Why is Constantine not a widely renowned Christian figure?

[chiwawa]

The Roman Emperor Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity and he popularized it all over the massive Empire. He even issued the Edict of Milan, legalizing Christian worship all over the empire.

If it wasnt for Constantine, Christianity wouldnt have spread over Europe as it did..our western culture was so influenced by the Roman culture, if it wasnt for Constantine, many of the West would still be worshiping Pagan Roman gods, or another religion which would have filled the void.

So why isnt Constantine a renowened figure in Christianity ? In all my catholic education and life I have never heard his name, or what he did. Only recently in a history class I did.

Or maybe he is, and its just where I grew up?

 

[Chesterton]

Or maybe he is, and its just where I grew up?

I think he is widely renowned. He got named Constantine The Great, after all.

 

[laconicstudent]

Constantine is a Christian saint.

Troparion, Tone 8

Having seen the figure of the Cross in the heavens,
And like Paul not having received his call from men, O Lord,
Your apostle among rulers, the Emperor Constantine,
Has been set by Your hand as ruler over the Imperial City
That he preserved in peace for many years,
Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O only lover of mankind.
​

 

[chiwawa]

he is only considered a saint in the eastern orthodox church

 

[laconicstudent]

he is only considered a saint in the eastern orthodox church

What about that?

 

[CryptoLutheran]

Constantine's legacy is somewhat bitter-sweet. On the one hand, he ended official persecution of Christianity in the Roman empire, on the other hand Christianity slowly became more intertwined with Roman politics.

It's important that we always remember the difference between kingdom and empire. The City of God and the City of Man.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[E.C.]

He is a saint in the Orthodox Church! I was chrismated with his name!


The reason why Protestants don't show any love for him or anything that he did is because, according to them, he replaced "true Christianity" with Roman Catholicism and brutally oppressed any and all non conforming Christians as well as founding today's Roman Catholic Church which does nothing but oppress the masses and bows down to their pope (yes, those are the almost exact words of several Baptists and Pentecostals I have met).

That "reasoning" originated in the 19th century by a man who did not read his history.

 

[CryptoLutheran]

He is a saint in the Orthodox Church! I was chrismated with his name!


The reason why Protestants don't show any love for him or anything that he did is because, according to them, he replaced "true Christianity" with Roman Catholicism and brutally oppressed any and all non conforming Christians as well as founding today's Roman Catholic Church which does nothing but oppress the masses and bows down to their pope (yes, those are the almost exact words of a Protestant I once met).

That "reasoning" originated in the 19th century by a man who did not read his history.

For the sake of fairness, this is more representative of more Restorationist brands of Protestantism than the Historic Protestantism of the Reformation itself.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[E.C.]

For the sake of fairness, this is more representative of more Restorationist brands of Protestantism than the Historic Protestantism of the Reformation itself.

-CryptoLutheran

With that in mind I've slightly tweaked the wordage.

 

[MacNeil, D.]

...
If it wasnt for Constantine, Christianity wouldnt have spread over Europe as it did..our western culture was so influenced by the Roman culture,...

The warlord Clovis did as much to preserve trinitarian Christianity in the West. Without him, almost all of western Europe would have been Arian.

 

[chiwawa]

He is a saint in the Orthodox Church! I was chrismated with his name!


The reason why Protestants don't show any love for him or anything that he did is because, according to them, he replaced "true Christianity" with Roman Catholicism and brutally oppressed any and all non conforming Christians as well as founding today's Roman Catholic Church which does nothing but oppress the masses and bows down to their pope (yes, those are the almost exact words of several Baptists and Pentecostals I have met).

That "reasoning" originated in the 19th century by a man who did not read his history.

This makes a lot of sense. But it seems even catholics do not recognize him that highly as well...

 

[Hairy Tic]

This makes a lot of sense. But it seems even catholics do not recognize him that highly as well...

## Actually, he is technically Blessed - but he is probably far less prominent than in Orthodoxy, if only because Catholicism is much larger and has a more mixed population: there is no particular reason for Viet or mestizo RCs to bother with him; & other Saints are much more prominent. A lot of Saints are half-forgotten - he is not being "picked on". The Universal Calendar (for the Roman Rite) can accommodate only so many Saints without being over-loaded, which is why only 200 or so are assigned a feast.

Other Catholic Rites may perhaps make more of him.

There is also the fact that he was baptised only on his death-bed. This does not favour widespread veneration of him.

I find St.Constantine III much more impressive:

ScotSites eBooks - A Calendar of Scottish Saints

 

[Hairy Tic]

The Roman Emperor Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity and he popularized it all over the massive Empire. He even issued the Edict of Milan, legalizing Christian worship all over the empire.

