Saint Giles
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- For other uses, see St Giles'.
| Saint Giles | |
|---|---|
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| Hermit | |
| Born | Athens, Greece |
| Died | 8th century, France |
| Feast | September 1 |
| Attributes | arrow; crosier; hermitage; hind; saint accompanied by a hind |
| Patronage | against noctiphobia; beggars; blacksmiths; breast cancer; breast feeding; cancer patients; cripples; disabled people; Edinburgh Scotland; epilepsy; epileptics; fear of night; forests; handicapped people; hermits; horses; insanity; lepers; leprosy; mental illness; mentally ill people; noctiphobics; physically challenged people; paupers; poor people; rams; spur makers; sterility; woods |
Saint Giles (640?-720?) (Latin: Ægidius, French: Gilles, Italian: Egidio) was a 7th-8th century Christian hermit saint, whose legend is centered in Provence and Septimania, and whose tomb in the abbey he was said to have founded, in St-Gilles-du-Gard, became a place of pilgrimage and a stop on the road that led from Arles to Santiago de Compostela.
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[edit] Life
As a hermit Giles first lived in retreats near the mouth of the Rhône and by the River Gard, in Septimania, today's southern France. The story that he was the son of King Theodore and Queen Pelagia of Athens[1] is probably an embellishment of his early hagiographers; it was given wide currency in Legenda Aurea.
His early history, as given in Legenda Aurea, links him with Arles, but finally he withdrew deep into the forest near Nîmes, where in the greatest solitude he spent many years, his sole companion being a deer, or hind, who in some stories sustained him on her milk.[2] This last retreat was finally discovered by the king's hunters, who had pursued the hind to its place of refuge. An arrow shot at the deer wounded the saint instead, who afterwards became a patron of cripples. The king, who by legend was Wamba, an anachronistic Visigoth, but who must have been (at least in the original story) a Frank due to the period,[3] conceived a high esteem for the hermit, whose humility rejected all honors save some disciples, and built him a monastery in his valley, Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, which he placed under the Benedictine rule. Here Giles died in the early part of the eighth century, with the highest repute for sanctity and miracles.
An early source, a tenth-century Vita sancti Aegidii recounts that, as Giles was celebrating mass to pardon the emperor Charlemagne's sins, an angel deposited upon the altar a letter outlining a sin so terrible Charlemagne had never dared confess it. Several Latin and French texts, including Legenda Aurea refer to this hidden "sin of Charlemagne".
A later text, Liber miraculorum sancti Aegidii served to reinforce the flow of pilgrims to the abbey.
[edit] Legacy
Around his tomb in the abbey sprang up the town of St-Gilles-du-Gard. The abbey remained the center of his cult, which was particularly strong in Languedoc, even after a rival body of Saint Giles appeared at Toulouse.[4] His cult spread rapidly far and wide throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, as is witnessed by the numberless churches and monasteries dedicated to him in France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Great Britain; by the numerous manuscripts in prose and verse commemorating his virtues and miracles; and especially by the vast concourse of pilgrims who from all Europe flocked to his shrine.
In 1562 the relics of the saint were secretly transferred to Toulouse to save them from the anger of the Huguenots and the level of pilgrimages declined. With the restoration of a great part of the relics to the abbey of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard in 1862, and the publicized rediscovery of his former tomb there in 1865, the pilgrimages recommenced.
Besides Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, nineteen other cities bear his name. Cities that possess relics of St. Giles include Saint-Gilles, Toulouse and a multitude of other French cities, Antwerp, Brugge and Tournai in Belgium, Cologne and Bamberg in Germany, Rome and Bologna in Italy, Prague and Gran. The lay Community of Sant'Egidio is named after his church in Rome. Giles is also the patron saint of Edinburgh, Scotland.
In medieval art he is depicted with his symbol, the hind. His emblem is also an arrow, and he is the patron saint of cripples. Giles is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, initially invoked as protection against the Black Death. His feast day is September 1.
The Master of Saint Gilles is an anonymous Late Gothic painter. The artist was given the title as the first work attributed to him were two works with Saint Giles as the subject now in the National Gallery, London.
The fifth book in the Brother Cadfael murder mystery series by Ellis Peters is titled The Leper of Saint Giles.
[edit] List of locations and churches
Notable churches and other locations named after Giles include:
- St Giles-without-Cripplegate in London.
- St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.
- In Chalfont St Giles, both church and village are named after him.
- St Giles, Church Road, Rowley Regis, West Midlands.[5]
- St Giles Church, in Wrexham, the steeple of which is one of the Seven Wonders of Wales.
- St Giles, Godshill in the New Forest, Hampshire
- St Giles', a street in Oxford named after a nearby church and the focal point of the St Giles Fair, held on or around St Giles' feast day.
- St Giles Church, Gilesgate, Durham
- Other locations
- see Saint-Gilles, for a list of places named after him in France.
- Sant'Egidio in Trastevere, Rome, after which the Community of Sant'Egidio is named.
- San Gil Church (built 14th-16th centuries), Burgos, Spain
- St Aegidius Church in Bardejov, Slovakia (built 13th-15th centuries)
- St. Giles Presbyterian Church, St. Catharines Ontario, Canada
[edit] Other Saint Giles
He shares his feast day with another St Giles, an Italian hermit of the 10th century and a Blessed Giles, (d. about 1203) a Cistercian abbot of Castaneda in the Diocese of Astorga, Spain. Blessed Aegidius of Assisi is also known as Blessed Giles.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Compare the incipit of his early (12th century) vita in the Cologne Legendae Sanctorum , Dombibliothek Codex 167, fol. 97r-101v [1].
- ^ Compare the mytheme of the doe nurturing Heracles' son Telephos.
- ^ He is Charles in Legenda Aurea.
- ^ Pierre-Gilles Girault, 2002. "Observations sur le culte de saint Gilles dans le Midi", in Hagiographie et culte des saints en France méridionale (XIIIe-XVe siècle), Cahiers de Fanjeaux 37, pp. 431-454
- ^ The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, Nikolaus Pevsner, 1963 p89
[edit] Further reading
- Vita sancti Aegidii (Acta sanctorum, 9 September, 299-304)
- Legenda Aurea, 130: Sanctus Egidius (On-line text, in Caxton's translation)
