ST HELIER, HERMIT AND MARTYR - 16 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 16th of July

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST 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

St Helier (Elier) 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. 

HE WAS MARTYRED BY ROBBERS OR INFIDEL BARBARIANS

In this lonely retreat he was murdered by robbers or infidel barbarians. The chief town in the island, which is situated 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.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

PRAYER:

May the intercession of the blessed martyr Helier commend us to you, so that through his merits we may obtain that which we cannot accomplish by our own. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.