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Saint Elena of Laurino

Also known as

Eliena
Helen
Heliena

20 April (Roman Martyrology)
22 May (Laurino, Italy)
29 June the date of a pilgrimage to her cave hermitage
18 August on some calendars

Profile

Born to a poor family, as a young woman Elena felt a call to religious life. She was hounded by slander from the local people, fled from her home town and became a hermitess in a cave in nearby Pruno, Italy. Though she felt shunned by the local people, her faith led her to a ministry to the sick, and a life as an anchoress.

Born

509 in Laurino, Campania, Italy

Died

530 in her cave in Pruno, Italy of natural causes
she had been dead for a while, and only her bones were recovered for burial in nearby Paestum, Italy
relics given to Margherita, wife of King Charles II of Anjou who then gave them to Saint Elzeario da Sabrano who had them enshrined under the main altar in the cathedral of Ariano-Irpino, Italy in a black wooden urn in the early 14th century
relics re-discovered and re-enshrined in 1622
relics donated to and enshrined in an urn in the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Laurino, Italy in 1882