Brewer's: Helena

The type of a lovely woman, patient and hopeful, strong in feeling, and sustained through trials by her enduring and heroic faith. (Shakespeare: All's Well that Ends Well.)

Helena

(St.). Mother of Constantine the Great. She is represented in royal robes, wearing an imperial crown, because she was empress. Sometimes she carries in her hand a model of the Holy Sepulchre, an edifice raised by her in the East; sometimes she bears a large cross, typical of her alleged discovery of that upon which the Saviour was crucified; sometimes she also bears the three nails by which He was affixed to the cross.

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