Augustine Sokolovski
June 15, 313 is considered one of the most important dates of the gradual publication of the Edict of Milan. In this document, Christianity was declared a permitted religion, persecution was prohibited, and illegally confiscated property was returned. The Great Persecution of Diocletian, whose number of martyrs is enormous and makes up the majority of the ancient saints of the Christian calendar, was ending. This day is an undoubted Christian holiday and Orthodox church celebration.
The consequences of this law are enormous. They can be listed for a very long time, but perhaps the most important thing is that from now on, any persecutor of Christians who claims to destroy the Church of Christ in the name of progress and the liberation of humanity, in fact, comes into conflict with the norms of the great Greco-Roman civilization, on which our entire modernity is built.
Moreover, if from the point of view of the usual secular perspective, the Edict of Milan was a “thing in itself” and simply changed the “state of affairs in the Roman state”, then for the Orthodox Christian consciousness the Edict of Milan became the first stage on the path of a genuine transformation of everything that had previously existed.
The subsequent stages of this real "revolution from above in Christ Jesus" were: 2. The Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325); 3. The restoration of Jerusalem and the "Resurrection of the Word," the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (326); 4. The foundation of Constantinople (330); 4. The baptism of Constantine on his deathbed (337).
Thus, in all, there are "five landmarks" which, like the five senses of man, animated the course of things and continue to do so, in mysterious and invisible ways, until the end of time.