Agia Elena was born in the Peloponnese. Her father was a wealthy Greek lord, but a pagan and was called Elladios. Her mother, however, Eugenia, was a holy woman of many virtues and rich gifts. She had no children, so she begged God to have mercy on her and to merit her to bear a child.
One day while she was alone in the house praying, she heard a voice from heaven saying to her, «God has had mercy on you in all that you have asked of him, and has given you the fruit of the womb.» When Elisha was born (she was named Elisha after the voice her mother had heard, «God have mercy on you»), her mother dedicated her to the Lord and baptized her a Christian, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
As she grew older, her faith and love for God grew stronger. After her mother's saintly death, while the saint was 14 years old, she thought she could not live with her pagan father who wanted to marry her off to a lord. Therefore, after much prayer and when she found a suitable opportunity, she left after distributing many alms to the poor and orphans, together with two of her servants, and she went to a mountain in Kythera to practice on a mountain. But her father searched and found her and tried to bring her back to their home again. But at the Saint's refusal, her father, outraged, persecuted her. The persecuted Saint reached the root of the mountain that is now called the Mount of Saint Helena and begged God saying ’tear up the earth and hide me«. Through the crack that opened in the mountain the Saint passed through and reached the top, where her distraught father arrived and beheaded her on August 1, 375 AD. At the place of her martyrdom her servant buried her.
The first Christians who came to the island to venerate the tomb of the Saint, built a small chapel, mostly buried in the ground, to which the pilgrims descended 5-6 steps. The altar of the temple was placed above the Saint's tomb. Tradition says that in the old days pilgrims from Mani came from Mani on 1 August and honoured the memory of the Saint. This small church survived until 1867 AD as the private property of the family Kasimatis - Gerakas.
In 1871 AD, the present spacious Temple was erected with contributions from Christians on the ruins of the old Temple, which was filled in to level the ground where the new Temple would be erected. Right above the old Temple the Holy Step was built and above the place where the Saint's tomb was, the Holy Altar of the new Temple was built. In the same period, the first ground-floor cells with a walkway (arches) were built around the Church. The church was a fraternal church with brothers from the village of Gerakianika. In 1945 AD the church became a parish church of the neighbouring village of Pourgos.
During the 1950s, the beautification and promotion of the Sanctuary began with the execution of major works, such as the landscaping of the church, the construction of a new bell tower, the landscaping of the surroundings, the construction of the sanctuary and modern cells, the electric lighting and the construction of a highway, which was the most difficult project, due to the inaccessibility of the area, created by the vertical steep rocks.
Saint Elesa and Saint Theodore are considered the protectors of Kythera and the people believe that the Saint has «bridled» the snakes of Kythera and they are not poisonous. Note: The memory of this particular Saint is not mentioned anywhere in the Synaxis, we find her as a martyr only in Kythera.
Apolytikon Sound c’. Divine Faith. Holy son of the Peloponnese, old man of the island of Kythera, you have risen up, Eleusis, our pious Eleusis, for Christ's sake, you have been legally trained, you have been made a patroness of your vocation, Martyr, you have prayed to Christ the God, giving us your great mercy.
