ON ST. HELERIUS OR ELERIUS, MARTYR
ON THE ISLAND OF CAESAREA IN THE BRITISH SEA.
SIXTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Saint's cult, Acts, and burial.
Helerius, Martyr, on the island of Caesarea in the British sea (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
Caesarea, commonly Guernsey or Jersey, according to Antoninus, an island of Celtic Gaul (I once, sailing from Spain into Belgium, beheld it in passing), is situated in the British sea not far from the Norman shores. The island of Caesarea is described, It belonged formerly to Normandy and in spiritual matters was subject to the bishop of Coutances; but now, with certain adjacent islands, it obeys the king of England. It embraces about thirty miles in its circuit. "It is frequent with villages," says Camden in his Britannia page 854, "distinguished into twelve parishes, and indented on every side with convenient stations, among which the safest is in the southern part of the island between the little towns of St. Hilary and St. Alban, which has its own little island fortified with a garrison, cut off on every approach, in which they say St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, banished hither, was given to burial: for the town sacred to his name over against this island is reckoned the chief town, both by reason of the mart and of the judicial forum, which is established there." That the things which Camden here narrates of the exile and burial of St. Hilary are false, anyone will easily understand from the Acts of St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, which our Bolland illustrated at the day XIII January.
[2] If it were permitted to indulge in conjectures, I would suspect that this little town, a few letters being changed, ought rather to be called St. Helerius' in which St. Helerius suffered, than St. Hilary's: for the name of St. Helerius must formerly have been celebrated in that island, since in the same there existed an abbey of that name, as is gathered from Robert de Monte, a writer of the twelfth century, who, edited by D'Achéry after the works of the venerable Guibert and other ancient monuments in the year 1651 at Paris, in the Appendix to Sigebert thus writes at the year 1184: "Lord Walter, archbishop of Rouen, obtained from our Lord Henry, king of the English, that the abbey of St. Elerius (which is on the island of Jersey, which William, son of Hamericus, had made on the same island, by the counsel and aid of the king) should be joined to the abbey of Le Vœu, which is near Cherbourg, which the empress, mother of King Henry, had built. But it was threefold richer, both in Normandy and in England, than the abbey of Le Vœu." You see there an excellent abbey, marked with the name of St. Helerius. Whatever be the case with the aforesaid little town of St. Hilary, the island of Caesarea or Jersey, which we described in the preceding number, was the arena in which St. Helerius obtained the palm of martyrdom. Now let us say some things concerning his cult.
[3] who is mentioned only by more recent Martyrologists, Our Saint the anchorite is known to very few, and those only more recent, Martyrologists. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology at the day XVI July thus has it: At Coutances in Normandy, of St. Helerius the martyr, slain by the Vandals on the island of Jersey. But Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology thus writes in French at the same day: On a certain island of the British strait, of St. Helerius (in the margin he calls him also Helvertus and Helibertus) the anchorite, visited by St. Marculf, and there slain by the impious, whose relics were carried into Belgium. What is to be judged concerning the translation of the relics here noted will be discussed more fully afterward. Although the name of our Saint does not occur in the ancient Martyrologies, yet from elsewhere his cult becomes sufficiently known. Nay I do not doubt that in Caesarea itself, which the glorious Martyr once watered with his blood, besides the abbey of St. Helerius mentioned above, there survived several monuments of public veneration, until Elizabeth, queen of England, most hostile to Catholic rites, tearing this and the neighboring islands from the diocese of Coutances, subjected them to the pseudo-bishop of Winchester, and gave them to the Genevan corrupters of the divine word to be administered, as the heterodox Camden testifies in the work cited above page 856. Since therefore it is most probable that the heresy, hostile to the cult of the Saints, has already in its manner there erased all vestiges of the ancient veneration, let us seek his cult in the nearest catholic regions.
[4] The first indeed and most nearest to this island is the diocese of Coutances in Normandy, and whose memory is celebrated in the Breviary of Coutances, which in the Breviary of the year 1609, at the day XV July within the Octave of the Dedication of their churches, from first Vespers makes the following commemoration of St. Helerius the martyr, who was slain by the Vandals on the island of Jersey. Antiphon. Illustrious martyr of Christ, Helerius, hail continually, who reignest in the glorious fatherland of the heavens: Obtain for us, who piously cry to thee, the joys on high, for which thou didst sustain the grievous torments of passion. ℣ Glory and honor. Prayer. Almighty everlasting God, in whose power and aid all the adversities of the passing world are overcome by thy faithful, hear us favorably and grant, that as blessed Helerius thy martyr, through the exercises of labors and the shedding of his blood, laurel-crowned came to the fellowship of the city on high, so mayest thou make us by his intercession come there rejoicing. Through the Lord. But on the day XVI July within the same Octave of the Dedication this commemoration of St. Helerius is made in the Antiphon at Lauds: O pious martyr of Christ, Helerius, the assembly of thy servants stands by thee; obtain pardon for it, thou who, cleaving to Christ, didst obtain the glorious palm of martyrdom. ℣. Pray for us, blessed Helerius. Then is repeated the prayer of the preceding day.
