Around the year 326, the dowager Empress Helena, the aging mother of the Emperor Constantine (c. 246–c. 330) and an avid Christian, visited Jerusalem. By the end of the fourth century, her visit there had been elaborated into her search, with the help of Macarius the bishop of Jerusalem, for the cross of Christ and the nails with which he had been crucified, buried deep beneath the rubble of Golgotha. Thus, in the Church History of Rufinus of Aquileia (c. 344–411), we read that, upon her arrival in Jerusalem, Helena made inquiries among the local inhabitants about the place where Christ had been crucified. Hastening to the place to which eventually divine guidance led her, she discovered three crosses, indistinguishable from one another.