Saint Giles

Saint Giles
Detail of Saint Giles and the Hind, by the Master of Saint Giles c. 1500
Abbot
Born	c. 650 Athens, Achaea, Eastern Roman Empire
Died	c. 710 Septimania, Kingdom of the Visigoths (Languedoc, Southern France)
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Anglican Communion
Canonized	Pre-Congregation
Major shrine	Abbey of Saint-Gilles (Saint-Gilles, France) St. Giles' Cathedral (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Feast	September 1
Attributes	arrow; crosier; hermitage; hind
Patronage	beggars; blacksmiths; breast cancer; breast feeding; cancer patients; disabled people; Edinburgh (Scotland); epilepsy; noctiphobics; forests; hermits; horses; lepers; mental illness; outcasts; poor people; rams; spur makers; sterility;

Saint Giles (English pronunciation: /dʒaɪlz/, gaɪlz; Latin: Aegidius; French: Gilles; c. 650 AD – c. 710), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a Greek,Christian, hermit saint from Athens, whose legend is centered in Provence and Septimania. Giles founded the abbey in Saint-Gilles-du-Gard whose tomb became a place of pilgrimage. It was a stop on the road that led from Arles to Santiago de Compostela, the pilgrim Way of St. James. Giles is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

Giles first lived in retreats near the mouth of the Rhône and by the River Gard in Septimania, today's southern France. The story that he was the son of King Theodore and Queen Pelagia of Athens is probably an embellishment of his early hagiographers; it was given wide currency in the Legenda Aurea. The two main incidents in his life were often depicted in art.

The Legenda Aurea links him with Arles, but finally he withdrew deep into the forest near Nîmes, where in the greatest solitude he spent many years, his sole companion being a deer, or red deer, who in some stories sustained him on her milk. Giles ate a vegetarian diet. This retreat was finally discovered by the king's hunters, who had pursued the hind to its place of refuge. An arrow shot at the deer wounded the saint instead, who afterwards became a patron of cripples. The king, who by legend was Wamba, an anachronistic Visigoth, but who must have been (at least in the original story) a Frank due to the historical setting. He held the hermit in high esteem for his humility rejected all honors save some disciples. Wamba built him a monastery in his valley, Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, which Giles placed under the Benedictine rule. He died there in the early part of the 8th century, with the highest repute for sanctity and miracles.