Emperor and Saint Constantine: From Paganism to Christianity

A few days back, we discussed how Christianity, in one century, traveled the distance and became a state religion from a persecuted cult (Christianity: From a Persecuted Cult to the State Religion). Now, we discuss the central figure of this story: Constantine the Great.

Emperor Constantine is a very interesting figure, He is called Constantine, the great, for his unifying of the Roman Empire, for being the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity and giving Christianity the role of state religion, and for his many other administrative and military reforms. He was also the first ruler to commission churches in the Holy Land and founded the great city of Constantinople (currently Istanbul). He convened and presided over the first ecumenical council in Nicaea (currently İznik, Turkey), although he was not yet baptized. The council of bishops was convened in 325 AD. The council agreed on the Nicene Creed (a summary of the proper Christian faith) that declared the divinity of Christ and that God the Father and God the Son are one being, thereby rejecting the idea that there was once a time when God the Father existed but God the Son did not. The Nicene Creed is one of the most important creeds in Christianity. For all his achievements in Christianity, he is considered a saint by Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians. In fact, the Eastern Orthodox Church considers him isapóstolos (equal to the Apostles), a rank bestowed only on a few saints, and called the "thirteenth apostle."

Father Bill Olnhausen is the Pastor Emeritus of Saint Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Following are some excerpts from his blog post, from September 2019, about Emperor Constantine (the whole blog post The Story of Saint Constantine the Great can be accessed):

Was Constantine an ascetic? No. Was he a brilliant theologian? No. Was his moral life exemplary? Not always, by any means. Was he a miracle worker? No. Was he even a Christian? Not formally, until he was finally baptized almost on his deathbed. So why does the Church call him a saint? Read on... 

Constantine was ambitious. His goal was to reunite the Roman empire under himself. Maxentius was then emperor in Italy. Constantine and his army marched south [from Gaul (France)], prepared to meet his far superior forces. While crossing the Alps Constantine had a strange and transformative experience. This was the story he told ever after: In the morning sky he saw (some accounts say others saw it with him) a shining cross with the words “In this sign conquer”. Some say it was in Greek “En touto nika”, others that it was Latin “In hoc signum vincit”...  

At the time Constantine was still a pagan who seems to have worshipped the sun as the high god. But he must also have had Christian sympathies, perhaps because of his mother, for he had Christian priests accompanying his army, and they explained the vision to him. So he had the Chi-Rho painted on his army’s banners. One of the banners was kept in Constantinople for many centuries. (Probably it was destroyed by the Crusaders, along with many other things including the future of the Byzantine Empire.) The armies met at the Milvian Bridge on the River Tiber outside Rome, and Maxentius was defeated. It was October in the year 312. 

Constantine's vision of a shinning cross (by Italian renaissance artist Raphael)

 Source: The Story of Saint Constantine the Great 

Constantine was now Augustus, sole emperor of the west, but he was not like other emperors. When he marched into Rome, he did not make the customary reprisals against the vanquished. More significantly, he boldly refused to make the customary sacrifices to the Roman gods. This was dangerously “politically incorrect”, for the Roman elite were chiefly pagan. Even though Christians were highly suspect, one of his first acts was to forbid the persecution of Christians. His famous Edict of Milan, made in the year 313 jointly with Licinius, the new emperor of the east, declared tolerance for all religions. And from the beginning Constantine gave special privileges to the Church. He ruled that the Church could again own property and directed the return of seized property. He ordered the return of Christian exiles. He decreed that the Christian Lord’s Day (“Kyriake” in Greek), the day of Christ’s resurrection, be the imperial weekly holiday. (“Sunday” is a pagan name for the first day of the week.)... 

Constantine soon decided to reunite the empire under himself and under the Christian God. He and his army moved east. In May 324 the combined armies numbering over 300,000 men met outside the Greek city of Adrianopolis. (In those days wars were usually fought outside cities and did not normally involve civilians. May we please go back to the old days?) Licinius was defeated and fled and finally surrendered that September. Constantine was now sole emperor, east and west. 

Now the empire was united under the Christian God. However, to Constantine’s great frustration, Christians were not united. Far from it, there was bitter division between the Orthodox and the Arians, who denied the divinity of Christ – or it may be they just misunderstood the meaning of divinity. So one of Constantine’s first acts, the next spring, was to call a Council of Christian bishops in Nicaea, a city on the west coast of Asia Minor, to try to unite the Church. It is said 318 bishops attended. This became known as the First Ecumenical Council. Constantine himself presided and gave great honor to those who had been injured during the persecutions. It is not clear whether Constantine understood the theological issue. Above all he wanted unity. Among the bishops at the Council, at least, he got it. After some early contention, the final vote was 316 (probably) to 2 against Arius and for the Orthodox.  

All this time Constantine had never been baptized. Historians wonder why. Some people at the time (mistakenly) delayed Baptism till late in life, lest they fall into major sin after the Washing. Even the great Saint Basil, raised in a profoundly Christian family, was not baptized till he was an adult. Or maybe Constantine delayed for political reasons, not wanting to entirely abandon the pagans, so he could be emperor “to all the people”. He never explained. But early in the year 337 he fell ill and quickly was baptized. It is said he abandoned his imperial garments and wore only his white baptismal robe for the rest of his life, which was not long. He died on Pentecost, May 21, 337, and ever since on this day the Church has honored him and his mother.

Emperor Constantine thus became Saint Constantine. Was he a true believer? Maybe. He certainly made Christianity the preferred religion of his Empire, baptized, and united Christians. And Rome and Christianity were never separated after him.