[5] The memory of this Saint also flourishes in Lesser Britain: and of Rennes. for in the diocese of Rennes there exists a church dedicated to St. Helerius, as I gather from the proper Offices of that diocese printed in the year 1620, in which on XVI July these things are read: Of St. Helerius the martyr in his own church. Then is prescribed the prayer to be recited from the common of one martyr: Grant, we beseech thee, that by the intercession etc. And the Mass: The just shall rejoice. I understand that the same Saint is also venerated in the little town of Fruges (commonly Des Fruges) of the diocese of Boulogne near the castle of Artois, Renty: for John Maigni, pastor of Fruges, in letters given in the year 1605 to our Rosweyde, after transcribing the Life of St. Bertulph (of him it was treated on the day V February) and indicating the other relics of his church, at the end thus admonishes: "Let Your Reverence remember besides St. Elerius, whose solemn feast is yearly kept among us in his own chapel, and the Office is made of a Martyr."
[6] Concerning this cult at Fruges our Malbranc casts a certain scruple on me, [But Malbranc seems to attribute the cult, wont to be shown to him at Fruges in Picardy,] who seems to attribute it to another Saint of the same name, thus writing book 3 On the Morini chapter 26: "About the same year Elerius, a man exceedingly noble from Britain, the sea being crossed, and the way entered upon which leads from Boulogne and Samer to Thérouanne, is said to have chosen at Fruges a solitary seat, which is not far distant from the source of the Lys. Even now the memory of the holy Man, a fountain, a little shrine, as it were a monument of the hermitage, are in special cult, and which formerly were of great protection to the natives and strangers." But the Acts narrate that our St. Helerius passed a holy and solitary life for a period of five years among the Morini. Nay they even add that he, being now about to depart into Normandy, not far from the river Canche, commonly la Canche, by his prayers rendered the waters of a certain noxious spring salubrious; whence, as the same our Acts number 22 relate,
the inhabitants of that country are still freed from fevers and languors, and it is called the fountain of St. Helerius unto this present day.
[7] he seems wrongly to have attributed it to another homonymous saint. Malbranc had no doubt read in Pitseus, whom he cites, in the work on the Illustrious Writers of Britain at the year 660, these words: "Elerius, by nation a Briton and a monk in Cambria, a man moderately learned, and plainly admirable for piety, which is profitable to all things, is said first to have given attention to good letters at the bank of the river Elvy, where the church of St. Asaph had been placed. Then, to avoid the concourse and throng of the people, that he might more freely be at leisure for God, he went out into the wilderness." More concerning the same has our Alford in the Annals of the Anglo-Saxon church at the year of Christ 660 number 33. It becomes manifest to one reading the Acts of each Saint that they differ very much among themselves in time, fatherland, profession of life, deeds, and manner of death. But since Malbranc knew that St. Helerius was venerated at Fruges, and knew no other besides Elerius the Englishman, he conjectured from the words of Pitseus that this Elerius, to shun the throng of the people and to lead a solitary life, crossed over from Britain to the Morini, and, not attending that our St. Helerius is honored at Fruges as a martyr, confounded these two homonymous Saints. Whether this suspicion has any foundation, let the fair reader judge.
[8] [Probably he is venerated also in other places of Normandy and the neighboring regions.] I scarcely doubt that in other dioceses of Picardy, Normandy, and Lesser Britain the same holy Martyr is publicly honored, although the notice of the several places has not come to us: for I find, after the Acts of St. Helerius, sent to Bolland from Rouen, a rhythm concerning the same Saint, in what church I know not, wont to be recited, from which only the following words are brought forward:
Him, whom thirst and leanness had wasted away, The Vandal * host diminished by the head. A new thing, that, dead, with his own hands He carried his neck more than a hundred paces.
Albert Le Grand the Dominican, in the Saints of Armorican Britain edited in French in the year 1659, after the Life of St. Helerius page 673 notes that there was found among the men of Le Mans an ancient book, written in Gothic characters, in which a solemn Office, and the whole proper to this Saint, is contained. But since Le Grand exhibits the life of St. Helerius according to this Le Mans codex, I see that it differs nothing or little from that from which below I shall give the Acts of our Saint, after I have prefaced a few things concerning them.
