ORDINIS HELENIUM

Part Two

91:WATER-SOURCES HAVING ONE OR ANOTHER CONNEXION TO HELENA: Helena hallowed the water in the sources; it was not holy water that hallowed her, as someone has proposed. Another one claimed in July 1993 that "sources emerge where ever Helena sets her foot down". In days of yore the bride before her wedding took a purifying bath, and the water was brought to the church in a nuptial vase from a holy source. According to Nordic tradition the water of sources must in all contexts be used secretly.

91.2: I:Brynolf notifies that Helena was martyred 1/8.1140 at "Gothene", and in 1708 Benzelius informs us of that the source west of Gotene in 1462 had received a 40 days indulgency letter by Lars Mikaelson, the bishop of Vaxjo, but maybe he invented this letter, so 1708 ("S:Helena's Kialla") and not 1462 is its first mention. If 1462 had been valid, the letter would have proved that the source before this year had been dedicated to Helena but not that the source had come into existence on the spot of her martyrdom. The link between where Helena was martyred and the Gotene source is evidently post-reformatory. A tale-teller at the beginning of the 20th century invented more: "When she at her return [from Jerusalem] was going to fare to Gotene church, she was attacked on her way by these [her old enemies], who here without mercy deprived her of her life... On the spot where this [her death] occurred, a clear source broke forth. And one thing and another contributed to that Mrs Helena became canonized later". In the 18th century the source "moved" when it was filled with earth, and it became a fountain; in the 1950:ies it was dried out; nowadays it is represented by a monument inside the Arla dairy area; its water is communal, and its pressure and a nozzle makes a fountain out of it. It is unknown how the monument is situated in relation to the original position of the source except for the position of the 1950:ies: 'Twas under the present laboratory barrack. In the 1950:ies it was covered by a stone lid and its water was clear as crystal  -  (yes, a contradiction!).

91.3:One must add here concerning n:rs I & II that Brynolf only mentions one Helenic source, and its position is not spelt out, but her source came into existence during the transport of her corpse, not at her martyrdom.

92: II:5/8.1140 Fons Beate Helene came into existence by Vambo Rivulet close to the ford; it has no connexion with the site of her martyrdom. It is nowadays found beneath the old trunk-road bridge within the military area of Skovde; 'twas mentioned the first two times in 1288 and in 1373; the memorial stone was erected in 1956; was examined in September 1999; the surrounding site was meliorated in 2001-02. A lot of small crosses used to be erected around the source. The source "moved" a few yards as a consequence of that it was filled with earth in the 18th century. Its water is undrinkable today  -  Elisha ought to come to Skovde and purify this source with salt (cf 2King 2:21-22). A small suspended bridge, reminding of the one seen on the drawing of the site of the 1750:ies, was mounted over the rivulet during some decades, but 'twas replaced in 2001 by stepping-stones in the rivulet  -  ice had demolished the bridge in 2000.

93: III:In the 1190:ies Aebelholt's augustinian monastery owned the ground where Helene Kilde is, and a swedish queen Helena was mentioned in ~1194 in a letter from abbot Wilhelm... and from and including 1512 every Tuesday a Helena's Collect was read in Aebelholt minster! (The monastery was at first situated on Eskil's islet in Roskilde Fiord during the first half of the 12th century; it was moved in 1175 to Aebelholt west of Hillerod. Queen Helena was the mother of the saints Nils and Valdemar, and she died at Vreta nunnery). It is annoying that it has been said about this source that maybe it is the same one which during the Middle Ages was dedicated to the swedish female saint Helena. It is not proved that the source was a Helenic source before the early 17th century  -  one has taken it for granted that it has been just that since the 1160:ies. That Helene Kilde had healing water is demonstrated by a maid, 14 or 15 years old, who suffered from an eve-disease and who went to the source three years in a row to be healed, and she was healed. One claims that during the catholic era the recommended visiting period of Helene Kilde was prolonged from 23-24/6 (Midsummer) to 31/7 (Helena's feastday), but at any time of the year one can (in the evenings?) visit Helene Grave close to the Kilde three Thursdays in a row for to gain the same healing and power as during the mentioned period, doing one's devotions there.

94: IV:King Christian IV (1577-1648) mentioned S.Ellenis Kalla at Lyngsjo/ Gard's herred, which supposedly has its origin in the 12th century; it is the only Helenic source of Scania. Still during his time pilgrims were streaming to the source. Prest Relations of 1624 mentions S:ta Helena's Source here; in 1924 she was taken for Constantine's mother, but in 1932 the error was corrected. See Kristanstad's Lan's Tidning 27/5.1932; Kristianstadsbladet 7/11.1959; register card for the source, Lyngsjo N:r 87, was written in October 1992. The source is found close to the northern foundation of an ex-bridge, south of a starch-factory which was built in 1966  -  whereon they dumped earth and stones right over the source!

95: V:In West Vram parish, Gard's herred, there is Helle Kalla next to a tall wooden cross by Ullarp 1, on the sloping ridge towards Vram River. Both n:rs IV and V are situated not too far from from Va city and its premonstratensian monastery, but V is not regarded as a Helenic source.

96: VI:A very hypothetical Helenic source close to Ystad constitutes a part of the vague Helena-cult in that district (a smart guess of the 20th century, probably based on S:ta Helena's Vag 271 32 Ystad).

97: VII:Elie offering-source within Mone parish close to the Hallstad border was mentioned in 1812 and 1916. According to some individuals in the 20th century it is found on the Hallstad side of the border, within the premises of Hov, and were in that case identical with Tingmark's Source, but there exists no proof for this being true. Within Hov's premises there are three known sources close to each others; they haven't changed names, but they have been confused for one and other. At a stone's cast south of one of them there is a boulder, which is an exact copy of the Rinsing-stone on Skovde Cemetery  -  one half of it has raised itself up  -  not to be confused for the border-boulder of Tingsten (the one with shallow round pits on). A source nearby (also supposed to be Helena's) is used for watering cattle with  -  when they deepened it in the early 1990:ies they saw how the water streams out of an egg-sized hole in the sloping ground. Elie is a dative form (firstly used 3/2.1279) of Eliah, not of Helena, and the correct parish is Mone. Despite of this one has had courage enough to claim that in the 13th century they baptized one of the bells of Hallstad church in this Helenic source! and that one regarded Helena as the patroness of this source, saying too that its water healed eye-diseases.

97.2:But  -  this is the correct source, the only one registered within Mone parish (n:r 17): 85 yards west of a gravel road, in the middle of a sloping pasture-ground belonging to Stommen, north of the steep church-mountain; it measures 2 x 2 yards, and its waters pours out towards northwest; it has a 2 x 3 yards big boulder towards northeast  -  this boulder was meant to demolish the church with once upon a time, but the giant who threw it missed it, and the source broke forth on the landing-spot and it is today used for watering cattle.

97.3:[Tingmark's Kalla n:r 74 is situated by Tingsten; is 3 yards wide. Tarnekalla n:r 127 is situated southwest of 74; was destroyed in the 1920:ies; the 20th century house called Heleneborg is situated west of it. Lidan's Kalla is found in the neighbourhood too].

98: VIII:A Helenic source has existed on an island off the Norwegian westcoast: St. Helenes Kilde on Torget/ Nordlands Amt had already by 1740 lost its reputation of holiness  -  it had in other words before this year had the reputation of being a holy source. The information is dated 1744. (Before March 1885 there existed no more Norwegian Helena-sources, but during the 20th century someone claimed that one or two more exist on Norwegian westcoast islands).

99: IX:In 1955 Elin's supposedly health-creating source was mentioned, lying beneath Bosgarden in Medelplana parish along the road, and it was sub-comprehended that it had been known some years before 1898, but this newspaper article is the first mention all categories of this source. It was renovated and furnished with a sign in July 1974; its stony sides were made higher and a lid was set onto it. It measures 1 x 0.8 x 0.25 yards. Its bottom is the very mountain; it holds ~10 litres of water; three small steps lead to it from the road. One wanted that this source was going to be a replacer for the Helenic source at Gotene, which had become hard to visit for tourists since it is situated inside an industial area. One claimed that the first christians of the district had been baptized in this medelplanian source; baptismal and purifying water had been brought to the church out of it.

