Helena Dragaš

Saint Hypomone
Icon of Helena Dragaš as Saint Hypomone
Born	Helena Dragaš c. 1372
Died	23 March 1450(1450-03-23) Constantinople
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church
Major shrine	Monastery of Saint Patapios, Loutraki
Feast	29 May

Helena Dragaš
A miniature from the Louvre MS. Ivoires 100 manuscript, depicting the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, empress Helena and three of their sons - the co-emperor John VIII and the Despots Theodore and Andronikos.
Spouse	Manuel II Palaiologos
House	Dejanović
Father	Konstantin Dejanović
Mother	Konstantin's second wife

Helena Dragaš (Serbian: Јелена Драгаш, Jelena Dragaš; Greek: Ἑλένη Δραγάση, Elenē Dragasē; c. 1372 – 23 March 1450) was the empress consort of Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos. Later in life she became a nun. She is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church under her monastic name, as Saint (Ὑπομονὴ), translated in English as Saint Patience.

Helena was the daughter of Serbian magnate Konstantin Dejanović, a provincial lord during the fall of the Serbian Empire that held Kyustendil. Her mother was Konstantin's unnamed first wife (not his second wife, Helena's stepmother Eudokia of Trebizond). Her stepmother was a daughter of Alexios III of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene, and the widow of Tadjeddin Pasha of Sinop, Emir of Limnia. Her father fell at the battle of Rovine (1395), while fighting for his overlord, Ottoman sultan Bayezid I against the rebel Mircea I of Wallachia.

She was well known for her beauty, piety, wisdom, and justice. Her husband (as a former emperor) became a monk with the name Matthew (Ματθαῖος). After his death, on 21 July 1425, she became a nun at the Monastery of Kyra Martha, taking her monastic name. She helped to establish a home for old people, with the name "The Hope of the Despaired". The home was located at the Monastery of St. John in Petrion, where the relics of St. Patapius of Thebes are also kept.