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 HELENOPOLIS

204

HELI

her husband died she remained a widow and spent her hfe in works of charity and piety; the gates of her home were ever open to the needy antl tlie church of Skofde was almost entirely built at her expense. Her daughter's husband was a very cruel man, and was in consequence killed by his own servants. His rela- tives, wishing to avenge his death, examined the servants. These admitted the crime, but falsely a.s- serted that they acted on the instigation of Helen. She had then gone on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but on her return .she was killed 1160 (?) at Gothene by her husband's relatives. Her body was brought to Skofde for burial, and many wonderful cures were wrought at her intercession. The report of these nairacles was sent to Rome by Stephen, the Arch- bishop of Upsala, and he, by order of Pope Alexander III, in 1164 in.scribed her name in the list of canonized saints (Benedict XIV, "De canonizatione sanc- torum", I, 85). Great was the veneration shown her relics even after the Reformation had spread in Swe- den. Near her church was a holy well, known to this day as St. Lene Kild. At various times the Lutheran authorities inveighed against this remnant of what they called popish and anti-t'hristian super- stition. Especially zealous in this regard was Arch- bishop Abraham, who had all the springs, mineral or pure water, filled up with stones and rubbish (Baring-Gould, "Lives of the Saints", July, II, 698). St. Helen's tomb and well (St. Elin's) were also hon- oured at Tiisvilde in the parish of Tibirke in the island of Zealand. Pilgrimages were made every summer, cripples and sick came in numbers; they would re- main all night at the grave, take away with them little bags of earth from under the tombstone, and frequently would leave their crutches or make votive offerings in token of gratitude. Such was the report sent in 16.58 from Copenhagen to the Bollandists by the Jesuit Lindanus. A similar statement is made by Werlaiff, in 1858, in his "Hist. Antegnelser". The legend says that St. Helen's body floated to Tiisvilde in a stone coffin, and that a spring broke forth where the coffin touched land. The Bollandists (loc. cit.) gi ve as a possible reason for her veneration at Tiisvilde that perhaps St. Helen had visited the place, or some of her relics had been brought there.

Du.vBAit, Dictionary of Saintly Womm (IjOndon, 1904); PiiEr.ER ill Kirchenlex.; Thiele, Ddnmarks Folkcsagen (Copen- hagen, 1S43).

rR.\NCI.S MeRSHMAN.

Helenopolis, a titular see of Bithynia Prima, suf- fragan of Prusa. On the southern side of the Sinus Astacenus was a place known as Drepana or Drepanon, where about 258 St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, was born. Near it were some famous min- eral springs. In 318 Constantino gave the place the name Helenopolis, and built there a church in honour of the martyr St. Lucian; it soon grew in importance, and Constantine lived there verj- often towards the end of his life. Justinian built there an aqueduct, baths, and other monuments. Yet it does not seem ever to have grown in prosperity, and hence it was slightingly called 'EXeiVoO I16Xis. "the wretched town". It has been identified with the modern vil- lage of Hersek in the vilayet of Broussa. The mineral springs are those of Coury near Yalova. Helenopolis ocovirs in the "Notitia> Episcopatuum" until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. I/>(niien (Oriens Christ., I, 23) mentions nine of its bishops; Maori- nus, the first, is said to have been at the Comicil of Nicsea (325), but his name is not given in the authentic lists of the members of the council. About -100 the church of Helenopolis was governed by Palladius, tiie friend and defender of St. John Chrysostom, and au- thor of the famous "Historia LaiKsiaca". The last known bishop assisted at the Photian CouncU in Con- stantinople (879).

There was another Helenopolis, suffragan of Scy-

thopolis in Palestina Secunda ; and a third, suffragan of Sardes in Lydia.

Leake, yl.sia Minor, 9 sqq.; Smith, Dictionary of Ortrk and Roman Geography, s. v. Helenopolis; Ramsay, Asia Minor, 1S7; Tkxikr. L'Asie Mincure, 69; Toilaschek, Zur hislor. Topogr. von Kleinasien im Miltelalter (Vienna. 1891), 9.

S. Petrides.

Heli (Heb. "h]), Gr. "HXi, Prot. versions Eli).— (A) was l)oth judge and high-priest, whose history is related in I Kings, i-iv. He lived at Silo, where the ark of the Lord was kept at that time. Samuel's early history is connected with that of the last days of the aged Heli, whom he succeeded in the office of judge, just before the appointment of Saul as king (I King.s, vii, 15; viii, 22). Heli must have been held in the highest esteem, and yet the Bible represents him to us in his old age as weak and indulgent to his sons, Ophni and Phinees, whose crimes brought ruin on their country and on their father's hou.se. The high- priesthood had been promised to Phinees, son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, for his zeal (Num., XXV, 13); and how Heli, who was a de.scendant of Aaron through Ithamar (Lev., x, 12; I Par., xxiv, 2; III Kings, ii, 27), became high-priest is not known; but his title to the office had the Divine .sanction (I Kings, ii, 30). The Lord spoke to Heli through the boy Samuel, and the word of the Lord was fulfilled. The Philistines were victorious in battle, Ophni and Phinees being among the slain, and the ark was carried away as a part of the spoils. The death of the high- priest is thus describea: "Now Heli was ninety and eight years old ... he fell from his stool backwards by the door, and broke his neck, and died" (I Kings, iv, 15-18). According to the Heb. text, with which Josephus agrees (Ant., V, xi, 3), Heli judged Israel forty years, so that the twenty of the (!r. text is gener- ally considered an error. Heli spoke when he should have been silent (I Kings, i, 14), and he was silent when he should have spoken and corrected his children. The words "And thou shalt see thy rival in the temple" (I Kings, ii. .32) refer to the taking of the high-priesthood from his family; but as this was done in the days of Solomon, more than a hiuidred years later, for he "cast out Abiathar, from being the jiriest of the Lord" (III Kings, ii, 27; Josephus, "Ant.", VIII, i, 3), they were addressed, not to Heli as an individual, but rather to his house. The passage however is obscure.

Heli (Gr. 'HXe/— Luke, iii, 23).— (B) isevidently the same name as the preceding. In Luke he is said to be the father of Joseph, w-hile in Matt., i, 16, Jacob was Joseph's father. The most probable explanation of this seeming contradiction is afforded by having recour.se to the lexirate law among the Jews, which prescribes that when a man dies childless his widow ".shall not marry to another: but his brother shall take her, and raise up seed for his brother" (Deut., xxv, 5). The child, therefore, of the second marriage is legally the child of the first (Deut., xxv, 6). Heli ha\ing died childless, his widow became the wife of his brother Jacob, and Jo.seph was the offspring of the marriage, by nature the son of Jacob, but legally the .son of Heli. It is likely that Matt, gives the natural, and Luke the legal descent. (Cf. Maas, "The Gosp.acc. to S. Matt.", i, 16.) Lord .\. Hervey, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who wrote a learned work on the " Genealogies of Our Lord Je.sus Christ", thinks that Mary was the daughter of Jacob, and Joseph was the son of Jacob's brother, Heli. Maiy and Jo.seph were therefore first cou.sins, and both of the house of David. Jacob, the elder, having died without male issue, transmitted his rights and privileges to the male issue of his brother Heli. Joseph, who according to genealogical usage was his descendant.

.Iosephus. AnI.. V, ix, x, xi; Geikie, O. T. Characters: Eli, 184-193 ; Maluonatus, In Malt., i, W: F.ccl. Itev. (Jan., 1S96), 21 sqq.

John J. Tierney.