The story in text:

St Helena’s church stands in the middle of Skövde, named after the town's patron saint, St Elin or St Helena.

In the Middle Ages, St Helena’s church was an important site of pilgrimage for the whole of Scandinavia.

St Elin, also called St Helena, was according to legend a God-fearing woman of high birth who lived in the 12th century. She belonged to the nobility. After her husband's death she devoted her life to God through prayer and fasting. She is also said to have ordered the construction of much of Skövde church. It was in the church she had an apparition that it would become the last resting place of a saint. So it was her own fate she saw.

One of Elin’s daughters was married to a man who was a wife beater. The couple’s servants did not take kindly to the husband's cruelty and they murdered him. The man's family accused Elin of being behind the murder and on a visit to Götene she was murdered in revenge.

Upon her death, several miracles occurred and she was canonised on 31 July, 1164 – Sweden's first female saint. It was upon Elin’s initiative St Helena’s church was built, as well as the churches in Våmb and Götene. It is said that her burial chamber was here in the oldest parts of St Helena’s church. Pilgrims flocked to Skövde to visit the grave as well as the saint’s spring – which still exists, in the military area.

Inside the church, to the left of the chancel, there is a 15th-century iron gate with a beautiful chequered pattern. It was originally below the stairs to the crypt where the remains of St Elin are said to have been preserved in a casket. The steps can be seen through the pane of glass in the floor to the left in the chancel.

Remember to take a look at Astri Taube’s statuette of St Elin from 1950 that stands on the outside of the church on its northern side. St Elin is depicted with a sword in her hand, symbolising how she was killed.