SO Chris Titley thinks Mum Helena came from humbler stock than Constantine!
Her father is far more famous than his father and probably more well known than Constantine himself to school kids, certainly in my time at school and probably Mr Titley himself (if he went to school). Her father was the King of Colchester and his praises have been sung over the centuries in the nursery rhyme Old King Cole, although scholars spell his name Coel.
The family were from the old British Church and history records that most of the Constantius' servants were Christian when he lived in York.
They had survived the Diocletian persecutions even though the Archbishop of York had met an early end (yes there were archbishops before Paulinus!).
K Barnes,
North View,
Catterton,
Updated: 09:04 Saturday, April 01, 2006
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