[9] His Acts were written not very accurately after the ninth century, Besides the Life of St. Helerius excerpted from the Le Mans codex and edited in print by Albert Le Grand, we have three manuscript copies of the same Life, of all which I think there is one and the same author, although here and there they are interpolated, and especially at the end differ concerning the place of burial and the names of the persons, as we shall soon see. The name, condition, and age of the first writer are hidden from me; but that he composed these Acts at least after the ninth century is clear from the use in both places of the name of Normandy, which it is established was given to this tract of Neustria only at the beginning of the tenth century by the Normans, the northern peoples. For the rest, the author of the Acts does not seem to have been very skilled in chronology: for besides that he marks no times, he confounds Childebert son of Clovis, who in the year 509 was made king of the Parisians, and died in the year 558, under whom our Saint must have lived, since, as the same writer affirms, he was engaged with St. Marculf, who died about the same year 558, as is shown in his Acts at the day I May illustrated by Henschen; he confounds, I say, this Childebert with Childebert son of Brunhilde, or the other of the same name more than a hundred years later, as will become manifest to one reading the Acts. And these things concerning the Acts in general; now let us note beforehand some things concerning our several Manuscripts, being about to observe others in the Annotations.
[10] Three copies of the Acts, as I said, we have, drawn, unless I am mistaken, from the same fountain. of which three Manuscript copies are enumerated, The first is written in French, and, as is said at the beginning, taken from the proper Lessons used in a certain church of Lesser Britain. But the interpreter of these Lessons indulges his own style, and adorns them with a longer paraphrase. But while he tries to fix the chronotaxis, no doubt omitted in the Lessons, or rather to feign it out of his own wit, he most betrays his chronological ignorance. It will suffice to have given one example of this matter. At the beginning of the Acts he says that St. Helerius was born under Childebert king of the Franks; but toward the end he says that St. Helerius was buried about the year three hundred and ninetieth. Who will compose this epoch of the burial with the reign of Childebert, nay with the monarchy of the Franks? The second is a Latin copy, which, excerpted from the manuscript book of the parochial church of St. Helerius, Father Frederick Flonet in the year 1632 transmitted to our Bolland from Rouen. That Manuscript, which henceforth for distinction from the others we shall call the Rouen one, agrees in most things with the other just to be cited, but toward the end in the names of places and persons discrepates from all the other Acts both manuscript and printed. The third D. Pierre Le Vernier transcribed from an old and half-gnawed Manuscript, as he himself testifies, found among the men of Le Mans, and in the year 1658 sent to Bolland from Auxerre. This last, because it seems more sincere and ancient than the rest, we shall edit in print collated with the Rouen Manuscript, and we shall note in the margin the various readings of any moment, or shall enclose them in brackets [], where first we shall have proposed an uncertain conjecture concerning his sepulcher.
[11] The Rouen Manuscript relates first how the tutor of St. Helerius, immediately after the martyrdom of his disciple, fearing of which one assigns to the holy Martyr a burial in Belgium; lest his body should be affected with contumely by pirates, placed it together with the severed head in a small boat, and himself, sitting in it, was overwhelmed with sleep. Then it thus proceeds: "The little boat, the waves flowing around, is snatched away on that sea, and through so many whirlings of the waters is carried up to the town which is called Herenvarde, where the streams of the Meuse and the Rhine and the Waal meet. But when the tutor had awakened himself, and had seen all places unknown except the ship, he was astounded. Which the men of that village seeing thought it to be a phantasm. But after they had learned from the man what it was, they rejoiced with great joy, and brought the holy bishop Willibrord, that he might see what this was; but he, after he had diligently learned the series of the matter, caused the body of Blessed Helerius to be carried to Echternach with great praises, and there buried him in a noble mausoleum on the XVII Kalends of August." But, I beseech, by what connection of times or appearance of truth is Willibrord, who in the eighth century strenuously administered the episcopal office in Belgium, said immediately after the martyrdom to have buried St. Helerius, who suffered in the sixth century? If the writer of the Acts, or rather the interpolator, had written that the body of St. Helerius after many years was honorably buried by St. Willibrord, perhaps faith could have been given to this navigation, however marvelous and far-flung.
[12] but two others differ from this, Certainly that prodigy our Henschen understood in that manner, when, having read with a light eye these Acts of St. Helerius, in the Diatribe on the Bishopric of Utrecht book 2 §1 he writes that his sacred body was after a long time carried by ship through the ocean to the town of Herenwert, and was given by St. Willibrord to an honorable burial. "But Herenwert," he says, "is a small island, and a village in it of the same name, among Maasland the modern, Maaswaal mentioned before, and the fields of Bommel and Tiel." But I, having attentively read through all the Acts of St. Helerius, of which then Henschen had run through in passing some pertaining to his own design, cannot persuade myself that the sacred body of this martyr was carried into Belgium, especially because among the Belgian hagiologists I find no vestiges of cult, nay not even the memory of the Saint himself. But to say in a word what I feel, I suspect that some smatterer, perhaps a Belgian, who brought St. Willibrord upon the scene here against all verisimilitude, also feigned the place of burial, since all the other Acts of the holy Martyr are silent concerning these three Belgian rivers flowing together, and assign different names of places and persons, as I now submit to the eyes of the reader.
