- published: 17 Feb 2014
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Saint Helier, a 6th century ascetic hermit, is patron saint of Jersey in the Channel Islands, and in particular of the town and parish of Saint Helier, the island’s capital. He is also invoked as a healing saint for diseases of the skin and eyes.
According to hagiography, Hellerius or Helier was born to pagan parents in Tongeren (now in Belgium) after they had had difficulties conceiving a child. In desperation they had turned to Saint Cunibert who had advised them to pray to God and to promise to bring up an eventual child in the Christian faith. Their prayers having been answered, Helier was born, but Helier’s father eventually grew angry at the influence Cunibert exerted over his precocious son, who was already causing consternation with his youthful miracles. Helier’s father had Cunibert killed, whereupon Helier fled.
Helier’s wanderings led him through what is now the village of St. Hellier in the département of Seine-Maritime in Normandy and eventually to the Cotentin where he sought retreat from the distractions of the world in the monastic community of Saint Marculf at Nantus (Nanteuil, now St.-Marcouf-de-l’Isle in Manche).