"You, O Lord, who through Your only-begotten Son have deigned to confer salvation upon the human race by the suffering of the cross, and now in these last times have breathed into the heart of Your handmaid to seek out the blessed wood on which our salvation hung: show clearly which of these three was the cross unto the Lord's glory, and which stood for servile punishment, so that this woman, who lies half-alive, as soon as the saving wood has touched her, may be recalled from the gates of death to life." And when he had said this, he applied first one of the three, and accomplished nothing. He applied the second, and not even thus was anything done.
But when he applied the third, suddenly, her eyes opened, the woman rose up, and having recovered the soundness of her strength, far more lively than when she had been well, she began to run through the whole house and to magnify the power of God. Thus by an evident sign the queen, made partaker of her vow, with royal munificence built a marvelous temple in that place in which she had found the cross. The nails too, by which the Lord's body had been fixed, she carried to her son. From some of them he made bridles, which he might use in war; and from others he is said to have fashioned a helmet likewise fitted for the uses of war. But of the saving wood itself she carried part to her son, and part she left behind in the place, enclosed in silver caskets: which even now is preserved with anxious veneration as a memorial.
This token also of her religious soul did the venerable queen leave behind: the virgins consecrated to God whom she found there, she is said to have invited to a meal, and to have served them with such great devotion that she would think it unworthy if they should use the offices of servants, but with her own hands, girded in the garb of a servant, she set food before them, held out the cup, poured water on their hands; and the queen of the world and mother of the empire reckoned herself the handmaid of the handmaids of Christ. And these things indeed were done at Jerusalem. Meanwhile Constantine, relying on piety, subdued by arms upon his own soil the Sarmatians, the Goths, and other barbarous nations, except those which had forestalled peace either by friendships or by their own surrender.
And the more religiously and humbly he had subjected himself to God, the more abundantly did God subject all things to him. To Antony also, the first inhabitant of the desert, he sent letters as suppliant as though to one of the prophets, that he might supplicate the Lord for him and for his children. Thus he longed to make himself commendable to God not only by his own merits and by the religion of his mother, but also by the intercession of the saints.
Indeed, since we have made mention of so great a man as Antony, concerning his virtues and institutes, and the sobriety of his mind—how, passing his life in solitude, he had the company only of wild beasts, and gaining frequent triumphs over demons, he pleased God above all mortals, and how he left to monks down to this present day the illustrious examples of his rule—although I wished to set forth some things, that little book excluded me which, written by Athanasius, has also been published in the Latin tongue. On which account, omitting those things which have already been told by others, we shall recount those things which, although the trustworthiness of his deeds may contain, yet a more obscure report has withheld from those who are placed far away.