21 Facts About Helier

Helier is the patron saint of Jersey in the Channel Islands, and in particular of the town and parish of Saint Helier, the island's capital.

Helier is invoked as a healing saint for diseases of the skin and eyes.

Hellerius or Helier was born to pagan parents in Tongeren.

Helier's father was Sigebert, a nobleman from Tongeren and his mother was Lusigard.

Helier's wanderings led him to the Cotentin where he sought retreat from the distractions of the world in the monastic community of Marculf at Nantus.

Helier found the monastic community did not provide the quiet he required to devote himself fully to a life of contemplation.

Helier settled on a tidal islet, nowadays known as the Hermitage Rock, next to L'Islet, the tidal island now occupied by the 16th century Elizabeth Castle.

Helier remained at his hermitage in fasting and prayer for about fifteen years.

Helier is recorded as performing one healing miracle in Jersey, curing a lame man named Anquetil.

The boat, guided by the hand of God, arrived at Breville-sur-Mer where a reputedly miraculous healing spring arose on the spot where Helier's body rested overnight.

Churches dedicated to Helier can be found in Rennes, St Helier, Beuzeville, Amecourt, Barentin, Monhoudou.

Helier is remembered in Jersey for having brought Christianity to the island, but is better known in Normandy and Brittany as a healing saint.

Besides the healing springs at St Hellier and Breville, there is a healing spring at Saint-Jouan-des-Guerets, where Helier's name has been deformed by folk etymology to St Delier.

The Life of Saint Helier was written in, or after the 10th century.

St Helier was born, we are told, 'after the death of wicked Queen Brunehild, when Childebert governed the Francs'.

Charles Grosset notes that the Passion of St Helier, written in the 10th or 11th century, draws upon two very much earlier lives of Marculf, and amends them to suit the narrative.

Grosset's conclusion is that the life of Helier is extremely poorly documented, and like Balleine, he considers it largely fictional.

Helier discovered a similar sounding name to Helier in the district of Tongres, and a hermit called Eletus in the Life of St Marcouf.

Helier did not hesitate to identify Helier with the near namesake in Tongres, or to make an identification with Eletus, taking the story of a miracle set on an island whose place-name was not to be found on the map.

That there was a town given the name "St Helier" is not by itself proof that Helier existed, or, if he did exist, visited Jersey.

Further, the Passion of St Helier was written at a much later date, when the original attributions had been masked by time; it is clearly a work which draws upon any available sources of other saints for stories, and it is this Life that makes the identification of Marculf's Eletus with Helier.