St. Elier or Helier, Hermit and Martyr


IN the isle of Jersey and on the coast of Normandy the name of this servant of God has been in singular veneration from the time of his happy death. He was converted to the faith by St. Marcon, a holy abbot in Armorica, and being inflamed with an ardent desire of serving God in the practice of perfect virtue, retired into the isle of Jersey, and choosing for his abode a cave on the summit of a rock of difficult access, there led an eremitical life in rigorous fasting and assiduous prayer. In this lonely retreat he was murdered by robbers or infidel barbarians. The chief town in the island, which is situate seven leagues from Cotentin, bears his name. The dean of the island is still invited to all diocesan synods of Coutances, the island having been formerly subject to the spiritual jurisdiction of that see. See the new Martyrology of Evreux; Piganiol, Descrip. de la France, t. 9, p. 557; the acts of St. Helier, in the Bollandists, 16 Julij, and of St. Marcou, 1 Maij; also Trigan. Hist. de Normandie, l. 3, p. 91, l. 4, p. 124; the Breviaries of Coutances and Rennes, and that of the Cistercian abbey of Beaubec, in the diocess of Rouen, which is possessed of his relics.	1