September 1 - Saint Giles breski1
Aegidius, Aegidus, Aigeides, Aigigios, Egidio, Egidius, Egydius, Gil, Gilg, Gilgen, Gilgian, Gilles, Ilg, Ilgen, Jilg
Memorial
1 September
Profile
Born to a wealthy noble family, when his parents died, Giles gave his fortune to help the poor. Known as a miracle worker. To avoid followers and adulation, he left Greece c.683 for France where he lived as a hermit in a cave in the diocese of Nimes, a cave whose mouth was guarded by a thick thorn bush, and a lifestyle so impoverished that, legend says, God sent a deer to Giles to nourish him with her milk.
One day after he had lived there for several years in meditation, a royal hunting party chased the hind into Giles’ cave. One hunter shot an arrow into the thorn bush, hoping to hit the deer, but instead hit Giles in the leg, crippling him. The king sent doctors to care for hermit‘s wound, and though Giles begged to be left alone, the king came often to see him.
From this, Gile’s fame as sage and miracle worker spread, and would-be followers gathered near the cave. The French king, because of his admiration, built the monastery of Saint Gilles du Gard for these followers, and Giles became its first abbot, establishing his own discipline there. A small town grew up around the monastery, and upon Giles’ death, his grave became a shrine and place of pilgrimage; the monastery later became a Benedictine house.
The combination of the town, monastery, shrine and pilgrims led to many handicapped beggars hoping for alms; this and Giles’ insistence that he wished to live outside the walls of the city, and his own damaged leg, led to his patronage of beggars, and to cripples since begging was the only source of income for many. Hospitals and safe houses for the poor, crippled, and leprous were constructed in England and Scotland, and were built so cripples could reach them easily. On their passage to Tyburn for execution, convicts were allowed to stop at Saint Giles’ Hospital where they were presented with a bowl of ale called Saint Giles’ Bowl, “thereof to drink at their pleasure, as their last refreshing in this life.”
In Spain, shepherds consider Giles the protector of rams. It was formerly the custom to wash the rams and colour their wool a bright shade on Giles’ feast day, tie lighted candles to their horns, and bring the animals down the mountain paths to the chapels and churches to have them blessed. Among the Basques, the shepherds come down from the Pyrenees on 1 September, attired in full costume, sheepskin coats, staves, and crooks, to attend Mass with their best rams, an event that marks the beginning of autumn festivals, marked by processions and dancing in the fields. One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, the only one not to die as a martyr.
Born
at Athens, Greece
Died
between 710 and 724 in France of natural causes
legend says that those who attended his funeral heard choirs of angels singing and then fading away as they carried his soul to heaven
his tomb is in the crypt of the abbey church of Saint-Gilles in Gard, France
in 1562, Huguenots burned the abbey, murdered the monks, looted the church, and vandalized the tomb; the surviving relics of Saint Giles were distributed to other churches
in Scotland in the seventeenth century, his relics were stolen from a church which triggered a great riot
Canonized
Pre-Congregation
Patronage
abandoned people; against abandonment

against breast cancer
against epilepsy
against fear of night
against insanity
against leprosy
against mental illness
against noctiphobia
against sterility
beggars
blacksmiths
breast feeding
cancer patients
cripples
disabled people
epileptics
forests
handicapped people
hermits
horses
lepers
mentally ill people
noctiphobics
physically challenged people
paupers
poor people
rams
spur makers
woods
—
in Austria
Graz
Klagenfurt

in Italy
Altavilla Silentina
Camerata Nuova
Caprarola
Cavezzo
Latronico
Monte San Savino
Tolfa

Edinburgh, Scotland
Representation
arrow
cave
crosier
deer, hind, doe, roe
hermitage
Benedictine monk accompanied by a hind
lilies growing in the sand (refers to a legend that says three lilies blossomed in dry sand as Giles explained three points to prove the perpetual virginity of Mary to a doubter)