100: X:In July 1993 it was notified that there has existed an Elin's source at Varkumla parish next to Elin's House  -  the plant, they claimed, had been one of the most central positions within the cult of Helena, and it had been situated on a hill somewhere west of Varkumla church... (maybe he meant the round ruin of something on the hill which is situated directly west of the cemetery; he had learnt this information from the local Dorcas Society). There are no sources nor any traces of Elin's House in Varkumla. In Kinneved there is only the Church-bell Source. In Goteve there are only the Disa Source (1200 yards north of the church) and a stone with a natural waterhole in (at Tovarp 1:5).

101: XI:On Halloween in 1993 (probably Saturday 6/11) S:ta Helena's Source was re-inaugurated by Ranneslov's Watermill by a priest, publicum and journalists. The nether stone-sides are medieval. On the first Sunday of June every year 1994-2003 they have celebrated an outdoor service, that the local society is responsible for, by this source. (The owner had Sunday 4/7.1993 expressed some hesitation concerning if the source hadn't been called S:ta Gertrude's source in his childhood, but "maybe it was S:ta Helena's". In Scara diocese one didn't start worshipping Gertrude of Nivelles until just before 1400. As an exempel of another "shared" source we can mention that in ~1466 Uppgranna's source was dedicated to the saints Helena, Gertrude and two others). Laholm's Commune has written the following text on the Ranneslov-Ysby district n:r 8: "By the watermill of Ranneslov there is a cold-water source, where you can quench your thirst during your discovery trip. 900 years earlier a female saint sat here, according to the local population, namely Sankta Helena. The journey she was going to go through was considerably longer and more cumbersome /than yours/  -  a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This westgothian woman was widowed and left with many children when she was still young, but instead of remarrying, she devoted her life to deeds in alignment to a christian spirit by taking care of the sick and the poor. This is not the only Saint Helena's source of Norden. One is situated at Gothene, the place where the saint came from". (My comments: In 1103 Saint Helena had been sitting by this cold-water source on her way towards Jerusalem... in deed she had, hadn't she? (She was born in 1102). The verb 'sit' is teasing me too. And was she canonized already during her lifetime? Do these pieces of intelligence really come from the people around Ranneslov?  -  I don't believe in that they do: Bror Jansson must be the originator of such intelligence. He has enriched two counties with interesting items... but we don't mind!  -  I and Helena applaud the firm establishment of this here source!  -  one of two dozens of Helenic sources in Norden.

102: XII & XIII:Very uncertain sources in the context: Not far from the premonstratensian monastery of Backaskog, at Barum in Kiaby parish, there is maybe another Helenic source, and there used to be a coin-box like Helene Kilde Blok at Tisvilde. In Alsheda parish there is Leenas Kalla on top of or beneath a rock at Lena Farm.

103:HELENA'S SOURCES IN DENMARK: I:Assens/Fyn, Odense Amt, north of Assens, "Sankt Helene Kilde #856" on the very beach on the westside of the island towards Lilla Balt, 38 km from Odense. It pushed a stone away from itself.

II:Grinderslev p., Viborg Amt, Salling north herred, "Helene Kilde #1653.1", at a stone's throw to the east from the parish monastery, north of the road to Langesgard.

III:Halsted p., Lolland, next to Maghoj Kilde not far from the 13th century benedictine parish monastey; "Helene Kilde "742.2".

IV:Hammer p., Aalborg Amt, Kjaer h., 300 yards south of Prastgarden; "Sankt Helene Kilde #1469".

V:Helsingor, close to Kronborg Castle, "Helle Laene Kilde"  -  is not included by August Schmidt in his source inventory, and its "existence" is probably due to error  -  its name concerns in reality Helene Kilde at Tisvildeleje, because how far "close to" is, is a matter of judgement.

VI:Mariager rural parish, Randers Amt, Onsild h., south of Forest Himmelkold, on the northern slope of a hill; "Sankt Helene Kilde #1851.1". The Birgittine nunnery of Mariager was started in 1430, 23 km north of Randers city.

VII:Nodagers p., Randers Amt, Djurlands southern h., at Pederstrup, mentioned in 1743 as "Sankt Helene Kilde #2031.1".

VIII:Orting p., Aarhus Amt, Hads h., "Sankt Helene Kilde "2139.1", halfway up the east side of a hill in the suburb of Halen.

IX:Ruds Vedby p., Holbaek Amt, Love h., "Helenes Kilde "284.2", on the steep hill of Gibbet Grounds, mentioned in 1758.

X:Stillinge p., Soro Amt, Slagelse h., "Helene Kilde #435.2", on the premises of Keldstrup at a stone's cast from the village.

XI:Tibirke p., Frederiksborgs Amt, Holbo h. in Sjalland, "Sankt Helene Kilde #32.1"  -  is described above thoroughly. (A double source which has been triple: a morally dirty person got in touch with the water in the third well, whereupon it immediately dried out).

XII:Tybjaerg p., Praesto Amt, Tybjaerg h., "Sankt Helene Kilde #563", on the premises of Tybjaerg Farm, by the so called Kirken (church).

XIII:Vorup p., Randers Amt, Galten h., "Sankt Helene Kilde #1921", in a paddock by Strommen Station.

   One may add Tofte Kilde by the meadow of the forest not far south-east of Tibirke church, because it is mentioned in the context of Sankt Helene and Tisvilde, and this source was the reason to that the church was built right there in the 1120:ies.

104:LITURGY: According to the proprium de sanctis of the modern swedish catholic Missal "Elin of Skovde, martyr" is celebrated 30/7, and "Elin" (and Sunniva) are included in the Litany to the saints of Norden, Oremus 466. Here is a choice of Helena's prevalence in older liturgy: a)At Aebelholt monastery (OSA) every Tuesday from and including 1512 a Helena's Collect had to be read. b)Helena was worshipped by the birgittines according to a document of 1529 in Altomünster county. c) and d)cistercian litanies from either Gudhem (nuns, first mentioned in 1168) or Varnhem (monks, f.m.i. 1151) including Helena and Sunniva. e)The Johannites celebrated Helena with an uniquely high degree at Eskilstuna. f)She was included in the calendar of Mariager birgittine nunnery. g)At Rome she was included in a birgittine Missal. h)Skokloster (monastery) celebrated her (in 1219 there were OP.-monks, exchanged 1225-36 for OSB.Cist.-nuns from Byarum; in 1277 there were OP.-nuns). i)The liturgical texts to Helena were written by Brynolf in 1281 and 1288, possibly inspired by older Helenic texts which he had found at Alvastra monastery. j)Helena and Sunniva are mentioned by a psalterium from the 15th century from Scara diocese. k)A calendar of Strangnas included Helena in ~1250. l)In Abo diocese she was included from ~1350 by a dominican calendar. m)She was included by the calendars of Scara diocese in ~1350 and in 1498. n)She was included by a litany of the Hemsjo Handbook from the 15th century, but she had already during the 14th centry been included by the litany of Hemsjo church.

104.2:The gospel-text choosen for Helena's Mass was firstly Math.12:26-35; then, during bishop Brynolf's days, Math.12:46-50, and nowadays it is Math.10:28-33.

105:POPE ALEXANDER III: He was born in ~1105; became a pope in 1159; was exiled to Sens in France 1163-65; died 30/8.1181. During the first weekend of August in 1164 he ordained Stephanus of Alvastra the first archbishop of Sweden  -  in the choir of Sens's cathedral, which was the only finished part of the cathedral  -  in the presence of Eskil, the archbishop of Denmark. These things are historical facts. Alexander decided, as a result of the crazy measure of the people of Upland to worship an anticatholic drunkard as a saint, that thereafter all canonizations must be effectuated by the pope. He canonized Giovanni di Meda (1159?; 26/9 was his appointed day), Guarinus (1159?, 6/2), Helena of Skovde (1164, 31/7), Thomas Becket (1173, 29/12), Bernhard of Clairvaux (1174, 20/8) and Galganus (1181, 5/12).

