This year we were able to rejoice in true HelKats fashion that St Kate’s Day was back to the accustomed style of pre-Covid celebrations! We began with a whole school Eucharist in YPH which was streamed to include the wider school community and alumni across the world. On this my second St Kate’s Day, I decided to focus my address on St Helen as there are particular threads that weave our continuing story together with the Chapel Centenary – which begins a year of celebrations on 6 December 2022. The cornerstone for the Chapel having been laid on this date in 1922. My address is below – do look out for our new altar vestments in the liturgical red for saints and martyrs, and the stole which now bears both St Helen and St Katharine.
Address for St Kate’s Day Eucharist 2022
In 312AD, the Roman Empire was up for grabs. Its previous emperor, Diocletian, divided the realm between two senior and two junior emperors, but the complex arrangement has collapsed. The successors are at one another’s throats. At the time a young general called Constantine, was one of Diocletian’s co-emperors, he has military successes under his belt, but now he faces a formidable veteran with a larger army and a better strategic position.
Constantine realises that he needs help from a power greater than himself, but who or what? He has his doubts about the traditional Roman gods. So he prays earnestly that the true God, whoever that may be, will “reveal to him who he is, and stretch forth his right hand to help him.”
He does not know it yet, but that prayer will change the course of Christian history as well as of western civilization. Later he will tell his friend Bishop Eusebius the incredible story of that hour. When Eusebius reports it in his history, he admits it is hard to believe. So what exactly happened? 