Our Church
Who was Saint Giles?
The church's original foundation in 1101 was for
a Leper hospital and chapel, which was known as
the St Giles Hospital - St Giles being the patron
saint of outcasts (ie the saint has a special
concern for the care of those separated from the
community).
St. Giles, known in early writings as Aegidius,
is reputed to have been born in Athens the son
of Theodore and Pelagia in about 640. When he
was twenty-four his parents died, and Giles, stricken
by the double loss, and unconsoled by the pleasures
of fashionable life, sold all that he had and
gave to the poor in order to follow Christ.
He took to sea and landed on the coast of Provence.
On the shore he saw human footsteps, and following
these, he found a cave in which an old hermit
had lived for years on roots and herbs, and who
was content to share his cave, his food and his
prayers with the young man.
After three days Giles began to fear his friends
might find him, so he hailed a passing ship and
sailed on to the west, and landed at Marseilles.
Still seeking solitude, he crossed the Rhone and
went towards a rocky promontory above the river
Gardon. Here, in a cave, the entrance of which
was hidden by a thicket, he found another solitary,
also a Greek.
Staying a short time, he continued his journey,
till finally, in the depth of a forest near Nimes,
he found a hollow of a rock in a green glade by
a stream, shaded by four gigantic oaks. There
he lived in peace and prayer, his only companion
a gentle hind, whose milk he drank.
Here he was discovered by Flavius (Wamba), king
of the VisiGoths. The king was out hunting and
shot an arrow at the hind, missed it, and hit
Giles who was at his devotions. Giles, though
wounded, continued at his prayers and refused
all compensation for the injury done to his body.
This incident made him a great favourite at Court,
especially with Wamba, who pressed him to stay.
The king would have given him lands for any foundation
he chose, but no entreaties would persuade him
to desert his life of solitude and prayer.
Legend says that Giles consented to be the founder
of the monastery near Nimes about 673, which flourished
till the Saracen invasion, when it was was burned
down and, according to legend, he and his monks
took refuge with Charles Martel, aiding him by
their prayers in his great battle for Christianity
in the West.
St. Giles' monastery was restored, and with the
words, " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart
in peace," he died on September 1st, 720.
St. Giles became one of the most popular saints
in the West, the patron saint of woodland, of
lepers, beggars, cripples, and of those struck
by sudden misery, and driven into solitude like
the hind, which, according to one tradition, came
to St. Giles wounded.
He is also the patron saint of over one hundred
and fifty churches in the United Kingdom, and
should not be confused with another abbot of the
same name, who was in the same province two hundred
years earlier.
In the Prayer Book he is described as "St. Giles,
Abbot and Confessor", and he is commemorated on
September 1st.
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