Roman Emperor Constantine was born in the city of Naiss. On the paternal side, he, presumably, belonged to the Illyrian family. His father, Constantius Chlorus, ruled the Western part of the Roman Empire (Britain and Gaul). His mother, Elena, who later became a saint, was a Christian.
Emperor Diocletian wished to take young Constantine to the court in Nicomedia. In 305, Maximian and Diocletian resigned the imperial rank. Thus, in the West he became the ruler of Constantius Chlorine, and in the East - Galerius.
In 306, after the death of his father, Constantine returned to Gaul, where he was proclaimed Augustus. Meanwhile, a rebellion broke out in Rome against Galerius. The population and the army recognized the power of Maxentius, the son of Maximian, who formed the rank of emperor, but later joined his son and took the imperial dignity again.
These events formed the prerequisites for the outbreak of civil war. Galerius and Maximian died. Emperor Constantine, teaming up with Licinius (one of the new Augustus), defeated Maxentius near Rome. The latter drowned in the Tiber during the flight.
Licinius and Constantine gathered in Milan. Here was published the edict of Milan omnipotence. This was followed by a series of events, as a result of which Emperor Constantine became the sole ruler of the empire. He did not leave Rome as a capital. Byzantium became the main city of his state, later renamed to Constantinople.
Emperor Constantine was deeply convinced that only Christianity could unite the diverse population of the state. The ruler supported the Church, returning preachers from exile, erected temples, and took care of the clergy.
Deeply revered religion, Emperor Constantine the Great wished to find the Life-Giving Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. For this, the ruler sends his mother to Jerusalem, endowing her with powers and material means. Queen Elena, with the help of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Macarius, found the Cross in 326. During her time in Palestine, Helen performed many righteous deeds for the church. By her order, all the places that were somehow connected with the life of Christ and his mother were cleansed of the traces of paganism. In these holy places churches were erected. Emperor Constantine ordered the construction of the temple of the Lord Resurrection over the cave with the tomb of the Lord.
Queen Elena gave the found Cross for storage to the patriarch, taking with him a small part. After returning to Constantinople, she soon died (in 327). For deeds for the church and the work of finding the Cross, Queen Elena was called the Equal-to-the-Apostles.
However, disagreements and heresies soon appeared in the church. It should be said that even at the beginning of the reign of Emperor Constantine, the heresy of the Novatians and Donatists arose, which was first rejected by two cathedrals, and then finally condemned in 316 by the Cathedral of Milan.
In the East, meanwhile, the doctrine of Arius appeared, rejecting the divinity of Jesus. In this regard, in 325, the Ecumenical Council was convened in Nicaea on the orders of Constantine. Here heresy Aria was condemned, the Creed was formed . It included the concept of the "consubstantial Father." Thus, the truth about the divinity of Christ was forever entrenched in the consciousness of Christians.
After the Ecumenical Council, Constantine continued to work for the good of the church, despite the fact that he remained a pagan.
In 326, the emperor ruled for the twenty-first year. One of the personal tragedies of the ruler was his trial of his beloved son and heir Crispus, exposed in the conspiracy. Despite the fact that the emperor had three more sons from Fausta’s second wife, Konstantin felt lonely, believing that the people around him needed him only because he could convey a huge empire to them.
The ruler accepted baptism at the end of his life. Constantine died in 337 on the day of Pentecost.