106:IDEAS CONCERNING THE CANONIZATION OF HELENA AND ITS CEREMONY:

1)Not only Brynolf was informed on Helena at Alvastra (in 1288), but Stephanus too (before 1164); maybe the acts of the canonization of Helena had been written in Sens. One can even draw the conclusion from Brynolf's text that Stephanus was the person who preserved the memorials of Helena and who thus was the only one who was able to give pope Alexander III the adequate information on Helena for his canonization of her.

106:2 2)It is likely that Alexander III did canonize Helena already during the summer of 1164 at Sens viz. because of the political reasons which are descibed above. If the ritual was carried out in Sweden, it can have occurred absolutely not before Stephanus's return to Sweden  -  after August 1164. 

3)A document which Alexander III supposedly had written in Sens for Helena's canonization was, supposedly, read in Alvastra minster during the fall of 1164 (it wasn't inaugurated until in 1185) by archbishop Stephanus. The canonization wasn't thus carried out in Skovde church, which is a general and immovable opinion.

106.3: 4)She was, supposedly, canonized 31/7.1164 by Stephanus at Skovde on the order of anti-pope Paschalis III (1164-68).

5)She was, supposedly, canonized in the summer of 1165.

106.4: 6)She was, supposedly, canonized in 1163, "and hereof we have a possibility to date the church of Medelplana to ~1163". (1161 too has been propsed).

106.5: 7)She was, supposedly, canonized by Clemens III, pope 1187-91, in 1188. This invention is an insult to Alexander III, who had personally been engaged in the canonization of Helena at Sens in 1164, jeopardizing his own life in the process.

106.6: 8)Much later (than the funeral of 1140) Helena's reliques were laid into a silvery shrine in an ambitious ceremony including a lot of monotonous lessons; single flames sparkled from the metal crosses on the towers (a phenomenon which thereafter is called Saint Helena's Fire), and the shrine was placed into the vaulted niche somewhere in the north-east part of the church at Skovde, measuring 1 x 1.5 x 1.5 yards. An iron grating having a complex construction was hung infront of the niche in the 15th century. (It is still preserved in the church; iron bars, twined like unicorn horns, are mounted through one another). Double doors with double locks were hung infront of the niche, and monks promised to guard it. Indulgency was promised for those who yearly were going to attend S:ta Helena's Mass and who also would contribute to the finances of the church.

106.7: 9)30/7.1164 S:ta Helena's nice-scented bones were elevated from the grave in the central choir (the church and her grave were not finished in 1140, so between 1140 and 1164 her remnants were resting in an interim grave. That the church was built between 1136 and 1164 is fully plausible) and were placed in a silver shrine, which was set on the altar. After the words of the canonization ceremony had been read out loud, the shrine was placed in the grave which she herself had designed. Thereafter Masses were to be read by her grave yearly on 31/7, a decision yielded by archbishop Stephanus in 1164 but which was later expanded to daily helenic Masses.

106.8: 10)A catholic dictionary adds the odd piece of information, that 8 english miles from Copenhagen Helena was enshrined in a church which was dedicated to her. (Let us remind you here of that no church has ever been dedicated to her on the western side of Oresund).

106.9: 11)In the 15th century it was written on Helena's canonization: Anno domini millesime centesimo sexagesimo tercio consecratus est... stephanus... nacione anglicus... canonizauit... Sanctam Helenam in Skedwe... (Reg. lat.525 in the Vatikan library; copy chez KB/Stockholm; cf Script. rer. suec. I:1, p.51, 61-62).

106.10: 12)Believe it or not, but the floor of Helena's church at Skovde today is on a level more than one yard above the 12th century floor. If this is the truth one hereby gets an explanation to why they couldn't find Helena's mentioned niche during the latest restauration of the church  -  they didn't look for it deep down enough.

107:BRYNOLF ALGOTSSON: He was born in the 1240:ies in Hasthalla farm in Skallmeja parish. In 1266 he went to Paris Varsity (founded in 1120) to study, and there he perhaps got acquainted with, at least bibliographically, goddess Elene. Through election in 1278 he became the bishop of Scara. In May 1797 he and king Magnus Ladislaus attended the meeting on Adelso, and in October the same year he attended the synod of Talje. In 1281, 141 years after Helena's martyrdom (1/8.1140) he meliorated her Mass  -  'tis a cert that he had discovered her a long time before the summer of 1288, when he studied her at Alvastra monastery. In Dipl. suec.709:4 he mentioned in 1281 Aelinaer maessu in Skodwe, and also Botulfs maessu and Pancrasz in Falukopungi; Halldraehaelghunnae day, Laurinszaer and sanctae Michiae days.

107.2:The Vatikan documents which could have validated Helena's canonization are incinerated, but one must find it difficult to believe that Brynolf would have durst to lie about such a controllable piece of information (that she is canonized) during his trials to launch the cult of Helena, when he in 1281 in writ mentions a Helena's Mass at Skovde, which used to be celebrated there 31/7.

107.3:Sister Jessica (O.Hel) says: "Brynolf started re-activating the then 141 years old cult of Helena when he elevated and glorified her Mass adapted for, like it has become, in Scara diocese 30/7 and elsewhere 31/7. Apart from this one-day-aberration her feast-day was unmovable in the calendar. And after the miracle on Lake Vettern he wrote a liturgical text for her during the fall of 1288  -  for the Rose of Westgothia, the Torch of our Ancestors. "He based the text on local and oral tradition, and on another and simpler legend". The latin is different and more primitive in the parts of the text of the office which follows after Lectio Nona compared to the text before this, but the language of the Gregorian sermon is strangely similar to the main part of the office. One may think there seem to exist traditions on Helena which are of such a kind that it were not impossible that they are older than Brynolf's version of her legend, but appearances are deceitful herein, because these "traditions" cannot be dated back in time longer than to the 20th century, occasionally to the 19th century. It is unlikely that Brynolf had an older Helenic text to go by, expressed tendenciously above, since he himself claims that it was because of that her life earlier had not been written down that a large portion of the information re her had been forgotten. Others claim that an older hypothetic liturgical Helenic text might have been lectured and had been used as a goldmine for delivering ideas to sermons before Brynolf's time on Helena's day, and upon this foundation Brynolf continued to build: Helenam sanctam viduam quam presul inuocauit historiam per congruam decenter honorauit  -  with a fine narration he honoured the holy widow Helena, to whom he had called for help. Toni Schmid shows and proves in her chapter on Helena at the end of her Sigfridian book that Brynolf has borrowed wildly and recklessly from other hagiographies, which alas casts a shadow of questioning over parts of Helena's office. The genuineness of the brynolfian office of Helena houses an innate doubt, incorporated by its own composer, and it maybe doesn't say so much about the historical Helena but mainly is a pattern-story of how saints in general must be portrayed. The individual who once has existed, exists for ever according to Luk.20:34-38; then again the earthly existence of Jesus has been increasingly doubted during the last ~150 years, so christians mustn't cast stones in a house of glass questioning the existence of Helena".

107.4:In 1282 Brynolf received Jón Rode, the archbishop of Nidaros. The cult of Helena was thriving at Alvastra monastery, where Brynolf in the summer of 1288 was able to study a preserved sketch to an act concerning Helena's canonization. In the evening of 14/8.1288 he visited Helena's church at Skovde and her reliques. His uncle Thorner Cryda was killed by his own servants in a way which reminds one of the circumstances of the death of Helena's son-in-law  -  in the name of logic before 1288; otherwise 1290 is indicated. In 1298 Brynolf founded a bishop's fortress on the ruin of a fortress which Magnus Barfod had built on Kollandso in ~1100  -  the Lacko Castle-in-spe. Brynolf's buildings burnt down in the 1470:ies though.

