[2][3] Helena was widowed at a young age, but instead of remarrying, she "devoted herself to works of charity and piety, keeping her gates open to the poor, and clothing them".

[3] According to hagiographer Agnes B. C. Dunbar, she built a portico between the church and its tower, and when asked about its purpose, replied, "God will give us some saint whose body and relics can be suitably placed there".

The boy saw "a light like a burning candle in the bushes",[2] told the man what he saw, and after a search, found Helena's finger wearing a ring she had brought from Jerusalem.

The part of the stone stained with her blood was propped up so no one would step on it; according to Dunbar, many miracles occurred there, which became a place of veneration for Helena, even after the Reformation.

[2][3] In the late 16th century, according to Catholic historian Francis Mershman, Abraham Angermannus, the fourth Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala, had Helena's fountain, along with other springs with religious significance, filled up with stones and rubbish, but pilgrims traveled to Helena's grave every summer, where they were healed after staying there all night; they took little bags of earth from under her tombstone, leaving their crutches behind, and made "votive offerings in token of gratitude".