Venerable Helena Dragaš (in monasticism, Hypomone)

Helena Dragaš was born c. 1372, daughter of the Serbian despot Constantine Dragaš of Macedonia. On February 10, 1392, she married the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, becoming empress consort. She bore ten children, including Emperors John VIII and Constantine XI — the last Byzantine emperor, who died defending Constantinople in 1453. After her husband's death (1425) she took monastic vows with the name Hypomone ("Patience") at the Kyra Martha convent in Constantinople. Contemporaries (the historian Sphrantzes, St. Gennadios Scholarios, John Argyropoulos) praised her humility, wisdom, and justice. She founded a women's monastery, "Hope of the Hopeless," in the Peloponnese, and was buried at the Pantocrator Monastery in Constantinople. She was officially canonized as Venerable Hypomone by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece in 1992; a special liturgical service was composed (by Prof. Ch. Bousias), with the center of her veneration at the Church of St. Athanasius the Great in Athens.

NOTE: the canonization is confirmed specifically by the Church of Greece (1992) — it is not established whether she has been included in the calendars of other autocephalous churches (Russian, Serbian, etc.); honestly noted as a confirmed but not pan-Orthodox-attested glorification.