(Latin Ægidius.)
An Abbot, said to have been born of illustrious Athenian parentage
about the middle of the seventh century. Early in life he devoted
himself exclusively to spiritual things, but, finding his noble birth
and high repute for sanctity in his native land an obstacle to his
perfection, he passed over to Gaul, where he established himself first
in a wilderness near the mouth of the Rhone and later by the River Gard.
But here again the fame of his sanctity drew multitudes to him, so he
withdrew to a dense forest near Nimes, where in the greatest solitude he
spent many years, his sole companion being a hind. This last retreat
was finally discovered by the king’s hunters, who had pursued the hind
to its place of refuge. The king [who according to the legend was Wamba
(or Flavius?), King of the Visigoths, but who must have been a Frank,
since the Franks had expelled the Visigoths from the neighbourhood of
Nimes almost a century and a half earlier] conceived a high esteem for
solitary, and would have heaped every honour upon him; but the humility
of the saint was proof against all temptations. He consented, however,
to receive thenceforth some disciples, and built a monastery in his
valley, which he placed under the rule of St. Benedict. Here he died in
the early part of the eighth century, with the highest repute for
sanctity and miracles.
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, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and the British
Isles; by the numerous MSS. 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 hideous excesses
of the Huguenots who were then ravaging France, and the pilgrimage in
consequence declined. With the restoration of a great part of the relics
to the church of St. Giles in 1862, and the discovery of his former
tomb there in 1865, the pilgrimages have recommenced. Besides the city
of St-Gilles, which sprang up around the abbey, nineteen other cities
bear his name, St-Gilles, Toulouse, and a multitude of French cities,
Antwerp, Bridges, and Tournai in Belgium, Cologne and Bamberg, in
Germany, Prague and Gran in Austria-Hungary, Rome and Bologna in Italy,
possess celebrated relics of St. Giles. In medieval art he is a frequent
subject, being always depicted with his symbol, the hind. His feast is
kept on 1 September. On this day there are also commemorated another St.
Giles, an Italian hermit of the tenth century (Acta SS., XLI, 305), and
a Blessed Giles, d. about 1203, a Cistercian abbot of Castaneda in the
Diocese of Astorga, Spain (op. cit. XLI, 308). He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
John F. X. Murphy (Catholic Encyclopedia_
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