Late in her long life, about 326-328, Helena undertook a pilgrimage to the eastern provinces and the Holy Land, an event that is solidly attested by her contemporary Eusebius in his Life of Constantine. He describes an aged and devout empress travelling through the East, distributing imperial bounty, freeing prisoners, and endowing churches, and he credits her with the building of two great basilicas at the holiest sites: the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem and the Church on the Mount of Olives at the place of the Ascension.
This journey was part of a wider programme, driven above all by Constantine himself, of monumentalizing the Christian holy places, of which the greatest expression was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, raised over the traditional site of the crucifixion and tomb.
What Eusebius conspicuously does not report is any discovery of the cross of Christ. Writing within a few years of the events and eager to praise both emperor and mother, he describes the pilgrimage and the church-building in detail, yet says nothing of relics of the Cross or of Helena finding them. This silence, from the best-placed contemporary witness, is the pivot on which the historical assessment of her most famous deed turns.