St.Giles Abbot Confessor (7th century) Saint Of The Day September 1

It is not certain whether St Giles (Aegidius) was a native of outhern France or came there from Greece. He was a holy recluse in a dense forest near Nimes and is said to have been a cripple. Here he was discovered by the King of the Franks when, on a hunting expedition, a wounded deer took refuge in his cave. The saintly old man was persuaded to accept some disciples, and for them a monastery was built, which he governed as Abbot under the Benedictine rule. On its site grew the city of St Giles.

Innumerable churches were dedicated to St Giles, the only saint among the 14 Holy Helpers who is not a Martyr. His cult us the chief patron of the poor, the crippled, the epileptics, the sterile, blacksmiths and foresters became very popular during the Middle Ages when numerous healings and miracles came to be reported at his grave at the abbey, making the site one of the lhrcc greatest pilgrimage places of Europe, surpassed only by Campostela and Rome.

The pilgrimages set in again since 1862, when many of his relics, which had been dispersed at the time of the Huguenots, were retumed to the city, thc rediscovery of his tomb in 1865 providing further impetus.