In the lead up to his showdown with his imperial rival Maxentius, St. Constantine seems to have seen some kind of phenomenon in the sky that reminded him of a cross. So he prayed for victory to the Christian god, who he knew, because of his Christian mother. When he went on to win an against-all-odds victory and found himself ruler of the Roman Empire, he did what any superstitious Roman soldier would have done - he kept his end of the bargain. He converted to the Christian faith and honored the god that he considered the source of his victory and his power. In other words, the purpose for St. Constantine approval of Christianity as his religion was that he had an influential spiritual experience that gave him victory at the Battle of the