[13] and express different and unknown names of the sepulchral place. The Manuscript codex found among the men of Le Mans relates that the little boat put in at the town which is called Hermiarde. Then, the rest being narrated as above, it thus continues: "They brought St. Gillebrius the bishop even to the ship, that he might see and understand what this was. But he, after he learned the series of the matter, diligently caused the body of Blessed Helerius to be carried to Struenarle with great praises, and there buried him in a noble mausoleum on the XVII Kalends of August." Our French Manuscript omits the name of the place at which the ship first put in, as also the place in which he is said to have been buried. Yet it also calls the bishop Gillebrius. Albert Le Grand, already cited, expresses the same name of the bishop, and calls the place of first landing commonly Hexwarde; but of the burial Stonenarle.
[14] Yet it is not probable that his body was translated into Belgium. These names indeed, perhaps already corrupted by the transcribers, I have sought in vain among the British and Norman writers. Nevertheless I think that the relics of St. Helerius were translated into Armorican Britain, Normandy, or the neighboring regions rather than into Belgium, since in those parts the cult of the Saint perseveres, of which in Belgium there is no notice. To this my conjecture favors Claude Chalemot in the shorter Menology of the Cistercian Order, where at the day XVII July concerning the Relics of our Saint he thus writes: In Normandy and the diocese of Rouen, at Beaubec, a monastery of the filiation of Savigny and Clairvaux, the memory of St. Helerius the martyr, whose sacred bones are there religiously preserved and venerated, placed in a chapel and reliquary. Nay in our French Manuscript there exists a certain ode composed in honor of St. Helerius, in which the treasure of the Relics seems to be attributed to Lesser Britain: for thus the French poet, among other things concerning this Saint, sings:
Therefore deservedly thou rejoicest, Devout Britain, That thou enjoyest the treasure Which Germany gave.
And these are the things which I could gather concerning St. Helerius, desiring that the Britons and Normans may teach us more, and illustrate more fully the cult and deeds of our fellow-countryman Saint. Now, as we promised, we exhibit the very Acts.
Annotation* perhaps for "vandalica" (Vandalic).
THE ACTS
From an old Manuscript found among the men of Le Mans, and collated with other Manuscripts.
Helerius, Martyr, on the island of Caesarea in the British sea (S.)
BHL Number: 3797
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
CHAPTER I.
St. Helerius' fatherland, parents, birth, illness, pious boyhood, miracles, and, on their occasion, the martyrdom of his master.
In those days, when after the destruction of the fierce queen Brunhilde a the venerable king Childebert had received the monarchy of the whole kingdom
of Gaul, and governed it with a pure [] rule, The Saint's father, among the Eastern peoples of the gentiles, in the city of Tongeren b, a certain noble man by name Sigebardus, more powerful in abundance of wealth and dignity of race, and, according to the rite of the pagans, the strongest of all in the Southern clime, grew up in all things. Who, although he surpassed all in these and things like to these, yet did not swell with pomp [], as is wont, and as the nature of mortals bears, against his fellow-tribesmen [*] or those set under him, but in all things more humble, with a certain moderation reasonably obedient, fierce to none, consenting to all to whom it was fitting.
[2] Who, when he had come to that age which the natural order demands, sought a wife by name Lusegard c, on the father's side of the race of the Bavarians, and his mother were gentiles and on the mother's side of the race of the Suevi, more elegant than all, as was fitting, in form, in probity, and in dignity of race. Her therefore, according to the custom of the country, he took. Yet she was not incited by the alluring enticements of mortal nature, but so frugally, that some of the truthful men portended, foretelling that from them offspring would come forth to please its Creator, as afterward the event of the matter approved. Who, although they flourished in secular riches and in youth, yet were afflicted with a mournful life, because they perceived that the hope of begetting offspring was denied to them, since the seventh year of their union was passing.
[3] At the same time therefore there was in that city a certain blessed man by name Cunibertus, who was much loved and honored by both peoples; who nevertheless through the prayers of St. Cunibertus, by the gentiles, because he so reasonably reproved them for their idolatrous practices that they had no causes for which they might be his enemies; but by the Christians, because he ministered to them refreshment of soul and body. He frequently came to the house of Sigebardus, thinking that he might draw him from the worship of idols. He, however, turned into the bow of his own perversity d, could by no means be recalled from his own destruction. But he suppliantly besought holy Cunibertus that he would invoke the God whom he worshiped, so that He might give them fruitfulness of offspring, on this condition, that if a son were born to him, he promised he would give him to his God and to the Saint.
[4] they obtain a son from God on a certain condition; The holy man therefore departed cheerful and rejoicing at the promise. Wherefore he humbly invoked Jesus Christ, that by that pity by which He brought forth Eve from the rib of Adam, when he fell into sleep, that the places of the malign spirit might be restored by the procreation of children, He would bring fruitfulness to these two, as He did to Blessed Anna and to Elkanah. And the Lord heard the voice of Cunibertus: for Leutgard conceived, and bore a son. But in these days the aforesaid St. Cunibertus had gone to Jerusalem, desiring to see the place in which the Savior of the world tasted His passion for the salvation of the human race, before the dissolution of his own body should come. In which place he tarried for three years.
