ints, so widespread in olden times during the
plague and other epidemics, that their being grouped as the Fourteen
Holy Helpers originated in a like visitation.

The fourteen saints venerated as the Holy Helpers are represented with
the symbols of their martyrdom, or with the insignia of their state of
life; also, as a group of children. The latter representation is
accounted for as follows:

The abbey of Langheim, in the diocese of Bamberg, Bavaria, owned a farm
on which the monks kept their flocks. The sheep were tended by
shepherds, who led them along the hillsides, where they grazed quietly
during the day, and were driven home in the evening.

On the evening of September 22, 1445, a young shepherd, Herman Leicht,
who was gathering his flock for the homeward drive, heard what seemed to
him to be the cry of a child, and looking about, saw a child sitting in
a field near by. Surprised, and wondering how the child came there, he
was about to approach, when it disappeared. Feeling rather disturbed,
the boy returned to his flock. After reaching it, he turned to look back
to the place where he had seen the apparition. There the child sat
again, this time in a circle of light, and between two burning candles.
Terrified at this second apparition, he made the sign of the cross. The
child smiled, as if to encourage him, and he was about to approach it
again, when it vanished a second time. Greatly perplexed, he drove his
flock home and informed his parents of the occurrence. But they called
the apparition a delusion and told him not to mention it to any one.
Nevertheless, feeling uneasy, and desiring an explanation, he went to
the monastery and related his experience to one of the Fathers, who
advised him to ask the child, if it ever should appear to him again,
what it wanted.

Nearly a year later, June 28, 1446, the eve of the feast of Sts. Peter
and Paul, the child again appeared to the boy in the same place as
before and about sunset; but this time it was surrounded by thirteen
other children, all in a halo of glory. He boldly approached the group
and asked the child he had formerly seen in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and the Holy Ghost, what it desired. The child replied: "We
are the Fourteen Helpers, and desire that a chapel be built for us. Be
thou our servant, and we shall serve thee." Then the group of children
disappeared, and the shepherd boy was filled with heavenly consolation.

The following Sunda