inquisition.”
That one stopped me cold. Can we really hold them responsible for an Inquisition that occurred a thousand years later and more? I was iffy on this one, and am more inclined to blame human nature than these two men.
My view is that the Inquisition was inevitable given the passionate belief held by Church administration and driven home to the masses, that the Church was right and true in God. No one is more tenacious a murderer and torturer than a fundamentalist or a sanctified group of fundamentalists. Also “capturing” the wealth of others that the Church embraced as policy, caused some changes in laws. In other words, it would have happened anyway, they would have passed those laws anyway, with or without precedent from the 4th century. The Catholic Church WAS precedent during the Inquisition; a law unto itself, a steamroller of new social practices, education, acquisition, and greed.
I have only two card depictions for Constantine, proving that he isn’t the most popular saint. One of my Encyclopedias of Saints, and my Dictionary of Saints doesn’t even list him at all. The second card is from the Da Vinci Code playing cards by Waddingtons and the text says “…So that we might grant to the Christians and others full authority to observe that religion which each preferred…”
St. Constantine is often depicted with his mother St. Helena in beautiful icons of the Eastern Orthodoxy.
I found an interesting playing card in my collection that shows that although Constantine may not be the most popular Saint, he is revered by kings, for obvious reasons. Here is Henri IV of France showing his lust for Constantine’s power and control! Or maybe this was the only costume left in the trunk? Ah, but the King felt his power that day and wasn’t taking any nonsense from the Queen..
