Saint Helena is traditionally said to have discovered the True Cross in Jerusalem.
Helena was the mother of Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who legalized Christianity in the empire through the Edict of Milan in 313. Ancient Christian writers associate Helena with a pilgrimage to the Holy Land late in her life, during which she supported the construction of churches at important Christian sites.
According to later tradition, workers found three crosses near the site associated with Jesus’s crucifixion. Helena is credited with identifying the cross of Jesus, often through a healing miracle involving a sick person. This account became influential in Christian tradition, although historians distinguish the later legend from what can be firmly established about the event.
Helena is also associated with the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. She is not the same person as Helena of Constantinople, another name used for her in historical sources.