E00396: Eusebius of Caesarea, in his Life of Constantine, reports that the emperor Constantine, shortly before his death in 337, prayed at a shrine of martyrs at Helenopolis in Bithynia (north-west Asia Minor), perhaps the martyrium of *Loukianos (martyr of Nicomedia, S00151). Written in Greek in Palestine. 337/339.

Eusebius of Caesarea, Life of Constantine 4.61

Γίγνεται δ’ αὐτῷ πρώτη τις ἀνωμαλία τοῦ σώματος, εἴτ’ οὖν κάκωσις ἐπὶ ταύτην συμβαίνει, κἄπειτα τῆς αὐτοῦ πόλεως ἐπὶ λουτρὰ θερμῶν ὑδάτων πρόεισιν, ἔνθεν τε τῆς αὐτοῦ μητρὸς ἐπὶ τὴν ἐπώνυμον ἀφικνεῖται πόλιν. κἀνταῦθα τῷ τῶν μαρτύρων εὐκτηρίῳ ἐνδιατρίψας οἴκῳ ἱκετηρίους εὐχάς τε καὶ λιτανείας ἀνέπεμπε τῷ θεῷ. ἐπειδὴ δ’ εἰς ἔννοιαν ἥκει τῆς τοῦ βίου τελευτῆς, καθάρσεως εἶναι τοῦτον καιρὸν τῶν πώποτε αὐτῷ πεπλημμελημένων διενοεῖτο, ὅσα οἷα θνητῷ διαμαρτεῖν ἐπῆλθε ταῦτ’ ἀπορρύψασθαι τῆς ψυχῆς λόγων ἀπορρήτων δυνάμει σωτηρίῳ τε λουτρῷ πιστεύσας. τοῦτό τοι διανοηθείς, γονυκλινὴς ἐπ’ ἐδάφους ἱκέτης ἐγίγνετο τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ μαρτυρίῳ ἐξομολογούμενος, ἔνθα δὴ καὶ πρῶτον τῶν διὰ χειροθεσίας εὐχῶν ἠξιοῦτο.

'First a bodily indisposition came upon him, then illness supervened, and thereupon he went out to the hot water baths of his city, and from there to the city named after his mother. There he spent his time at the chapel (εὐκτήριον/euktērion) of the martyrs, and offered up supplicatory prayers and petitions to God. But when he became aware that his life was ending, he perceived that this was the time to purify himself from the offences which he had at any time committed, trusting that whatever sins it had been his lot as mortal to commit, he could wash them from his soul by the power of the secret words and the saving bath. Having perceived this, he knelt on the floor and made himself a suppliant to God, making confession in the martyrion itself, where also he was first accorded the prayers that go with laying-on of hands.'

Text: Winkelmann 2008. Translation: Cameron and Hall 1999.