Page "Nail (relic)" Paragraph 9

The bridle of Constantine, for instance, is believed to be identical with a relic of this form which for several centuries has been preserved at Carpentras, but there is another claimant of the same kind at Milan.

Similarly the diadem of Constantine is asserted to be at Monza, and it has long been known as " the iron crown of Lombardy.

" Simple fraud is also a possibility.

The tale behind the bridle of Constantine originates with the fifth-century Church historian of Constantinople, Socrates of Constantinople, in his Ecclesiastical History, which was finished shortly after 439.

According to Socrates, after Constantine was proclaimed Caesar then Emperor, he ordered that all honor be paid to his mother, Helena to make up for the neglect paid her by her former husband, Constantius Chlorus.

After her conversion to Christianity, Constantine sent her on a quest to find the cross and nails used to crucify Jesus.

A Jew called Judas ( in later retellings called Cyriacus ) led her to the place they were buried.

Several miracles were claimed, to prove the authenticy of these items, and St. Helena returned with a piece of the cross and the nails.

The story that one nail was used to make a bridle, one was used to make the Helmet of Constantine and two were cast into the Adriatic Sea has its origins with Socrates.