[5] which when they refuse to fulfill, But when he had returned thence, he heard that Lutgard had borne a son, promised to God and to himself. Wherefore he approached the father and the mother, asking that the promise of God be rendered to him. They answered him that his son ought rather to be nourished among the chief men of the palace than among the beggars from door to door, and men not knowing what God they worshiped, for whom they would frequently and without vengeance be dishonored. Having heard these things, the Saint departed confounded, never afterward to return to that house. Meanwhile the boy grew fairer and stronger than the rest of his coevals. Who, when he was seven years old, the sinews of all his members drawn back, pale and paralytic, wasted away.
[6] the boy began so to waste away, Which his parents seeing, grieved marvelously and beyond what can be believed. The boy therefore languishing, all who came, commonly, both seeing and hearing what he cried out, returned weeping: for the sick boy said: O Father, why hast thou drawn me back from Him who formed me in my mother's womb by His grace? If indeed thou wilt have me healed, render me to the man by whose prayers I, born into this world, am in peril. But his father hearing the groans and outcries of his languishing son, fearing the languor to be long-lasting, was made sad, and so, willing unwilling, he sent word to St. Cunibertus that, for the sake of his promise, he would deign to come to receive him. To whom the Saint answered that if he would begin to attend to what he promised, and would persist, then let him send us the promised one of his own accord, from whom I departed confounded and empty.
[7] [so that the parents were compelled to hand him over to St. Cunibertus to be educated.] The father therefore sent his son to the Saint, to whom he had promised him, fearing lest he should die in his hands; who, when he had been carried on his pallet to the abode of the Saint, cried out: O holy Father, have mercy on me. If by thy prayers I was born, why should I not be reborn by the same? But after the Saint saw the boy crying and languishing, moved with mercy, with bent knees he prostrates himself in prayer, saying: Almighty eternal God, the eternal salvation of believers, who didst open the eyes of the man born blind, restore this languishing boy and give him back by thy mercy to his former health. At this voice the paralytic boy leaped up, cheerful and sound, and asking that he might be made worthy to become a catechumen by the same. Whom he straightway made a catechumen, and called him Helerius, that is, the merciful e, because the mercy of God had restored him.
[8] Thus was he made a catechumen, and is called Helerius, The holy boy Helerius, restored to his former health, and piously educated, and led into the Church, and reconciled to God. Whom afterward St. Cunibertus nourished [as] his own [son], and taught him the alphabet, and after the alphabet to read the whole Psalter. There was in that place a church of Blessed Mary the Virgin, in which St. Cunibertus and Blessed Helerius, serving God, did not cease from the divine praises day and night, but yet each had his own storeroom, in which, solitary, he passed the night. But at certain hours to the church the little son and the father were gathered together to perform the service of God. But when they returned from the church, each went back to his own little cell, to refresh his members a little, whose food was nothing but barley bread, and raw herbs with salt, and this once a day, except on festival days.
[9] In that place therefore Blessed Helerius had built a little garden, he builds himself a little garden, and with his own hands had planted it with herbs f [*], that he might eat therefrom. To which such a frequency of hares came that what the Saint had built up, they almost wholly built away. To whom the Saint is said to have said, when one day he found them grazing, holding a little rod in his hands: Divide it among you, that both we and you may have it, and he divided a portion to them with the rod which he held, so that never afterward did any of the beasts dare to transgress the division.
[10] One day, while one attendant was pursuing one of the aforesaid beasts even to the little garden, [which a certain one wishing to enter by force is divinely punished and healed by him,] not knowing what he did, he ran up and entered. But Blessed Helerius, beholding the hunter rushing upon the beast, said: Why then, brother, dost thou try to kill a beast which thou dost not feed? To whom he answered that he would by no means for his sake let it go; and when he wished to climb over the hedge which St. Helerius had with his own hands, without any iron tool, fenced with slender twigs, being struck on the eye by a twig, he was deprived of his right sight. But he, knowing himself to be blinded, hastily ran to the Saint, prostrate at his feet, beseeching him that what arrogance had lost, moved in the bowels of mercy, he would restore to him. But the Saint, the sign of the Cross being imposed, healed the eye, and made it brighter than the other. That young man, who had been bereaved, seeing clearly, departed glad.
[11] But not after much time there came thither a certain woman, A woman from a flux of blood, who had suffered a flux of blood for a long time, nor could be cured by any of the physicians, beseeching St. Helerius that he would bless of his little herbs and give her to eat: for she blushed to confess her infirmity. But the Saint, having received a few pot-herbs, blessed them, and afterward handed them to her. Of which she straightway ate, and immediately was healed, and indicated the matter to the holy man, and departed glad. No delay: the fame flew through the country.
