Talk:Saint Elen

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If anybody can think of better names for the section headers than what I've come up with ('Church tradition' and 'Literary tradition'), change them with my blessing. Both, however, are Welsh Christian traditions, so calling them 'Christian tradition' and 'Welsh tradition' seemed off. QuartierLatin1968 19:04, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

QuarterLatin1968, can you tell me where you got the information about "Traditionally, she is said to have been a daughter of the Romano-Britishruler Octavius / Eudaf Hen (and therefore sister of Conan Meriadoc) and the wife of Magnus Maximus /"? Thanks Maryanne Cunningham (talk) 19:30, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Hi, this is my first edit/comment so bear with me. I found in Henry of Huntington's Historia Anglorum a passage that seems to refer to Helen, and corroborates most of the information that the statement in question says.

"Maximin being emperor in the East. He founded Coutances in that part of Gaul which is now called Normandy, and received in marriage the daughter of the British king of Colchester, whose name was Hoel or Helen, our Saint Helena, by whom he had Constantine the Great"

It is on page 65/516 in this: https://archive.org/details/chroniclehenryh01foregoog/page/n64/mode/2up?view=theater&q=helen SecretLifeOfBees (talk) 04:46, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

Sorry for the double reply, but I just found another source, Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regnum Britanniae that names her as the daugher of Coel, Duke of Colchester but has her married to a Constantius rather than a Maximin. Check out page 77/214 to see what I am talking about. SecretLifeOfBees (talk) 04:51, 18 August 2023 (UTC)

County Wexford

Emmetfahy has added a sentence that asserts that a townland and a church in County Wexford are dedicated to Elen.

• Saint Helen is also remembered in Ireland; largely as a result of Norman influence. There is a townland and church in her name in south County Wexford for example.

References

The cited sources do not establish a link to Elen. The duchas.ie source says:

• Some hold St Helen was the mother of Constantine, others that she was St Helen of Sweden. I believe there was some important foundation here in Celtic times.

This does not mention the Welsh Elen, and in any case this does not look like a reliable source. Norman influence would be more likely to have honoured Helen of Constantinople. There were significant links between the early medieval churches in Wales and Ireland and it is quite possible that Elen was revered in Ireland, but we need a reliable source for this. Verbcatcher (talk) 18:37, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

I am looking for evidence from textbooks currently. The Irish tourist board references the confusion between Saint Helen and Saint Elen on their sign in the area. A large number of Norman invaders in the 12th Century came from Wales. Many were intermarried with the native Welsh and therfore were likely to have followed many of their Welsh Christian traditions. Emmetfahy (talk) 17:20, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

I have found an image of the information plaque on the ruins of St Helen's Church near Rosslare.[1] The plaque does not specify which St Helen. A report in the Irish Independent newspaper[2] also mentions St Helen, without specifying which, and I assume that the writer meant Helen of Constantinople. Most dedications to St Helen outside Wales seem to be to Helen of Constantinople. You still have not given a source to confirm a connection with Elen. Verbcatcher (talk) 04:43, 7 January 2022 (UTC)