Saint Helena

I generally blame much of the patriarchy in today's society on Abrahamic religion. I recently started reading Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It, by Janina Ramirez, and I was struck by the fact that it was largely women who first brought Christianity to the English speaking world, and who were the early adopters.

Even before that time, it is widely believed that it was Helena, the mother of Constantine, who convinced her son, the Roman Emperor, to convert to Christianity. Why, ladies?

Today's painting shows Helena, now known as Saint Helena, following her travels to the Holy Land where she built the Church of the Nativity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Church of the Ascension. She's posing with the cross upon which Jesus was crucified, which she located and brought back with her as one of the most sacred relics of Christianity. She has the nails in her outstretched right hand.

Helena has been given a position of honor in Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the center of the Roman Catholic Church. Her statue resides in the niche in one of the four piers that support the dome of the basilica. On the plinth upon which she rests is a scallop shell, historically the symbol of Venus, Aphrodite, fertility, and the womb.

Saint Helena, original painting by Echoing Multiverse, available via Saatchi Art. Prints, stickers, and other merch available through RedBubble or Fine Art America.

How did the feminine scallop shell become such a prominent Christian symbol? Was Christianity once significantly less patriarchal than the version I grew up with, that had entirely written the Mother out of the trinity, replacing her with "The Holy Ghost"?

You were such a powerful woman, Helena, why were you so into this new religion? When and why were the powerful women removed?

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