In cicatrice manus dextrae crevit filum aureum: Iconography and the cult of blessed helena of veszprém in the late middle ages

The iconographic study of blessed Helen of veszprém or Hungary presented here highlights the difficulties of the historical-artistic approach of the supposed magistra of saint Margaret of Hungary. the present work examines the visual construction of the Hungarian blessed and her earliest literary sources, the iconographic contamination caused by her disciple’s adoption of christ’s wounds and the lilies growing from them, as well as the analysis of what is believed to be the oldest surviving image of Helena of veszprém, contained in a reliquary now exhibited in the cistercian convent of Las Huelgas in burgos (spain).