107.5:In 1299 he donated his premises in Vamb, which he had inherited from his mother  -  she had "owned all Vamb"  -  to Scara cathedral. 2/9.1304 he received at Lodose a spine from the crown of thorns of Christ delivered by a messenger from king Hakon Magnusen of Norway. The spine had originally, si credere fas est, been found by Constantine's mother Helena  -  it takes a Helena for inventing anything like this! Brynolf carried the relique barefoot to Scara cathedral; he encapsulated it in a globe of glass held by two small angels of metal, and he wrote a liturgical text for it. Scara Cathedral owns a replica of the spine.

107.6:Brynolf died 6/2.1317. Some of his seals are preserved, and his pilgrim's badge is soldered on the lesser bell of Lindarva church. 2/2.1349 Mrs Brita perceived the sweet scent which factually exists at the eastern end of Scara cathedral, and she attributed it to Brynolf, whose grave probably was in the crypt "among the swines". The exact position of his grave has been unknown since the 1590:ies. His present feastday is the day when he was beatified in 1492  -  16/8. His beautiful oratory inside Scara cathedral used to be to the left of the abhorrably ugly main-altar retable, but the oratory was reshaped when the cathedral was renovated at the end of the 1990:ies.

108:MONDAY BEFORE ASCENSION-DAY: This day was connected to Helena's Oratory outside of Skovde. In relation to her Mass then, they carried her image and a crucifix in a procession out across the fields and prayed for a good growth. (This piece of information has been added during the 20th century, and it lacks a true relation to the cult of Helena. Furthermost this "migrant tale" goes back to Luke 24:50: Then Jesus led the disciples outside the town, near Bethania, and there he elevated his hands and blessed them. "Migrant tale" is the expression we choose, since this custom and others are iterated in every parish; individuals ape statements of old times which they find attractive and applicable on their home district regardless of that no real relation exists).

109:THE SEAL: We maintain that monks, before 1314, designed and produced the Skovde Seal (of lead or tin), which presents a true picture of Helena and her signature, symbolizing that she, in the 1130:ies, founded this megalopolis where the outskirts of seven big farms met. Without any trace of proof it is nowadays claimed that Skovde attained its town status in 1399 or 1401.

110:THE CITY OF SKOVDE: Upon seven complete tax-freed farms, given by Helena to the sockdologers, Skovde was founded in the 1130:ies. There were seven "villages" (conglomerates of farmsteads) around the growing city: 1)Hasslum (firstly mentioned in 1415). 2)Havstena (fmi 1396; called a village with a church 8/12.1495 cf Brita's oratory above). 3)Hene (fmi 1347 but existed before the Viking Age on the plateau west on Alva Source; the newest graves of its grave-field are from 1050; there was a great oaken forest). 4)Horsas (fmi 1356). 5)Kapplunda (fmi 1413). 6)Risa (fmi 1393) and 7)Segerstorp (fmi 1326; finally erased 29/1.1992). Two other neighbouring villages were Ryd (fmi 1400), where the church was depicted in 1655 but was gone before 1659, and Asbotorp (fmi 1344), one of the oldest farms of the district, and which is unique through being the only medieval farm which is situated on top of a flat-top mountain of Westgothia.

111:THE STATUS OF HELENA'S CHURCH AT SKOVDE: The following statements are by and large totally wrong; their motives span from distorted benevolence to irony: This church was the first one of the district, older than that of Vamb. Skovde parish was an incorporation of the parishes of the seven villages and of Elene (both mentioned above); to the west there were the independant parishes of Hene and Vamb; to the south there was maybe Kyrketorp lacking at the time a church of its own. In present Omb there were two farm churches next to eachothers (Bjarby and Omb). Skovde became an ecclesiastical unit, and here were the ecclesiastical authorities. The central sanctuary of the district was the church of S:ta Helena  -  it functioned as a diocesan dome  -  and it had been founded in 1140 for this purpose. Its architect had apparently been inspired by Lichères church  -  a sanctuary with hospice along the pilgrim's road towards San Diego di Compostella  -  applying his impressions, after his return to Westgothia, on Helena's church. The administration of Skovde followed that of Lund until 1300  -  does that mean that the Skovde district was annexed to Lund altogether? The Vatican consulate was placed at Skovde (according to a 18th century man, but this is pure nonsense).

112:COMMERCE: The remnants of Helena did, it was claimed, cause miracles (cf Sirach 48:13-14), and business-men profited richly on people who kept streaming here to the latin Masses and the indulgency. Her church was one of the three most important goals for pilgrims in Norden during the Middle Ages, while her cult in the Continent only was disseminated thanks to the birgittine order.

113:HELENA AS AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW: Inspite that Mrs Brita nowhere in her Books of Revelations mentions Helena, the legend of Helena had been read aloud for her and her sister between 1313 and 1316 in Aspanas mansion by her mother's sister Katarina Bengtsdaughter. (Katarina's husband Kanutus Jonsson was, apart from this context, a descendant of Helena Guthormsdaughter in the fourth generation both via Helena's son Knud and via her daughter Ingeborg; Kanutus was the actual regent of Sweden for a period).

113.2:Helena's life served as a model to go by for christians of the time  -  for both women and men. She was a strong woman: She directed the work at the farm herself after having become a widow. She managed well without a new earthly husband. Suffering couldn't spoil the things she had settled for realizing. She regarded resistance as nihil. To God she gave, not only her belongings, but her body too. Brynolf wonders what weakness a man thereafter may refer to as an excuse, regarding her, a woman, who inspite of her weaker sex, still conquered the world!

114:THE CITY OF SKOVDE exists today thanks to the richness that the very popular pilgrimages to the very attractive Helenic monuments conveyed. The protestants did all they could to wipe out our dear, beautiful, spiritual queen Saint Helena, but still they haven't succeeded! Her shrine was confiscated maybe in 1596 on the order of abraham angermannus, and her Holy Bones were perhaps, at the best, inhumed in Skovde cemetery. Ab warred against the bones, images and graves of saints  -  he was ghostly fighting with shades. The same he-man destroyed too the grave and reliques of Brynolf at Scara.

115:WHERE ARE THE REMNANTS OF HELENA TODAY?: Due to a plausible misunderstanding it has been proposed that they already in 1164 were transferred by archbishop Stephanus from Skovde to Alvastra, but probably he transferred thither some chip of her reliques together with the cult itself, which hibernated on the eastern side of Lake Vettern until at least the winter of 1314-15; in Linkoping diocese and at Vadstena she was factually celebrated increasingly all the way up to the reformation. At Vadstena they composed their own Helena's Office.

115.2:Others have claimed that Helena's remnants in 1164 were transferred to Upsala cathedral, which is a not altogether unplausible scenery, but it were a freightening scenery: there they cannot have survived many years since Stephanus was expelled from there and was forced to an exile in Denmark. If it were true, and if they had survived the period when satan ruled at Upsala, it would have been thence that the danes had stolen Helena's remnants and transferred them to Sjalland  -  Stephanus may, of course, have brought them along with him to Sjalland! In the 15th century there existed reliques of Helena in Upsala cathedral irregardless of all speculation.

115.3:At Skovde they guarded carefully the treasure which Helena's reliques comprised, and they feared that the danes wished to steal them for to lay their hands on their advantageous monetary function. When the storm-clouds of the reformation began looming threateningly at the horizon this treasure maybe, all the same, was transferred to Denmark, to the present Tisvilde/ Tisvildeleje.

115.4:It has too been proposed that Helena's remnants were shipped from Karlskrona to the Vatican city in the 17th century. Karlskrona was founded in 1680.

115.5:In 1734, anyroad, every trace of our beloved Helena was gone from Skovde; but the tale doesn't end thereby: People kept thinking about her. As recently as in the 1950:ies a school pupil wrote in an essay that Helena's reliques are preserved in the church chest, which from 1927 was standing underneath the northern choir window containing the church silver, by the steps to the pulpit. Next to the chest there was Helena's 15th century grating, which nowadays is found to the right infront of the choir.

116:RELIQUES OF HELENA: Thanks God that there still exist a few reliques of Helena in the country. A chip of her finger-bone is preserved in a newish (1960:ies) silver box in the altar of Gotene church; it was mentioned in 1944; it used to lie in a matchbox, they say.