If it wasnt for Constantine, Christianity wouldnt have spread over Europe as it did..our western culture was so influenced by the Roman culture, if it wasnt for Constantine, many of the West would still be worshiping Pagan Roman gods, or another religion which would have filled the void.

## Christianity ?

So why isnt Constantine a renowened figure in Christianity ? In all my catholic education and life I have never heard his name, or what he did. Only recently in a history class I did.

Or maybe he is, and its just where I grew up?

## Hypothetical questions are impossible to answer. There are far too many uncertainities & unknowns.

IMO, the Church was greatly damaged by his friendliness - this was also the view of Dante & other mediaeval Christians, not all of them heretics. He enriched the Church, & the Church does not need wealth; it is deadly dangerous, a curse. Shackles of gold are still shackles. By becoming semi-official, it lost its freedom to rebuke the mighty, & joined the mighty, when it should speak for the poor & the oppressed - God has chosen them, not the rich and the great.

He harmed Christianity more than any persecutor could have done Persecution is far safer than prosperity - so people should be very grateful that so much atheism is militantly anti-Christian

Constantine versus Christ : the triumph of ideology / Alistair Kee | National Library of Australia

 

[E.C.]

This makes a lot of sense. But it seems even catholics do not recognize him that highly as well...

Probably because he left Rome

 

[Chesterton]

IMO, the Church was greatly damaged by his friendliness - this was also the view of Dante & other mediaeval Christians, not all of them heretics. He enriched the Church, & the Church does not need wealth; it is deadly dangerous, a curse. Shackles of gold are still shackles. By becoming semi-official, it lost its freedom to rebuke the mighty, & joined the mighty, when it should speak for the poor & the oppressed - God has chosen them, not the rich and the great.

He harmed Christianity more than any persecutor could have done Persecution is far safer than prosperity - so people should be very grateful that so much atheism is militantly anti-Christian

Constantine versus Christ : the triumph of ideology / Alistair Kee | National Library of Australia

Simply allowing religious toleration did not directly lead to Christianity becoming "rich and mighty". Those who came after Constantine should answer for that. I understand your sentiment, but there are Christians today suffering very real persecution in various places around the world; I would not wish this on them for their own good. I wish they were free to believe and practice without threat of violence, and all that Constantine did is allow for such freedom.

 

[E.C.]

This is a Roman leader who was commissioned to set up the false religion of Christianity after the Roman government finished killing all the saints. He was a pagan worshiper so he had the new testament produced by changing the writings of the saints. They added many pagan ideas in these writings after they removed the evidence of the true gospel.

He's a criminal who deceived billions of people who thought they were God's special Christians. The truth is, the saints they killed were the people God used to preach the true gospel. The Romans also killed Jesus so you can see their motives for starting a false religion called Christianity.

That's a joke, right?

 

[Thekla]

He personally funded the first mass production of the Bible (about 50)

 

[Yekcidmij]

The Roman Emperor Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity and he popularized it all over the massive Empire. He even issued the Edict of Milan, legalizing Christian worship all over the empire.

If it wasnt for Constantine, Christianity wouldnt have spread over Europe as it did..our western culture was so influenced by the Roman culture, if it wasnt for Constantine, many of the West would still be worshiping Pagan Roman gods, or another religion which would have filled the void.

So why isnt Constantine a renowened figure in Christianity ? In all my catholic education and life I have never heard his name, or what he did. Only recently in a history class I did.

Or maybe he is, and its just where I grew up?

Because people, especially internet denizens, usually have fun bashing on a dead guy for all their troubles. It's more fun to bash on Constantine than it is to do homework.

Anyhow, I discovered he's in my family tree (you have to get to him in a very zig-zaggy pattern though), so he MUST have been a good guy.

 

[Suger is Sweet]

The Roman Emperor Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity and he popularized it all over the massive Empire.

I think this is exactly wrong. According to sociologist Rodney Stark, the boom in Christian numbers pre-dated Constantine and had little to do with Constantine.

A Double Take on Early Christianity

quote: What he found in his study of the first Christian centuries was an astonishing growth rate in the number of Christians of 40 percent per decade. From a small band of twelve, the Church had grown to 6 million people by 300 A.D. Stark maintains that the Emperor Constantine did not so much ensure Christianity's success as acknowledge it. Constantine's edict of toleration in 313 was overdue recognition that the Church had already won the empire.

 

[lesliedellow]

It is hardly a secret that his conversion had more to do with political expediency than conviction.