Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/240

 HEISTERBACH

202

HELENA

Kduard HEI3

II of the publications of the royal observatory of Miin- ster (1875 and 1877). The work on the "Atlas", which was the result of twenty-seven years' labour, was accompanied by observations of variable stars (1840-70), into which field he was introduced by Argelander. These observations were recently pub- lished by the writer of the present article (Berlin, 1903). He also turned his attention to the au- roral light and to sun-spots. Among his minor publications were treatises on the eclipses of the Peloponnesian war (1834), on Halley's comet (1835), on periodic shooting-stars (1849), on the magni- tude and nimiber of the stars visible to the naked

eye (" De Magnitu- dine", etc., 18 52), which work gained him the title of doctor, on Mira Ceti (1859), and on the fable of Galileo's E pur si muove (1874, also in the Annals of the Scientific Society of Brussels, 1876-77,1). He wrote a number of mathematical t e x t - books, of which the " Sammlung von Bei- spielen una Aufgaben aus der allgemeinen .\rithmctik und .Alge- bra" reached 107 edi- tions in various lan- guages. Heiswasoneof the founders of " Natur und Offenbarung" (1855), and editor of the scientific journal "Wochenschrift" (1857-1877). Shortly before his death he prepared the design of the Scriptural and symbolical constellations (Orion, Ursa, Pisces, Virgo, Crux) for the ceiling of the choir in the cathedral of Mimster. Heis was an excellent teacher, a fatherly friend to his students, charitable to his neighbour, especially the poor, and an exemplary husband and father. During the Vatican Council and the Kullur- kampj he stood faithfully by the Church. In 1869 as rector he offered the jubilee congratulations of the Academy of Mimster to Pius IX, and in 1872 he re- ceived from the same pontiff a precious medal with a Latin Brief for the "Atlas Ccelestis" which he had dedicated to the pope through Father Secchi. Heis died of apoplexy, three months before his golden jubilee as teacher. He had his own tombstone pre- pared in the proportions of the "golden section", with the symbol of the dove and ohve-branch from the catacombs.

Monthly Nolicps R. Astr. Soc. (1878), XXXVIII. 152; Deutacher Hausschatz (1877). Ill, 807; Milleilungm Fr. d. Aslr. u. kosm. Phyx. (1906). XVI, 13.

J. G. H.\GEN.

Heisterbach (Vallis S. Petri), a former Cister- cian mona.>itery in the Siebengebirge near the little town of Oberiiollendorf in the Archdiocese of Cologne. It traces its origin to a knight named Walther, who lived as a recluse on the Stromberg, or Petersberg, one of the mountains forming the Siebengebirge. When numerous disciples began to settle near the cell of Walther, he built a monastery (1134) where they lived according to the Rule of St. Augustine. After the death of Walther his disciples left their monastery on the Petersberg and built the monastery of Reu.ssrath on the Sulz. In 1189 Archbishop Philip of Cologne requested Gisilbert, the .\bbot of the Cistercian monas- tery of Himmerod in the Diocese of Trier, to repeople the deserted monastery of Petersberg with Cistercians from Himmerod. On 22 March, 1189, twelve Cister- cian monks with their newly-appointed Abbot Her-

mann took possession of Petersberg. Three or four years later they removed to the foot of the mountain, where they built a new monastery which they called Petersthal or Heisterbach. The famous basilica of Heisterbach was begun by Abbot Gerard (1195-1208), and consecrated in 1237 under Abbot Henry (1208- 1244). Being built during the period of transition from the Romanesque round arch to the Gothic pointed arch, its style of architecture was a combina- tion of the Romanesque and the Gothic. Heisterbach, which had large possessions and drew revenues from many neighbouring towns, remained one of the most flourishing Cistercian monasteries until its suppression in 1803. The library and the archives were given to the city of DUsseldorf ; the monastery and the church were sold and torn down in 1809, and at present only the apse with the ruins of the choir remains. Cipsa- riusof Heisterbach (q. v.), one of the greatest men that the Cistercian Order has produced, was a monk at this abbey (1199-c. 1240). A monument was erect- ed in his honour near the ruins of Heisterbach in 1897. ScHMiTZ, Die Abtei f/eiaterhach (Diisseklorf. 1900); Pohl, Schick^ale tier letzten Mi'jtche v. U cisttrbach in Annalen des hist. Vereins fur den Niederrhein (1902). 8S-111; Redlich, Aufhe- bung der Abtei Heisterbach, ibidem (1901 ), 86-95.

Michael Ott.

Helena, Saint, the mother of Constantine the Great, b. about the middle of the third century, possibly in Drepanum (later known as Helenopolis) on the Kicomedian Gulf; d. about 330. She was of humble parentage, St. Ambrose, in his "Oratio de obitu Theodosii", referring to her as a stabiilaria, inn- keeper. Nevertheless, she became the lawful wife of. Constantius Chlorus. Her first and only son, Con- stantine, was born in Naissus in Upper Mocsia, in the year 274. The statement made by English chroniclers of the Middle Ages, according to which Helena was supposed to have been the daughter of a British prince, is entirely without historical foundation. It may arise from the misinterpretation of a term used in the fourth chapter of the panegyric on Constan- tine's marriage with Fausta, that Constantine, oriendo (i. e., "by his beginnings," "from the outset"), had honoured Britain, which was taken as an allusion to his birth, whereas the reference was really to the begin- ning of his reign.

In the year 292 Constantius, having become co- Regent of the West, gave himself up to considerations of a political nature and forsook Helena in order to marry Theodora, the step-daughter of Emperor Maxi- mianus Herculius, his patron and well-wisher. But her sou remained faithful and lojal to her. On the death of Constantius Chloru.'s, in .306, Constantine, who succeeded him, summoned his mother to the imperial court, conferred on her the title of Augusta, ordered that all honour should be paid her as the mother of the sovereign, and had coins struck bearing her effigy. Her son's influence caused her to embrace Christianity after his victory over Maxentius. This is directly attested by Eusebius (Vita Constantini, III, xlvii): "She (his mother) became under his (Constantine's) influence such a devout servant of God, that one might believe her to have been from her very childhood a disciple of the Redeemer of mankind". It is also clear from this declaration of the contemporary historian of the Church that Helena, from the time of her conver.sion, led an earnestly Christian life and by her influence and liberality favoured the wider spread of Christianity. Tradition links her name with the building of Christian churches in cities of the West, where the imperial court re- sided, notably at Rome and Trier, and there is no reason for rejecting this tradition, for we know posi- tively through Eusebius that Helena erected churches on the hallowed spots of Palestine. Despite her advanced age she undertook a journey to Palestine when Constantine, through his victory over Licinius,