116.2:Another finger-bone chip is embedded by charcoal in the altar of Vattlosa church; 'twas investigated and laid back in 1910 together with a letter and these objects were sealed up with plaster. (The relique has not been taken from a pyre just because there is charcoal involved  -  it has been proposed that this is a relique of St. Lawrence which Sven Estridsen received at Eastertide in 1053 "together with coal from the pyre". The name Laurentius happens to be engraved on the chalice of Vattlosa church).

116.3:Yet another chip of her miracle-effectuating finger was rediscovered in 1938 in the altar of Molltorp church, and since then it has been preserved by Scara County Museum. This relique, which gotta be a tiny chip judged by its size, see below, and the two others in the same reliquary are wrapped up in a thick leaden foil hidden inside a hollow miniature log.

116.4:(In 1191 reliques from two different Helenas were together with reliques from 92 other saints laid into the altar of Gumlosa church in Scania, but they were all interred in 1720 in a place unknown. Gumlosa is the oldest exactly dated brick building of Norden  -  26/10.1192). Reliques of Helena have existed in Copenhagen and Roskilde  -  these are maybe taken from our S:ta Helena; otherwise it has been proposed that they are taken from a relative of Sven Estridsen named Helena.

116.5:According to a journalist (12/12.1996 at 13.30/ Heléns garden) Skovde museum owns a Helenic relique, but he must have seen a temporarily borrowed reliquary? A lesser amount of Helena's reliques was preserved in Upsala cathedral among its most dear gems. They are possibly taken from Helena of Auxerre though, since her title here is Virgo.

RELIQUE SPECIAL

117:"On International Women's Day 8/3.1994 at 2 PM I got the closest possible physically to Helena  -  spiritually there are no limits  -  when I by two employees at Scara County Museum, which at that time hadn't re-opened after the renovation, was shown her reliques. I was permitted to hold the cardboard-box, wherein the reliquary was, for a moment...". "1995-97 the reliquary was a part of a miscellanarian exhibition. I made an exact drawing of it 22/4.1997. Its leaden bottom measures ~6 x 2.5 cm, and Helena's white bundle of silk is ~16 x 7 mm, and her parchment label from the 15th century got these words: De Digito Ste Helene  -  id est From Saint Helena's Finger. The textlabels of two other reliques read De Xj Mileb//s Vgin//m and De Sta B'gitta respectively, id est From 11.000 Virgins and From Saint Birgitta respectively".

118:HELENA AS A SUBJECT FOR ART: There exist at least 10 medieval pieces of art of Helena. The oldest preserved image is probably her seal copy from 1314. It was made of wax and hung under a parchment. One has taken it for granted that the retables which include Brynolf cannot have been produced until after 16/8.1492, when he was some kind of canonized, and that those which include Katarina of Vadstena not until after 2/8.1489 when she was the same  -  according to Book of Saints Brynolf got canonized for real in 1498 and Katarina got beatified in 1484  -  but none of this can be taken for granted.

WOODEN SCULPTURES IN RETABLES

118.2:All older images of Helena are rough and too earthly to be yclept spiritual. What does Brynolf tell about Helena's physiognomy? He describes her as both beautiful and decorative and compares her with a statue of Venus. He means that she was simultaneously classically good-looking and sexy, and this ought to end all babble about that Helena was non-feminine. Tryggve Lundén describes her adequately as the Most Beautiful Woman Of Our Country. It were interesting to know what the Elene-sculpture looked like in her oratory of Therapne on Peloponnesos.

119: I:In TOREBODA brick church, inaugurated 2/10.1870: The sculpture was made in ~1430 and used to pose in the 13th century wooden chapel of BJORKANG, "the genuine Birka", which was dismantled and reconstructed every century for maintenance reasons, until it was finally destroyed in 1869. Parts of it were re-used in Toreboda church, which was built on a rock three stone's casts to the east. This Helena sculpture is different from all the others: It is bigger and older and made by another carver. The retable itself was made in 1738 and it was painted in 1766  -  maybe they made new copies of the sculptures then too (refurbished again in 1928), replacing the medieval and mouldy predecessors: S:ta Antonia of Spain is standing under Helena.

119.2:Bjorkang Chapel was maybe originally built as a Helenic oratory; its odd position indicates that it was built there for other reasons than to serve as a farm church  -  it was flooded yearly  -  so its motivation was surely religious. The chapel has been called an "offering church", but the offers of coins and other objects were done in a natural cup constantly filled with water on a boulder which stood near the chapel. The memorial stone, erected 8/12.1925, is supposedly placed 25-30 yards from the exact position of the chapel. A full-scale copy of its belfry was constructed in the summer of 1992 on the double church ruin of Karleby near Mariestad.

120: II:In GRASMARK church: According to a tradition immigrants from Finland had brought this retable with them to Varmland  -  a county which then was a part of Scara diocese. Others say that it firstly was mounted in Sunne church (absolutely not in East Emtervik), and without doubt is has been mounted in the predecessor of the present church at Grasmark, which was situated not very far off. This Helena was made in ~1500, and its wonderful, painted original is preserved in Stockholm by SHM (Statens Historiska Museum). Well, in 1981 the bulgarian carver Jordan B. Jordanov made a perfect copy of the retable, which now is mounted in Grasmark church. Brynolf is one of the three other saints in it.

121: --:In GOTENE church: Alas, this sculpture is an Amazing Disgrace! A male, paintless and armless demigod from the, at the time, still unrenovated retable was in the 1960:ies furnished with new arms and was re-named 'Helena'. He is in reality one of the twelve apostles. A couple of centuries ago the Madonna sculpture of the church was mistaken for a Helena ditto. As things are now Helena's two churches (Gotene and Skovde) lack a medieval image of her. (Helena's namesake, Constantine's mother, has suffered too from getting a manipulated image dedicated to her: In the crypt of Holy Cross Church, which she built in 320 at Rome, a Juno sculpture was given new arms and a new head and was furnished with a cross in order to become a 'Helena sculpture'!)

122: III:In KULLINGS-SKOVDE church: This Helena, made during the 15th century or about 1500, is preserved since 1878 chez Goteborg's Historiska Museum; she lives nowadays in Polstjarnegatan 8C, 417 56 Goteborg (on Hisingen)*. The sculpture is very worn out and looks like flotsome. A gypsum copy of it is shown by Skovde Museum.

*It is (or a copy of it) nowadays mounted behind glass and exhibited in room 15 in the mentioned museum, now called Goteborg City Museum. Creases of her robe have traces of orange paint, and her collar is still partly gilded.

123: IV:In RUDSKOGA church: This Helena was made in ~1500. (The old church was situated next to the present one from 1777).

124: V:In VISNUM church: This Helena was made in ~1525, when the church bought it; she is the most beautiful of these wooden images. Brynolf too is included in this retable. The carver has probably carved sculptures to Rudskoga and S. Rada churches too. (Wisnhem was firstly mentioned in 1248; the present church was inaugurated in 1733 situated a few hundred yards north-west of its predecessor).

125: VI:In ONUM church: Only here and in Toreboda exist within Scara diocese the saint of Westgothia, S:ta Helena, as a medieval image today. This is the fifth Helena who maybe was made in ~1500 and maybe by the same carver; she is 44 cm tall; the retable was renovated in 1934, but was very clumsily painted. A student of 'Helena In Art' has detected that Onum's Helena at first maybe was a part of the retable of Vara church, which now is kept by SHM and is deprived of its sculptures, since this Helena's outlines can be traced as shifts of colour on the back of her niche of the retable. Onum's retable with Helena was on exhibition in Scara old library in the spring of 1994. She has held a staff in her right hand. The original position of the church and the cemetery was by Stommen until 1865, where a 17th century church-building had replaced the medieval one. Onum was firstly mentioned in 1325.

