A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Helena, Ap Eudda
HELENA, AP EUDDA,
Was, like her relative and namesake, St. Helena, one of the earliest patrons of Christianity in Britain. She was the daughter of Eudda, or Octavius, as the Romans called him, Duke of the Wiccii, or people of Worcester, who having married Guala, sister of St. Helena, received with her as a bridal dowry the kingdom of North Wales. The hand of the Princess Helena, with the reversion of these possessions, was bestowed on Maximus, a Roman general and senator, nearly allied to the imperial family by his mother's side, and being a son of the British King Llewelyn.
Maximus, afterwards, in the year 888, assumed to himself the dignity of Emperor of Spain, Gaul, and Britain, of whose people he seems to have had the willing allegiance. By him St. Martin, when he was diffusing the light of Christianity throughout Gaul, was received with every demonstration of respect and honour, and the beautiful Helena, now Empress of the West, insisted on waiting on the holy man, and sat at his feet listening to the precious truths of which he was the bearer. According to Sulpicious Severus—"The queen on this occasion ministered like Martha, and heard like Mary."
When a reverse of fortune took place, and Maximus, conquered by Theodosius, Emperor of the East, fell a victim to popular fury at Aquileia, Helena was in Britain, and the spot where she received the tidings of her husband's death is still pointed out by the Welsh people, in the beautiful vale of Festinivy, where the springs called Fynnon Helen are said to have sprung from her tears.