Saint Helen, the Holy Cross and our rituals

On Sunday, a week before her feast day on May 21, the relics of St Helen, "Equal to the Apostles" and mother of Constantine the Great, arrived in Greece in the pomp and splendor reserved for heads of state, sacred relics and the Holy Light at Easter. The president and other politicians, high clergy, military troops, diplomats and crowds of faithful took part in the ceremony, which began in Venice and ended at the Church of St Barbara in Aegaleo, a western part of the greater Athens metropolitan area - the same church where the relics of St Barbara, also from Venice, rested during a visit in 2015. The honor paid to the divine relics and to a section of the Holy Cross that St Helen is said to have found in the Holy Land, bring together the official state, the Church and the faithful, raising once again questions as to whether issues of faith should be treated with state honors. But...