UNCERTAIN SCULPTURES

126:From either North or South HARENE a wooden sculpture of Helena has been transferred to the "museum of the westgothians at Scara". There they deny this, and there are at least three other big museums in the region wherein this sculpture can have been displaced. (The solution of the riddle is that Tryggve Lundén, who published the "information", had happened to confuse Harene for Onum: There has never existed a Helena sculpture in either Harene parish. In 2002 another prelate confused Onum for Ottum in a printed tract).

127:In 1872 a mormon elder took a carved image of Helena from Helene Kilde at Tisvildeleje with him to Utah/USA. (This is a half-and-half statement being 50% plausible and 50% doubtful).

128:At Varola a Helena sculpture was preserved at home chez a famous church-builder, but it is unknown wherefrom he had gotten it. Alas it is equally unknown where Skovde Museum has displaced it. (Solution: This is the gypsum copy of the Kullings-Skovde-sculpture that the museum exhibits).

129:West Skedvi, 15 km north-west of Arboga, owned maybe a wooden sculpture of Helena in its retable  -  Schiodvii S. Helenae  -  which the mentioned angermannus and his superheroes sent away in 1596 into happier grounds. (Solution: Skovde, not any of the places called ~Skedvi, is the correctly comprehended church in the context). 021202

MURAL PAINTINGS

130:In KUMLABY: The church is situated on Visingso in Jonkoping commune, id est on the island south of the position where Westgothia, Eastgothia and Smaland meet among the waves which Brynolf once upon a time struggled against. The Helenic image of Kumlaby owns a specific quality since it was the first one to be rediscovered (except for the seals), namely in 1922. It was painted in the 15th century using a pilgrim's badge as a model. The painter used the same method when he painted Mrs Brita beside Helena. Their names are painted on banners under "New Jerusalem" which is descending from above. The building is profaned and has eg. been used as a school.

131:In the "HOUSE OF THE CHURCH", Skovde: In 1996 a mural painting measuring 3 x 7 yards was painted on the concrete wall in the assembly hall. The two painters have combined attributes of Elene of Mykene and of our S:ta Helena, bravely enough, and the Lion Gate of Amyklai is depicted and a greekish landscape by the side of the choir-end of Helena's church of Skovde and 4.5 of their own relievos of Helenic symbols, viz. the chalice, the sword, the heart and the hour-glass, see below...

UNCERTAIN MURAL PAINTINGS

132:In GOTENE church: People conjecture that they can see Helena painted to the left inside the southern side of the triumphal vault between the nave and the choir; and that the two other saints there are Mrs Brita and her daughter Katarina of Vadstena, but the paintings have been manipulated in order to create conformity, and this was done before Helena had been rediscovered as to church art  -  the workers didn't know who she was. Katarina has, apart from this, been furnished with birgittine attributes, and on her head she wears a military helmet with camouflage-net on; Helena's left hand has been furnished with a string with prayer-beans on  -  this hand was originally conceiled under the garment. Maybe these three women are simply pilgrims coming to worship Helena at Gotene. Or else they may be Etheldreda and two of her saintly sisters, which would rhyme well with this english-looking church.

132.2:It has been said about another of the mural paintings in Gotene church under the pretence that she were Helena: In the choir of Gotene church Helena is depicted on (sic) a naive painting, carrying a basket filled with alms... See further below. (By accident the basket in the context is interesting, see at the top above, but Dorothy is the normally basket-carrying saint).

OIL-COLOUR PAINTINGS

133:In NORTH NY church: On the inside of the right shutter of the retable of N. Ny church the most known image of Helena is found. The five knobs on her book represent the five spike-heads of Christ. There are many oil-colour-painting-copies of this piece of art, whereof one now is placed in the tower chamber of Helena's church of Skovde, and it served as a model to go by for the female artist who made the cupreous statue of Helena, see below along with two other objects to which this N. Ny-painting has served as a model. Before 1764 N. Ny church was situated 2 km to the south along Klar River.

133.2:Helena factually used to be depicted as a framed painting on the preacher's pulpit in her church at Skovde, but it and the other paintings have been packed up in boxes and these have been stowed away in a place unknown.

134:In a villa at Tisvilde there are 14 oil-colour paintings representing the local Midsummer celebration and the legend of Sankt Helene. The painter Ove Kunert (1893-1975) made them ~1916-20. Helena looks like a radiant angel.

135:The surrealist painter Erik Olson has made the Helena-picture which is hanging on the southern wall of the choir of her church at Skovde. The churches of Vamb and Skovde are also included.

A VERY UNCERTAIN OIL-COLOUR PAINTING

136:A female writer is somehow able to see "Elin" depicted on the retable of Hedared church, lowest to the right, with a veil on her head, holding a long staff or a sword pointing upwards over her right shoulder  -  it is nonsense. To begin with this is a man, and then it is evident that the twelve guys around the retable are the twelve apostles  -  and this is what the guide of this wooden church says. 

DRAWINGS

137:A militarist of Skovde, G.H. Barfod, made a drawing of Helena in 1767. She holds a staff in her right hand, while the left is covered by the garment. She wears a hood; is dressed like a farmer's wife. Under her feet there is an escutcheon decorated with a heart.

138:Jorgen Sonne made in 1846 a drawing called 'Midsummer Night upon Helene Grave at Tisvilde'.

STONE RELIEVO

139:"Elin", Vamb church and Vambo Rivulet are depicted as a relievo together with a lily stone on the south side of the stone pillar called Gyllen in the church park, Skovde. The man behind this piece of art is Helge Johansson.

METAL STATUE

140:Since 1950 there is a cupreous statue of Helena in a niche on the north side of Helena's church, Skovde, made by Astri Taube.

GRAVURE

141:In NOUSIAINEN church, north of Abo/ Finland, Helena is one of the many saints who in Flandre in 1430 were engraved on the brass plates of Henrik's cenotaph.

ART OF STAINED GLASS

142:In HELENA'S CHURCH OF SKOVDE: Helena was one of the four, approximately 1.5 yards tall saints, who were painted on the choir windows behind the altar  - they were mounted here between 1888 and 1927. All four wore haloes. Probably Helena resembled her escutcheon-picture which was used before 2001 by Skovde commune. Since the leaden joints had begun to give in, the pieces of glass were packed up in boxes and stowed away  -  nobody knows where. In 1927 another stained glass painting replaced it, and it was retained possibly until 1972  -  it showed seven biblical sceneries under God's all-seeing eye  -  but today people confuse the two different sets of stained glass art; the latter one is packed up in boxes in North Malm/Skovde.

143:In SCARA CATHEDRAL: In 1956 the multicoloured stained glass image of Helena was made; it is mounted in the fenestration of the southern transept gable; it is a mosaic. It is the only one of the modern Helenic images which is truly good. She holds a blue sword in her left hand and a black book with a silvery finger on in her right hand.

DISAPPEARED PIECES OF HELENIC ART

144:There must have existed medieval images of Helena in A)her church at Skovde before the middle of the 16th century; B)her Oratory outside Skovde; C)Scara Cathedral.

145:In the 1770:ies there was a painting of Helena on the tower of her church at Skovde, see below and at "1769".

IMAGES WRONGFULLY CLASSED AS HELENIC

146: A)Helena is utterly feminine and attractive, and thus people have been trigger-happy in identifying her here and there. In 1920 and 1929 a male man, painted by Amund in the 15th century, was called Helena in the ceiling of the choir of Gotene church.

147: B)It is wrong too to claim that Helena is the mural painting of a crowned woman on the south choir wall of Gotene church. She has a book tucked up under her right arm, and she stretches out an empty left hand. She is not Helena, even though a crown could have been expected as one of her attributes with reference to her mother's angelic message, see the beginning of this book.

148: C)In Skee in Bohuslan (in ex-Norway) is the woman with a cross and a church in the retable "who blocks the apsidal widow" not our Helena, regardless of what you can read in a new book on modern pilgrimages in Sweden.

149: D)Lucia, not Helena, is depicted in Tortuna church.

150: E)East Emtervik  -  read: Sunne church.

