St Alena of Brussels

St Alena was born at Dilbeek, near Brussels, to noble pagan parents in the seventh century. Drawn to Christ, she was baptized without their knowledge and went secretly to the Divine services. When her father found out, he believed the Christians had bewitched her and sent guards to bring her home. She resisted, and in the struggle she lost an arm. She died of her wounds in prison around the year 640. An angel bore her arm to the chapel where she used to pray. Miracles at her grave, among them a nobleman's sight restored, moved her father and mother to embrace the faith she had died for. In 1193 her relics were solemnly enshrined at Forest, now part of Brussels, which became a place of pilgrimage. She is a quiet witness to the faith of a daughter who won her own parents for Christ.

Sources are thin. Her life survives only in a 12th-century account, and radiocarbon tests suggest the Forest relics are not hers. She is a Western pre-schism saint; Wikipedia gives 18 June as her Eastern Orthodox date, while Catholic dates vary (16, 17, 19 or 24 June). The Russian name-day custom: many girls are now named Алина or Алёна, but the traditional Russian Orthodox calendar (Месяцеслов) has no saint of that name. Russian and Ukrainian name-day guides therefore either point to St Alena of Brussels on about 18 June or baptize the girl under a similar Orthodox name. For Алёна this is usually Елена (St Helen, 21 May/3 June), since Alyona is historically a folk form of Elena. Be honest that St Alena is a 'popular' name-day patron, not an official Russian-calendar saint.