Editing Helier (section)

=== Jersey ===
[[Image:Hermitage St Helier Jersey.jpg|thumb|A medieval chapel was constructed over "St. Helier's Bed", the hollow in the rock where Helier sheltered. The Hermitage rock is the focus of the annual pilgrimage]]

[[Image:Lit_de_saint_Helier,_Hermitage,_Jersey.jpg|thumb|St. Helier's Bed inside the chapel]]

Helier, however, found the [[monasticism|monastic]] community did not provide the quiet he required to devote himself fully to a life of contemplation. Marculf had received pleas from the few inhabitants of the island called Gersut, or Agna, now called [[Jersey]], which was all but depopulated due to repeated attacks by [[Viking]]s.<ref name=bbc>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/channel_islands/jersey/article_3.shtml "St Helier - The fabled life of St Helier", BBC - Local Legends]</ref> The inhabitants requested someone to help them, and bring the [[gospel]] to them as they had no shepherd to guide them.

Marculf sent Helier and a companion, Romard, to Jersey where he found a small community of fishermen on the sand dunes where the modern town of St Helier was to develop. Helier settled on a tidal islet, nowadays known as the Hermitage Rock, next to L'Islet,<ref>[http://members.societe-jersiaise.org/geraint/helier.html Falle, Samuel. "Saint Helier the Martyr", Société Jersiaise]</ref> the [[tidal island]] now occupied by the 16th century [[Elizabeth Castle]]. Romard would travel back and forth between the [[Hermitage (religious retreat)|hermitage]] on this rock and the fishing village.

From his vantage point on his rock, Helier could see the sails of approaching attackers and would signal to the shore, whereupon the inhabitants would scatter into the surrounding marshes, thereby frustrating the attackers' bloodlust. Small dark clouds on the horizon are still known in [[Jèrriais]] as ''les vailes dé St. Hélyi'' (the sails of St. Helier).

Helier remained at his hermitage in fasting and prayer for about fifteen years. The story is that around 555 he was martyred<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/place/Saint-Helier Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Saint Helier". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'']</ref> by marauding pirates who beheaded him with an axe – hence the crossed axes on the parish crest.<ref name=post>[http://members.societe-jersiaise.org/geraint/helier/saintly.html "How saintly was St. Helier?", ''Jersey Evening Post'', January 29, 2000]</ref>