151: F)A whole bunch of medieval images of Helena, a woman claims in the third millennium, exist "of course" in Upland according her new pamphlet aimed towards Helena's church of Skovde  -  this so called Church Description is crammed with lies and desinformation. Apart from Grasmark's Helena, which SHM preserves, there is not one vestige of our westgothian Helena in Upland. (Solution: Helena, the mother of Constantine, is, though, frequently depicted in the county of Upland).

152: G)In Overselo church: Here you can count to five male men who hold a book and a sword, but none of them is Helena. I excommunicate herewith the rumours of these wrongful Helena identifications, and the conservers of the lies too: Close the book, blow out the candle, shut to the door and ring the bells  -  amen!

153:REASONING ABOUT HELENIC ART: The oldest images of Helena show her holding a staff, standing inside a monstrance, looking like an abbess. Other pictures show her veiled, with a sword and a book with a ring-finger on, and thus the copy of the Helenic Seal of 1591 is unique. Nunnery attire and staff are not connected with her in her ecclesiastical art. As recently as at the end of the 18th century she was painted, though, as a nun high above the ground on the outside of the tower of her church at Skovde. Norbert, the founder of the Premonstranesian Order, is depicted in a monstrance, and if it is correct that Helena got acquainted with this order in 1138 at Jerusalem, it is no wonder that she too is depicted in that a way. There is, in the most cases, a Helenic source near the scandinavian premonstratensian monasteries. The monks of this order of double (for both men and women in the same plant) order were canons, and in and near Skovde there are "canonical cottages" (sic).

153.2:A book with a finger on must be included on the escutcheon of Helena and Skovde according to a decision of 12/1.1939. The staff was supposed to be her wanderer's staff  -  it was otherwise the attribute of an abbess. Originally the staff may have been a palm twig or a writing-feather. She wore cloistral attire; had the golden crown of martyrs on her head; held a golden chain...

153.3:In her church of Skovde there was in the choir a stained glass image of Helena 1888-1927, but it was included among other pieces of contemporary art of the church in the 1950:ies when these were listed! beside a painting of Helena on the preacher's pulpit and two more on the choir walls  -  one of them is still there, painted by a surrealist, who presents Helena between the churches of Vamb and Skovde. Obliquely underneath this painting is her 15th century grating monted. On the outside is since 1950 the vert-de-gris statue of Helena standing in a niche, gazing narrow-sightedly down Hertig Johan's Street towards Resecentrum with a sword in her right hand pointing upwards, and a book in her left hand. On the same side of the church there are two 13th century bears or lions mounted since 1888 or 1927 (according to different sources): They are lying on top of the jambs, seizing a man (Gustav Wasa?) and a goat (Martin Luther?). In the church park there is the round pond and its great stone pillar, Gyllen, with relievos of e.g. Helena; upon the pillar there is a woman (Froja?) having an austere air, sitting on water streaming unto the four cardinal points. At a stone's cast from this church there is Skovde Museum, which owns e.g. Helena's stony breads, the important ink-drawing from the 1750:ies of her Oratory, copies of the Vatican notes on Helena  -  but the original documents from the 1160:ies are destroyed by fire  -  models of Skovde city in the 18th century, of the Oratory, Helena's church, a well with "living water", etc.

154:HELENA'S CITY SEAL: Its existence was mentioned in 1467, and its oldest preserved copy is from 1591 having this text: Sancta Elena Sigillum Ville Skedevensis. And Helena looks like a bandit holding a bludgeon on a seal-like picture which the church of Skovde today is using as logo, significatively enough; their polyglot folder about the church has a drawing of the mentioned Astri Taube statue. A Helenic escutcheon was drawn in 1767 by GH Barfod, and the seal of her Guild was preserved by Nikolaus Rabenius (1648-1717). The former Helenic Skovde city-seal was approved of in 1939, and 5/8.1992 it was decided that this escutcheon (logotype) must be used on all communal letters and envelopes, advertisements and documents  -  until it was replaced 1/1.2001, and 20/2-01 it took over all qualities of its predecessor.

154.2:This concerns the former escutcheon: On top of it there are five turrets. Centrally of the escutcheon Helena is standing inside a monstrance. She holds a pilgrim's staff in her right hand and a book with a finger on in her left hand. She wears a halo, and infront of her feet there is a little inescutcheon showing a heart  -  originally this heart was a hillock and its heart-shaped tuft of grass, and the tuft was idealized into a heart. (This green hillock, upon she often is depicted standing in retables etc  -  isn't it Elinemark's Kulle, the hill where Vasterhojds school is today?). The colours of this mark 1939 version are mainly gold, white and red, and this strict (gloomy) image of Helena decorated to and including 2000 the borderlines of Skovde commune, roadsigns, flags, communal vehicles, garbage receptacles etc. (In 1979 there were by the city entrances of Skovde red signs with the text "Welcome to Skovde" on and with Helena's escutcheon to the left, but they were removed since they were considered disturbing!). (A picture based on this escutcheon decorates a new Helenic Summons sent from Goteborg in 2002).

154.3:The new escutcheon: It is better than its predecessor, but the staff has been replaced by a sword and the finger is grotesquely huge. It is simple and red. Helena is in the centre of it drawn with white lines; she has a halo, a veil, a frock without creases, a wide mantle which makes her look fat. Her left hand holds the horizontal book on which the finger is resting. Her right hand holds a sword pointing downwards. E.g. the communal vehicles are decorated by this heraldic piece of art. (A similar escutcheon is used by a sports society at Skovde, but they have drawn her with the sword pointing upwards).

MISCELLANEA

objects related to the cult of Helena

155: A)ALTARS: 1)An altar was dedicated 20/11.1440 in Upsala cathedral to the westgothian widow Helena, and it was positioned centrally.

155.2: 2)In 1971 an altar weighing 3 tonnes was rediscovered in a stony field by Hissingsgarden west of Elin's Source, which had belonged to Medelplana church. Now it was dedicated to Helena, and placed to the right of the main altar and is used for a baptismal altar. It is ~58 cm high, ~135 cm long, at the broadest point ~105 cm; the breadth of the altar-top is ~60 cm. Two somewhat recessed corner columns measure ~45 x ~12.3 cm; these are supposed to look like table-legs. Apollonia's sister-altar of the same church, found beside Helena's, is ~45 cm high, ~135 cm long, at the broadest point ~83 cm. Two corners have shallow double niches ("three-phase corners on the front side"). Both are "12th century altars of sandstone". In 1824 Helena's altar had been broken in two pieces when it was transported out of the church; "of course a 12th century altar got a great cultural and historical value".

155.3: 3)The main altars of Gotene and Vattlosa churches must be regarded as Helenic since each one of them houses only one relique and both are chips from Helena's ring-finger. In Vattlosa the 12th century altar was conceiled under the panel in 1910 and during the latest renovation. The relique of Helena is still enclosed in the stone altar there, though. It is plausible that Helena knelt before this altar when she received the Lord's Supper there. It is possible that she had been baptized in the font of the church; it was shipped in 1872 from Lidkoping via the canal to SHM at Stockholm.

   4)There exists no documentation which could describe if or how much the Helenic cult occurred at Molltorp, but the altar of the church there used to house one of her finger reliques.

156: B)The communal escutcheon of Gotene was approved of in 1953, and it shows a cross over S:ta Helena's Source, flanked by two swords. On feast-days of Gotene commune they hoist, in the park by the house of commerce, a big quadrate red flag having the same items on it as has the escutcheon. Gotene museum shows the legend of Helena illustrated with cartoon-like pictures; the image of Helena has been inspired by the North Ny-painting.

157: C)Exemples of places with connexion to the cult of Helena: Alvastra (where her cult hibernated); Gotene (2 miracles), Lyngsjo (pilgrims coming to her source there); the site of her Oratory (miracle); Skovde (3 miracles by her grave, 2 on the cemetery, and 1 close to the church); Tisvildeleje (many miracles); Lake Vattern north of Visingso (where Helena re-conquered and saved Brynolf 14/8.1288). 

158: D)Helena's Stone at a stone's throw from the beach at Tisvildeleje, on which some individuals still, at ebb-tide, can see impressions of her body. Divers examined it in the summer of 2002.

