St. Helena’s Pursuits

The Living Wood. By Louis de Wohl.

As far as historical epochs in the annals of Christianity go, the era of the Emperor Constantine is one of the greatest. It is a hinge point of history: Christianity entered it as a persecuted sect and exited it as the predominant religion of the Roman Empire. It is fascinating that the historic and apostolic Churches (Catholic and Orthodox) remember the period as one of liberation, and Protestants largely treat it as a period of apostasy. In a sense, the difference between the two is primarily one of emphasis. Protestants have emphasized the insincere converts who flooded in at the time, as well as the imperial/governmental entanglements and interference that marked the period. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches, by contrast, cannot but emphasize the good that came from the cessation of governmental persecution that had marked the first 300 years of Christianity, as well as the mass of conversions that made it the religion of the empire. Both emphases can be true. As a Catholic, I see Constantine, who legalized Christianity in the empire, and his mother, Helena, as heroic figures, even if they were flawed (as are all people). May God raise up more like them.

Louis de Wohl, a German-born Catholic novelist well known during the middle of the 20th century, tells their story through an historical novel, The Living Wood (1947), centered on the life of St. Helena. Historical novels are an interesting literary genre — they blend details of history (dates, places, people, events) with the imagination of fiction to make the period come alive. Some are tethered closely to history; others take great liberties. The older, less documented, or more obscure periods and people necessarily require authors to take more liberties. Here, de Wohl was required to do that because much of the personality traits and attitudes of Constantine and Helena have been lost over time.

De Wohl worked extensively in this genre, and The Living Wood is an enjoyable read. When approaching any good novel, the reader must suspend his critical faculties and simply experience the world the author attempts to present. For an historical novel, this can be more challenging, but overall, de Wohl keeps us flipping the pages. He hooks us on the drama of the times and the charisma of his characters. Whether he ultimately presents something close to the historical reality or something more fictional is of no account. He uses actual persons and events to craft a compelling story that is largely in line with the Christian understanding of those times and the hagiography of St. Helena. As such, the story is primarily about her, with Constantine serving as a supporting cast member. Yes, Constantine gets in some good stage time, as it were, but the arc of this tale follows one remarkable woman over the course of her long life.

The “Living Wood” in the novel is a motif that connects two things: the sacred wood in the old Celtic tradition and the wood of the Holy Cross, from which the branches of Christianity grew. According to legend, St. Helena herself embodied both traditions and fulfilled her destiny late in life by going to Jerusalem in search of — and finding — the “True Cross” upon which Christ was crucified.

No one knows much about St. Helena — even her place of birth is disputed. De Wohl presents her as a princess, the daughter of a British king, which is one of the long-established theories of her origin. In a sense, de Wohl embraces the Arthurian-like nature of a great woman arising in the hinterland of the Roman Empire so as to fuse it with the growth of Christianity. A pagan princess from misty Britain is as unlikely a character as any to dedicate her later life to finding the True Cross some 2,000 miles from where she was born. If the Protestant Reformers of England did everything they could to sever the history and culture of Britain from the Catholic Church and the Continent, de Wohl, in a small way, offers an almost mythic reminder, through his depiction of St. Helena, of this connection, which cannot be ignored away. Though Helena’s British origin is just one possibility, de Wohl weaves in what we do know about those times in a satisfactory way. Perhaps Helena was not really a British princess, but after reading The Living Wood, we not only want her to be one, we come to believe she was one.

The work is divided in sections (or “books”) marked by the year: the first is “272 A.D.,” and the last “326 A.D.” This method allows character development in glimpses over a long period of time. By the end of the book, we know the characters and can identify the defining moments of their lives.

The story begins when the young Tribune Constantius, a Roman officer stationed in Britain, meets and wins the beautiful and headstrong Helena, the only daughter of the oracular King Coel of Britain, a mystic (and a mythic figure in British folklore). Constantius and Helena at once engross and repel each other. When we meet Helena, she is fiercely anti-Roman, seeing the Romans as people disconnected from the blood and soil of Britain. What marks her is ambition, which first manifests in a desire for earthly power but slowly becomes a desire for Christ. Here, de Wohl captures the drama of any young man’s dogged pursuit of a great and alluring woman. Helena is petulant and unreasonable but possesses an inner dignity that is apparent from the start. Constantius wins her for a variety of reasons, but mostly through his determination and drive, characteristics that distinguish both of them, as well as their eventual son, Constantine.

De Wohl does an excellent job of capturing this romantic pursuit, and we never lose sight of this woman’s verve as a young, beautiful, and audacious spirit. It is a testament to how differently we see things when confronted with a comprehensive narrative that exists, so to speak, out of time. Helena is young, middle-aged, and elderly all in the same story. We are only a few pages removed from the youthful and headstrong girl when we encounter her as a much older woman. In life, and especially around the people with whom we live day-in and day-out, aging is a slow, almost imperceptible process. I have been with my wife for more than 30 years, and she looks the same to me now as the day I met her when she was in her teens. This is, of course, not true, but the people we’ve known for a long time can seem impervious to aging. Likewise, Helena’s youthfulness and spirit persist through time. Though most of the details de Wohl provides of her life in Britain are fictionalized, it does not matter — it could have been true, and a woman like her could have existed. As de Wohl fills in the gaps of the life of this vitally important woman in history, I never found myself disbelieving any of it.

