Saint Constantine

The Constantine we celebrate today is not the emperor, and it’s best to say so right away because the name is misleading: the emperor is remembered by the Eastern Churches with the title of equal to the apostles, but he doesn’t appear in the Roman Martyrology. This is Constantine the king, whom tradition places in sixth-century Britain. The account that has come down to us says he ruled a British kingdom — Cornwall according to some, the Strathclyde region according to others — and that he left the throne to become a monk after his wife died. He went to Ireland, then to Scotland, where he preached among the Picts together with the monks of Columba’s circle, and where he was killed by a band of raiders. We know about his life what we know about so many saints of the islands in that century: little that is documented and much that has been handed down, in accounts written centuries after the events. But his cult is old and deep-rooted, especially in Scotland, where the ancient church of Govan, in Glasgow, bears his name, and where the ruins of a chapel dedicated to him remain in Kintyre. Constantine — Costantino, in Italian — is still one of the most common names in Italy, and that’s why his day is on the calendar. If your name is Constantine or Constantina, today is your name day.