159: E)Helene Kilde Blok at Tisvilde  -  coins which were offered out of reverence for Sankt Helene were inserted into the slot on its metal lid; king Christian IV once inserted 120 dalers there. This square wooden thing is protected by a small building in the middle of the old Fogdegarden's site  -  the last farm there had been built in ~1765 but it burnt down in 1958. In 1936 Ebba Holm made a drawing of Helene Kilde Blok.

160: F)The fathomless little lake called Elinasjon in the royal park called Klyftamon in Holmestad parish  -  no-one knows today where it is (Igelsjon?).

161: G)Elinegerdit (half a tax-freed farm) in Horred parish was firstly mentioned in 1540 may indicate a local Helenic position?

162: H)The engraved die belonging to the ecclesiastical office of Medelplana and Vasterplana shows pictures of saints Elin and Apollonia, but it was made by a local artist in the 1970:ies. She based the two saintly images on medieval originals known from other places. Alas the die has been regarded as a proof of that Medelplana church had been dedicated to these two saints in the 12th century. Elin's "presence" there cannot be documented further back in time than to 1955, and Apollonia's "presence" not further back than to the first decades of the 19th century.

163: I)There are three cloven stones having a relation to the cult of Helena: 1)In Mone parish close to her source (read: Eliah's source). It was set into a Helenic context in the 1950:ies. 2)Within reach from her church at Skovde; it disappeared before the 1250:ies regardless of what different rumours tell. 3)On Helene Grave at Tisvildeleje  -  a misunderstanding. The standing stones constitute a part of the wall of her(?) ruined oratory there.

164: J)By the herb garden of Helénsgarden/ Skovde there is a bricky image of ceramics hanging which maybe presents Helena holding a staff on a hillock above a heart. The founder of the park is the maker of the image (lived 1912-87).

165: K)Three zip-codes has Helena's name in Sweden: Helenavagen 763 41 Hallstavik; Sankta Helenagatan 541 30 Skovde; Sankta Helenas Vag 271 32 Ystad. In Tisvildeleje there are Sankt Helene Vej, Helenevangen, and Helene Kildevej. Copenhagen too has a street named after her.

166: L)"Helene Kirkes Laen" has existed with its basis in Lund/ Scania, confused for Helgeands Laen of the same city.

167: M)Some people claim that one of Helena's pilgrim's badges is soldered on a bell from 1498 in Fredsberg church next to badges of Olav and Mrs Brita.

168: N)In Skovde church they used to preserve the white funeral sheet during the catholic era, the sheet which had been wrapped around S:ta Helena's body when she was conveyed to this church after her martyrdom. Occasionally it thereafter got lended, after permission of the bishop, to severely sick persons for to heal them. Once it healed a deadly wounded leader of farmers, and the blood on the sheet was washed away during the night by the dew.

169: O)In 1996 ten relievos were produced on lime slabs and mounted in the aula of the House of the Swedish Church at Skovde. They represent: 1)S.ta Elin's source. 2)A mitre torn apart. 3)"The thorn and the eye". 4)The heart. 5)The chalice. 6)The ring. 7)A broken crucifix. 8)Eight drops of blood and the grating. 9)The hour-glass. 10)The sword, partly of gold. Numbers 1, 6, 8 and 10 make sense in the Helenic cult context, since they are motivated by what is told about her; the others seem hard to grasp: The mitre of Helena (2) was invented in 1998 by SSHGO; otherwise it might be regarded as a Brynolf symbol. The thorn (3) is a true Brynolf symbol, while the eye could remind one of that Helena heals blindness. The heart (4) looks like four ginger-cakes and has maybe a similarity to the communal escutcheon of Ranneslov-Ysby. The chalice (5) has too remote a motivation to be comprehended, and the crucifix too (7). The hour-glass (9) was invented in 1998 by SSHGO: Helena preserves her eternal youth by turning the hour-glass up side down whenever it pleases her. {021203 09.22}

170: P)A priest has in a tract, issued by Scara Diocesan Historic Society, discoursed on St. Helena. He is familiar with the Elin-Goteve district, where he was brought up. Here are a few comments; the numbers concern my notes to his text: 1)The circumstance "which props the idea" that Helena was a part of the upper class is as how Brynolf says so. 2)That the murder of Helena were a robbery is an unbelievable idea, partly because Brynolf in deed accounts the circumstances, partly because the whole legend in deed is built upon the fact that she became a christian martyr. 3)Skovde was not a city in the bud in the 1100:ies, and Elene as its earliest name is a hypothesis totally lacking implantation in reality. 4)Elin didn't, but the mother of Brynolf did, own all Vamb  -  parishes didn't exist until the following century  -  even if modern, local traditions tells that Elin did as an exemple of how rich she was. 5)Exclusively the proximity of the rural farm of Gothene is indicated to be where Helena was martyred  -  the other positions have been added long afterwards. 6)No doubtless picture of Helena exists in Gotene church. 7)Brynolf is thus exclusively pointing out Gothene, both as Helena's abode and as the position of her martyrdoom. 8)There exists no link between Gokhem and the invented name of Gothem. 9)No, Elin, presently a part of Goteve parish, was introduced by Messenius as to St. Helena's connexions. The parish-name of Elin in its oldest written way seems, though, to mean plainly 'the Church of Elin'. 10)Eling Church is not dedicated to St. Helena as far as can be proven, even though this parish-name too seems to mean 'the Church of Elin' in its oldest written way. 11)Ottum, read: Onum. 12)The source in the Hallstad district is to do with Eliah the Prophet (or Eliah the God of Thunder) and it is positioned within Mone's borders. 13)The lake-thing lacks relevancy here. 14)The rowing priest of the Fala district has no connexion with Helena. 15)One easily gets the notion of that a local tradition connects the position of Helena's martyrdoom with Elin's church, but there has never existed any such tradition but only individuals who have read that Messenius had invented that same connexion as to Goteve and have taken it for granted that he had learnt this by the common people, but he hadn't learnt any such stuff  -  he sat in a Finnish prison and had fantasies. That the very church was the position of her martyrdoom is an addition made by this 3:rd millennium priest. 16)The link to St. Olav and to the Fala district has to be deleted from anyone's mind  -  'tis historicly non-existent. Helena was martyred 1/8 1140 according to the oldest sources, by the way. 17)'Tis unlikely that archaeological finds will solve the 'Case of Helena'? But OK, uncover the ground first of all of the entire church-park of Skovde; my nabs shall be very keen to know if Helena's reliques and her cloven stone will be found there. 18)A total unearthing of the ruin knoll of Elin's church at Goteve is a good proposal regardless which slant you have on the site. 19)A symposium on Helena is a great idea. 20)I shall welcome Helena-related tourism, but keep it apart from her bitter competitors: Olav and Birgitta.

171: Q)Via www.sofi.se/SOFIU/topo1951/_cdweb/s1dx001/326225b1.htm one can find this ever so great Helenistical piece of intelligence: A skerry (a rock above sea-level) in lake Malaren within Fogdo parish has had the name of St Helena! With a beautiful but parcel unreadable handwriting J. Sahlgren wrote as follows in 1921: St Helena, skerry within the premises of Hasselbyholm Fogdo parish, Aker's wapentake. Söd. l. san t elènae  to which you have gone and upon which you have had a party in days of yore (baron Stjarnstedt of Hasselbyholm) St Helena KGJ4NO, ek. (I'm not guaranteeing as how my interpretation were correct. Söd.l. probably means Södermanland). Thus a new and welcome pilgrim's goal has popped up. It is the most close at hand to believe that the skerry is named after the island in the Atlantic Sea which housed Napoleon. If they had parties upon the skerry, it might have corresponded to Elba off Vasteras Harbour; Askersund too has got a similar party-islet. {A ship sank by Sankta Helena in 1756, loaded with porcelain from Rorstrand Pottery in Stockholm. The ship was recovered in 1757, but the porcelain wasn't brought ashore until a few years ago. But the name of this skerry has been documented only in 1921 and 1949}.

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