Whatever its historical basis, the legend made Helena the patron figure of the relics of the Passion, and it is as their reputed finder that she anchors several of the relics recorded here. The Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme at Rome, traditionally founded in her own palace, the Sessorian, houses fragments venerated as the True Cross, an iron nail, thorns, and the wooden Titulus Crucis panel, the whole corpus attributed to relics she was said to have brought from Jerusalem about 325. The atlas relates this collection to Helena as a debated association, noting both the late and legendary character of the finding tradition and the specific scientific result that radiocarbon dating of the Titulus panel returned a medieval date, debunking that piece.
In Christian memory Helena became the archetype of the pious empress: relic-finder, church-builder, and mother of the first Christian emperor. She is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and other churches, often paired with Constantine as one of the "Equals to the Apostles."
The atlas holds both Helenas together without confusing them, the attested Augusta and pilgrim of the fourth-century record, and the legendary discoverer of the Cross of the later tradition, and it is chiefly through that second, legendary role that her name reaches the relics she is honoured for finding.