Constantius and Helena’s stormy courtship results in a tempestuous marriage during an era of Roman and British history that teemed with political scheming, including continuous attempts by warriors and politicians to seize power. The era was marked by a worldly lusting after power. It is fascinating to set foot, at least literarily, into Roman Britain. Shortly after their wedding, Tribune Constantius is recalled to Rome, and a Roman admiral from the Continent storms Britain and makes it his own personal realm. Helena, effectively a single mother in Constantius’s absence, is forced to leave her home and live in obscurity while she waits for her husband to return and reassert Roman rule over the traitorous interloper. The transition of Helena from belligerently anti-Roman to exceedingly pro-Roman is remarkable, but it is believable.

After a ten-year separation with no communication, Constantius returns to Britain as a conquering Caesar. We feel for Helena and the privations she has suffered, and we have developed a fondness for the couple we last saw together practically as newlyweds. Their romance is still fresh in our minds, and the idea of their rekindling it is appealing — we want to see her as empress. As she waits for Constantius in the home she once shared with him — the one she had to abandon during the political upheaval a decade earlier — we are excited along with her. We want this woman to experience peace. To the reader’s shock, however, Helena learns that Constantius has divorced her in absentia. He returns as Caesar, married to a new woman, with new children. He has set Helena aside for the daughter of the Roman emperor, in furtherance of his ambition to become emperor — an ambition Helena herself had earlier fanned. The blow is brutal, almost as much for the reader as for Helena.

Constantius reigns for a short time and is mild toward Christians during the “Great Persecution.” Helena boldly goes to him — long after he had jilted her — and petitions for the Christians who have experienced the full brunt of the Diocletian persecution. Here, de Wohl introduces the Christianizing influence at the tail end of the Roman Empire. He shows how “the Way” might have been explained to people who were nominally pagan but really didn’t believe in anything. He demonstrates how difficult it is to convey the concept of “truth” to people who have ceased to believe in it in any meaningful way and who relate to the world only in a material sense. In Helena’s suffering, in her realization that some of her favorite servants have been Christian all along, and in hearing their explanations of their beliefs and the promises made to followers of Jesus, she is first intrigued and then indignant in proportion to their persecution by Roman officials. De Wohl shows her to be a defender of marginalized people who eventually becomes one of them. Ultimately, it is their dedication and their theology, as well as their explications of the emptiness of worldly ambition, that convince her to convert — that and, of course, divine grace.

Helena, as a single mother, does her best to raise a son who will be a great soldier. Constantine, who has detested his father since he abandoned him and his mother, spends many years in the army under the Eastern Emperor Galerius, and he earns renown as an officer. The star-crossed story of Constantius, Helena, and Constantine comes together when the now-dying emperor of the West determines to bequeath his empire to Constantine, because his other children are too young to rule. He knows that Constantine has grown into a striking and capable figure, and he makes his bequest to him in part to make amends for the cost of his ambition and, in equal part, to ensure that his legacy continues. He sends for Constantine, who makes the harrowing journey across the whole of the empire, returning to Britain in time to see his father before he dies.

After this, the story jumps forward to a later event: the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge, in which Constantine triumphs over his foes and becomes the uncontested ruler of the West. Famously, Constantine’s vision of a cloud formation convinces him to paint crosses on his outnumbered soldiers’ helmets and shields. He later attributes his victory to the sign he saw in the sky. De Wohl offers an interesting dramatization of an event during which so much of the history of Europe stood in balance. Like Helena earlier in the story, Constantine is a friend of the Christians but has no desire to become one of them. That will change, and his victory secures the victory of Christ throughout the Roman Empire. Christianity’s status as the globally dominant religion it has become hinged, in a meaningful way, on the outcome of this battle.

St. Helena’s diligent preparation and nurturing of her son result in Constantine’s becoming the first Christian Emperor. Constantine, forever in debt to his mother after his accession to the throne, offers her the resources of the vast Roman Empire so she may indulge in the seemingly insane pursuit of finding the Living Wood of the True Cross. Significantly, his offer to her follows her Christian kindness toward him after he had committed a great sin involving the death of his wife and son. This is yet another demonstration of the good that God pulls from man’s evil.

Helena’s resolve to raise Constantine as a warrior son, and her gradual understanding and acceptance of Christianity, prepare her for the miracle of the discovery of the True Cross, the Living Wood of Calvary, by which all men are saved. The discovery not only satisfies a longing in Helena; it ties into the mysticism of her kingly father, who preached the Living Wood to her many years earlier. It further connects Helena and all men to the mystery of creation and the shared human myths that imbued all cultures that pointed to a savior. As de Wohl dramatizes this famous event in Christian history, he hints at a form of divine intervention in Helena’s discovery.

St. Helena, pray for us!

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