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ELEYNE1 (saint). Helena, (c. 250-330), wife of Constantinus Chlorus and mother of Constantine the Great, was reputed to have found the True Cross. Influenced by her son, she became a Christian and was subsequently given the title Augusta. About 324 she made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where she is said to have founded the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. Encouraged by dreams and visions, she made a second pilgrimage c. 326 to Jerusalem in search of the cross of the crucifixion. She enquired of the rabbinate for the place of the crucifixion, and when they would not tell her, she ordered them burnt. In fear, they sent her Judas, their leader, whom she had confined without food and water for six days when he also would not tell her. On the seventh day he agreed to do her bidding. Led to the place where it was hidden, Helena prayed, and there was a slight earthquake; then such a sweet perfume filled the air that Judas was converted on the spot. After digging to a depth of twenty feet, he discovered three crosses, which he brought to Helena. The cross that raised a man from the dead was considered the True Cross. Judas was baptized and became Bishop Cyriacus. He found, subsequently, the nails of the crucifixion, and Helena took these back to Rome. Constantine wore them in his bridle and in his helmet (Legenda aurea LXVIII). The story is the subject of one of Cynewulf's poems, Elene, written during the first half of the ninth century.

Harry Bailly swears, by the cross which St. Eleyne found, to do violence to the Pardoner, PardT 951-955. The medieval church celebrated the Feast of the Invention of the Cross on May 3, also considered a bad luck day. Palamon breaks out of prison on May 3, KnT 1462-1469. Pandarus falls in love on that day, Tr II.56, and on May 3 Chauntecleer is carried off by Daun Russell, NPT 3187-3197.

Eleyne, the ME variant, with initial stress and two syllables, appears medially, PardT 951.


A.S. Cook, "The Date of the Old English 'Elene.'" Anglia 15 (1893): 9-20; Cynewulf, Elene, ed. P.D.E. Gradon; Jacobus de Voragine, GL, trans. G. Ryan and H. Ripperger, 269-276; ibid., LA, ed. Graesse, 303-311.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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