[12] Besides, there was there a certain man, who, while among the shrubs with open mouth he chanced to fall asleep, suddenly a serpent, and delivers a young man from a serpent that had entered through his mouth. finding the mouth open, entered into the young man. But he, waking, and feeling himself to be full of a living worm, was made almost lifeless. But he had heard that a woman had been healed by the holy man: therefore as quickly as possible he ran to the holy man, beseeching him that he would impose the sign of the Cross over his mouth, because a living demon had entered into his belly. Blessed Helerius therefore, the sign of the Cross being imposed, compelled the serpent to go forth from the young man by the same way by which it had entered, without hurt.
[13] The father of St. Helerius, ascribing these miracles to the magic art, By these and other such things throughout that land Blessed Helerius was made known: whence his father, marveling vehemently, in the hearing of his household, said: That if that magician Cunibertus were rooted out, he would yet recover his only-begotten. Wherefore his servants took counsel to kill him shortly. But on the following night an angel of the Lord appeared to St. Cunibertus, saying that he would on the coming night go forth from the workhouse of this world, and would end his life by the sword and so would come to the banquet of the citizens on high; and he added that he should admonish his little son to go forth from his kindred, and that he would set out to other parts, and would announce that he would one day go forth from this life by the same end.
[14] orders Cunibertus, his son's master, to be slain. But when morning came, both the father and the little son came together to the church, and, the divine office being celebrated after the custom, the father narrated to the little son whatever he had learned from the angel. But he, understanding that the dissolution of his master's body was imminent, said: Why then, holy father, dost thou not baptize me? Why dost thou leave me empty? To whom the father answered that what he asked was of another's power, and that he would be baptized elsewhere, and by the same end would migrate to Christ. The two servants of God therefore without intermission the whole day persevered in the praises of God. But when evening came they returned to their several little dwellings; but when St. Cunibertus was singing to God the hundredth Psalm, saying WHEN WILT THOU COME TO ME, suddenly the household of Sigebardus was present, which cut off his head. Whence Blessed Helerius, hearing the tumult, ran to the house of the Saint, whom he found thus martyred, and still holding his finger upon WHEN WILT THOU COME TO ME; whom, weeping, and embracing in his arms, he began to draw out to the church, saying, "Wonderful is God in His Saints: He shall give power and fortitude to His people, blessed be God": and so in the church, according to the measure of his frailty, commending him to God, he buried him.
ANNOTATIONS.
a. Famous
this queen of the Franks was slain in the year 613. On which account we noted the author's parachronism and the confusion of the Childeberts in the preliminary Commentary number 9.
* elsewhere "intimido" (timid).
* that is, to make a show of pomp.
* elsewhere "commilitones" (fellow-soldiers).
* elsewhere "oliva verat" (had planted with olives).
CHAPTER II.
St. Helerius' departure from his fatherland, harsh life, notable miracle, pilgrimage into Normandy and the island of Caesarea, martyrdom and translation of his body.
But when that one had been buried, tearful and unspeakably sad, that same night he departed, wavering. Departing from his fatherland he went through the trackless woods a journey of six days, St. Helerius, his master being buried, deserts his fatherland, and thus, much wearied by hunger, and grief, and the journey, came to the city of the Morini [*] [a]. But St. Helerius, seeing the city, said: Lead me in thy way, and I will enter into thy truth, let my heart rejoice, that it may fear thy name. My God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand of my father acting against the law, and of the iniquitous, for thou art my patience. These things said, he enters the city. But there was the hut of a widow woman near the way, who with all the desire of her heart served God, into which St. Helerius by chance entered, of whom he began to inquire whether she would gather him for God into her lodging, until he should be refreshed; who answered that she would gladly do what he asked. He remained with her two weeks, until he was refreshed, and learned what belonged to that city, all which the hostess unfolded to him.
[16] But afterward she led him to a certain church of St. Mary the Virgin, somewhat removed from the access of men, and dwelling for five years among the Morini, he macerates his body, and not within the space of the city, in which that Blessed man long soldiered for God: for in it he served God, and subdued his flesh by manifold weariness. For in the porch b [*] of the door of that church he besought God day and night in such a manner that against his shoulders and loins were iron points fixed in the wall; and before his breast was a coverlet spread to the ground, under which were four most sharp nails, like a cobbler's awl c, fixed in the earth, lest, prostrate or leaning back, he should rest. But in the resting-place d of his feet two pits were dug even to the knees, which each day he filled up with cold water, in the bottom of which were minute and most rough pebbles, which so filed his heels [and] soles that, the skin being broken, sometimes drops of the blackest blood, sometimes indeed by little bits the putrid flesh and the corrupt decay wasted away. And so the holy Youth, bearing about the mortification of Christ in his flesh, in that city for five years studied to serve [God].
