The capital town of Jersey is named after a Belgian monk and what is known about him is a blend of fact, legend and myth.
Born with the name Helibert, at the age of seven he developed paralysis of the legs. His parents sent him to a local Christian missionary named Cunibert, who cured his ailment and named him Helier, meaning 'pity', because God had taken pity on the boy and cured him. His pagan parents however, weren't best pleased that Cunibert was instructing the boy in the new Christianity faith and so Helier's father had the missionary killed!
The young Helier was understandably rather upset at this turn of events and ran away eventually turning to another early Christian missionary, St.Marcouf, for advice. Marcouf baptised him and then sent him to Jersey where he set up home on a high rock in the bay on the south coast of the island with his more experienced companion, Romard. The remains of his primitive dwelling remain at Hermitage Rock on what is now Elizabeth Castle.
Over the following 15 years Helier gained the respect of the pagan islanders as they believed that his powers of prayer were keeping the marauding Norman pirates from invading the island. In AD.555 however, they returned, Romard spotted them in the bay and ran the length of the causeway to alert the locals. The Normans found Helier praying alone on the beach and chopped his head off.
The crossed axes on the official crest of the Parish of St.Helier are a legacy of his bloody end.
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