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  • Feast Day of Ss. Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Chicago, May 18-21, 2025


Feast Day of Ss. Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Chicago, May 18-21, 2025

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Category: Headlines
Published: May 21 2025

The past few days, Sts. Constantine and Helen Romanian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago celebrated their patronal feast.  

The celebration began on Saturday evening, May 17, with the Vespers service officiated by His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae and the priests of the Cathedral. The responses were given by a group of singers from the Metropolitan Cathedral. The celebration continued on Sunday, May 18 with the Divine Hierarchal Liturgy served by His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae and the priests of the Cathedral. After the Divine Liturgy ended, His Eminence Nicolae delivered a richly educational  sermon to the faithful present, interpreting the Gospel of the day and evoking several significant moments from the lives of the Sts. Constantine and Helen:

“The living water that the Savior promises for eternal drink is the descent of the Holy Spirit. Today’s evangelical passage is found in chapter 4 of the Holy Gospel of St. John. In chapter 7 of the same Holy Gospel, we can read the words of the Savior: If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from his belly (John 7:37-38). And immediately St. John explains: this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believe in Him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39). The living water is, in the interpretation of the Savior himself, the Holy Spirit who will be poured out at Pentecost on the Apostles, the Holy Spirit who pours out on us at Baptism, the Holy Spirit who pours out permanently in the Church at the Holy Liturgy and at the Holy Mysteries. The living water that saturates us for eternity is the Holy Spirit who represents the outpouring of God’s love for us. The Savior reveals to this woman secrets that He did not reveal even to the Apostles, that from now on we can have a true, obvious communion with God....

Today's Holy Gospel not only reveals to us the special encounter of the Savior with this foreign Samaritan woman, but it also reveals to us what we are looking for in the Church. It reveals to us the fact that Christ went out to meet the Samaritans, the foreigners, or even the enemies. The Savior will send the Apostles, when he ascends to heaven, into all the world to preach the word, to all nations, to all creation, not only to the Jews. This meeting with the Samaritan woman shows us the calling of all nations to the Church....”

Then, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae spoke in depth about the mission of St. Emperors Constantine and Helen, explaining why they are considered equal to the Apostles. After the service, there was a festive meal, and a performance organized by Sunday school students and the awarding of the winners of the Religion Olympiad in the metropolitan phase. Special thanks were addressed to all the hardworking people of the Cathedral for preparing this beautiful celebration!

On Wednesday, May 21, 2025, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae and the priests of the Cathedral served the Divine Liturgy again, on the feast day of St. Emperors Constantine and Helen. At the time of the sermon, His Eminence Nicolae spoke about the life and mission of St. Empress Helen, recalling the recent pilgrimage with her holy relics to Romania:

"After Emperor Constantine became Caesar in the West, replacing his father, in the year 306, he took Helena to his court in Trier, Germany. In 312, Constantine defeated Maxentius and granted his mother the first title, of "Nobilissima Femina". Her ascension was finalized in the year 324, after Constantine defeated Emperor Licinius, when she received the title of "Augusta", co-empress. Only after this moment can we speak of Helen as empress.... Only after the year 324 followed her activity of building holy places in the East, especially in Jerusalem. First was the discovery of the Honorable Wood of the Holy Cross, then the construction of churches. He was directly involved in the construction of three places: the Church of the Resurrection, above the Holy Sepulchre and Golgotha, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives....

The holy relics of St. Empress Helena were transferred from Rome to Constantinople – New Rome. However, in 1211, the Western Crusader knights, who occupied Constantinople (1204-1261), took most of the relics from Constantinople and took them to Venice, where they remain to this day, in the Roman Catholic church dedicated to St. Helen (la Chiesa di Santa Elena). For eight centuries, the holy relics in Venice were not taken out on pilgrimage, but in 2017, they were taken to Athens, Greece for veneration. Romania becomes the second Orthodox country to receive the holy relics, as they are brought to the Pantocrator Monastery in the Diocese of Alexandria and Teleorman for the period April 30 - May 8, 2025, where a fragment of the relics of the Holy Myrrh-Bearer Mary Magdalene is also located.”

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