[17] But when he returned from the church to the house of the aforesaid widow, Then, thinking to depart from them, to take whatever little refreshment, he fed on barley bread and water, and raw herbs. For after the death of his monitor he had neither shoe, nor any other food besides bread, and water, and raw herbs. His cloak was of swine [*] skins, his upper garments remaining decent. His bed was a wooden bench on which, to refresh his members a little, he leaned. But the holy Gospel he kept by faith and work. To the sick he furnished healing of body and health of soul. Now already the little spark of his sanctity became known to almost all. On this account, fearing lest the sale of oil and the popular breeze should darken the course of his blessedness, he meditated to flee away. But the Lord, wishing to make His servant marvelous, would not have him depart, until it should be declared to those with whom he dwelt who he was, that both they, cleaving to God, might serve Him more willingly, and receive His servants, and he, more secure of his reward, might accomplish the course he had begun.
[18] a dead boy, In the same city there was a certain noble man, by name Rotaldus, having a wife of wondrous simplicity, who had borne him a son, whom she so loved that she never allowed him to be nourished with another's milk. Now she had nourished him for the space of one year, when, one night, while she was weaning him, suddenly, lulled by the gall-flowing sleep of the demon, she overlay him. Who, awakened from the heavy sleep, was terrified, and, her attendant being called to kindle a light for her, began to weep; who, a light being kindled, soon was present. But when she had beheld the boy by the light, she recognized him to be lifeless. What more? The dawn of day coming, rumor and lamentation shook the city and gathered many before the doors of that house. Who with many tears carried the infant, placed on a bier, to the church.
[19] he is compelled to recall to life. The chief men of the city therefore, coming to the Bishop of that city, asked him that he would go to Blessed Helerius, beseeching him that he would come to the church in which the lifeless body lay. Who immediately with a few set out to the Blessed Man. But the man, hearing the outcry imposed upon himself, refused. Overcome, however, by their prayers and griefs, weeping and wailing, he came even to the body; and, his knees being bent to the ground beside the bier, he prostrates himself, saying: God, in whose hand are the powers of all, who didst raise the girl shut up in the house, and the son of the widow carried out before the gate of Naim, I beseech thee, that if it please thee for me to become a Christian, may it please thee also, by thy holy piety, to raise up this boy. But the holy Man rising from prayer, the boy rose from death, crying out for his mother, that he might be suckled after the wonted manner.
[20] Afterward he is admonished by an angel to go to St. Marculf. When therefore the people had heard and seen this miracle, they began to bless God, and marvelously to exalt the blessed Man. But he, desiring to avoid the praise and honor of the crying people, hastened away to his lodging. But in the middle of the following night, while he was almost awake, he was suddenly made as it were in ecstasy, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him, admonishing him that he should depart from the city, and go into Normandy, where he would hear that Blessed Marculf f was at the place which is called Nant g, and adding: By him indeed shalt thou be baptized, and shalt be taught the order of the life to be led. Blessed Helerius therefore, awakened, having said farewell to his hostess, weeping departed from her.
[21] But on the morrow, coming to a certain river called Canche h, on the way, the demon being driven off he met the devil face to face, asking whither he was going; and he said: O most dear young man, when thou canst be filled with all secular riches, why art thou dragged, wandering alone, to empty poverty? To whom Blessed Helerius answering said: Go to the office enjoined upon thee, from which, falling from heaven, thou didst lose the name of Lucifer. Having heard these things the demon departed confounded.
[22] There was in the same place a barren fountain, of which no one dared to drink, he renders the waters of a noxious fountain salubrious, or to wash himself: which if it happened, he was struck either with fevers or with an incurable languor. Which Blessed Helerius hearing, asked that salt be brought to him, which he blessed, saying: God, who by the hand of the Prophet Elisha, blessed salt being imposed, didst heal the barrenness of the water, and didst grant that it should be potable and fit for human uses; I beseech thee, that thy blessing infused upon this salt may empty the barrenness and malignity of this water. These things said, he poured the salt into the water in the manner of a cross, and afterward, asking for a little vessel, drank thereof, and whoever wished to drink. Thence still the inhabitants of that country are freed from fevers and languors, and it is called the fountain of St. Helerius unto this present day.
[23] These things thus transacted, through the territory of Ponthieu [] i St. Helerius came to Normandy, investigating where Blessed Marculf was, whom he found near Valedune k upon one of the mountains, and finds St. Marculf in Normandy, where there was a church of St. Mary the Virgin built, in which St. Marculf baptized Blessed Helerius on the day of the Nativity of the Lord. For three months therefore Blessed Helerius and Blessed Marculf, serving God together, inhabited the place which is called Nant. But at the entrance of the fourth month Blessed Marculf gave St. Helerius leave to become an anchorite, and indicated a place suitable for accomplishing this, by name Gersut [] l, and provided a companion by name Romardus, by whose company and support he might come to the place.
[24] But Romardus and Blessed Helerius went even to the place which is called Gemes [] m: by whose counsel he departs to the island of Caesarea, thence with a small skiff, God disposing, they came to the island which is called Gersut, in which they found not more than thirty of both sexes. For there were there rocks, in one of which Blessed Helerius found a paralytic, and a bandy-legged man by name Anchitilus [], whom by his prayer and by the imposition of his blessing he healed; whose footprints still appear in the rocks. But on the other side was another rock, hedged on both sides by the sea, in which Blessed Helerius laid his bed neither with purple nor with any featherwork, but with the sole incision of the rock, in which, as long as he lived, he in whatever manner reclined his head.
