Giles of Assisi

Blessed Giles of Assisi, O.F.M.
Born	c. 1190 Assisi, Umbria, Papal States
Died	23 April 1262 Monteripido, Umbria, Papal States
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism
Beatified	1777 by Pope Pius VI
Feast	April 23

Blessed Giles (Latin: Aegidius) of Assisi, O.F.M., (c. 1190 – 1262) was one of the original companions of St. Francis of Assisi and holds the foremost place among the companions of St. Francis. St. Francis called him "The Knight of our Round Table".

Of Giles' origins and early life nothing certain is known, other than that he was a simple farmer. In April, 1209, moved by the example of two leading fellow-Assisians, who had already become the first followers of St. Francis, he begged permission to join the little band, and on the feast of St. George (23 April) was invested in a poor religious habit which St. Francis had begged for him. Almost immediately afterwards he set out with St. Francis to preach in the Marches of Ancona. He accompanied the saint to Rome when the first Rule was approved orally by Pope Innocent III, and appears to have then received the monastic tonsure. About 1212 Giles made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James at Compostella, in Spain. Shortly after his return to Assisi he started for Jerusalem, to venerate the Holy Places, visiting on his way home the Italian shrines of St. Michael, at Monte Gargano, and St. Nicholas, at Bari. He was next found in Rome and still later at Tunis.

In these journeys Giles was always at pains to procure by manual labor what food and shelter he needed. At Ancona he made reed baskets; at Brindisi he carried water and helped to bury the dead; at Rome he cut wood, trod the wine-press, and gathered nuts; while the guest of a cardinal at Rieti he insisted on sweeping the house and cleaning the knives. A keen observer of men and events, Giles acquired in the course of these travels much valuable knowledge and experience, which he turned to good account. For he lost no occasion to preach to the people. His sermons, if such they can be called, were brief and heartfelt talks, replete with homely wisdom; he never minced his words, but spoke to all with apostolic freedom. After some years of activity Giles was assigned by St. Francis to the hermitage of Monteripido in the region of Perugia, where he began a life of contemplation and ecstasy which continued with very visible increase until his death.

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