How Did Constantine Die ?
Constantine had sensed that his end is very near. So, he had planned his last resting-place furtively in the Church of the Holy Apostles. But his death came more rapidly than he had anticipated. Constantine became critically ill just after the Feast of Easter in the year 337. |
From Constantinople, he went to take hot baths close to his mother’s city of Helenopolis, situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of İzmit. Here he offered prayers in a church built by his mother to respect Lucian the Apostle. Here in this place, Constantine sensed his death and in order to purify himself, he became a catechumen. He tried to come back to Constantinople.
He called upon the bishops to tell about his wish that he should be christened in the River Jordon, the same place where Christ was baptized. He wished that he should be baptized without any delay, and pledged that he would live a more purified life if he overcame his disease. Eusebius, the bishop of the city Nicomedia where Constantine was resting, performed the baptism. Constantine breathed his last on May 22, 337 at an uptown house named Achyron, on the final day of the 50-day carnival of Pentecost immediately after Easter.
According to Eusebius’s description, Constantine died just after the end of the Persian war. But according to some other resources he died in the middle of the war. According to a script written in the middle of the 350s by Emperor Julian, the Sassanians avoided penalty for their bad deeds, because Constantine expired while he was preparing for war. After his demise, Constantine's body was moved to Constantinople and laid to rest in the Church of the Holy Apostles. He had three sons from Fausta, named Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans and also two daughters, Constantina, and Helena, who was married to Emperor Julian.
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