[25] But in the third year of his entrance Blessed Marculf came to St. Helerius, [which after three years, by his and St. Marculf's prayers, is marvelously delivered from pirates.] whom he found so wearied and lean with vigils and fastings that he could scarcely recognize him. But the Saints, seeing each other, wept for joy, and in their embraces, with tears long poured forth, watered their faces. But it came to pass, when Blessed Marculf was on the island, there chanced to come a persecution of the Orkneys n with thirty ships, which when the tutor of Blessed Helerius saw, suddenly he came to him, saying: Father, dost thou not know that we are surrounded by pirates and robbers?
[26] But Blessed Helerius, lifting up his head, and opening his eyes, wearied with long vigils, saw the pirates approaching in a ship. He came therefore to Blessed Marculf, and asked
what they should do: to whom he answered that they should turn to the divine arms. The Saints therefore, prostrate in prayer, besought the Lord that He would deign to deliver them and all others from those robbers. The wrath of God therefore came down from heaven upon the pirates so greatly that they began to kill one another, and one so slew another that not one of the three thousand remained who might announce to their country the fall of the others. But the Saints, rising from prayer, when they saw themselves snatched from the enemies, blessed God, who saves those who hope in Him.
[27] St. Helerius is divinely forewarned of the martyrdom imminent to him, But on the third day o after the deliverance of the country, Blessed Marculf and Blessed Romardus departed from Blessed Helerius, never afterward to see him in this world. [Blessed Helerius therefore and his tutor remained serving the Lord night and day;] and blessed Helerius so afflicted his flesh that he ate only once a week, that his members, sustained by such refreshment, might more freely serve God: for he was so wearied that in a day he would not go so far as a stone's throw. In the fifteenth year therefore of his entrance into the island, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him, saying: Come, my beloved; to me, within the third day, thou shalt migrate from this world laurel-crowned with blood. But at daybreak, the sea receding, his tutor [p] came to him after the wonted manner: to whom he told what he had heard. Whence he was made sad and desolate.
[28] which he attains, his head being cut off. But on the next day, the South wind blowing, the Vandals [q] arrived with a great fleet and filled the whole island; but the holy Helerius hid, not from fear of death, but from weariness. Yet, God willing, he was found by the Vandals through the groanings of the birds, who, seeing him, thought him to be delirious: but one of them, with drawn sword, cut off his head. In proof of which drops of blood still appear on the flint, and shall always appear, until the earth be turned to nothing [r]. The pirates therefore, crossing the land, trembling [*], withdrew.
[29] His body, But his tutor, coming to the rock, found his master beheaded, holding his head between his arms, as he had carried it for the sixth part of half a mile, namely from the rock even to certain ground. But seeing the marvels which God had done in His Martyr, he praised the power of God, who so makes His Saints marvelous. He took therefore the body of his lord, and placed it in a small trireme, fearing lest the pirates returning should defile the holy body, and, entering into it, he sat by the head of his lord, and, wearied with grief and fear, fell asleep: but the grace of God inspiring, the little boat was snatched by the confluent waves into the deep sea, and through so many whirlings of the waters was carried up to the town which is called Hermiarde [s].
[30] is prodigiously translated. But when the tutor had awakened himself, and had seen all places unknown, except the ship, he was astounded. Which the men of that village seeing thought it to be a phantasm. But after they had learned from the man what it was, they rejoiced with great joy, and brought St. Gillebrius the bishop even to the ship, that he might see and understand what this was. But he, after he learned the series of the matter, diligently caused the body of Blessed Helerius to be carried to Struenarle with great praises. And there he buried him in a noble mausoleum on the XVII Kalends of August. Where through his prayers divine miracles are done, to the praise and honor of God, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Of what sort this tutor was is nowhere expressed. I conjecture him to have been a companion or master of the solitary life. But how does the author afterward call St. Helerius the master and lord of this tutor?
q. Long before these times the Vandals had devastated the Gauls and other regions. Perhaps here under the name of Vandals, as not rarely happens, the Northern pirates are understood.
r. A marvelous phrase indeed to express "while the world shall stand"; which that the author means is clear from the context.
s. Concerning this and the other names, changed according to the diverse genius of the writers, I have treated fully enough in the preliminary Commentary numbers 11 and following.
* elsewhere "Morianam."
* elsewhere "umbraculo."
* elsewhere "caprinis" (of goats).
* elsewhere "elationem" (elation).
* elsewhere "indulcasti" (madest sweet).
* elsewhere "Pontificenam."
* elsewhere "Gersich."
* elsewhere "Genets."
* elsewhere "Ascretillum."
* elsewhere "having laid waste the land."