St. Giles
Feast 09-01 · Canonized Pre-Congregation
Patron of
About
Giles was a hermit of Greek origin who lived in the seventh century. According to tradition, he sailed to Provence and settled in a forest near the mouth of the Rhône, where he lived in solitude, sustained by the milk of a hind. When hunters pursued the hind, one of them wounded Giles with an arrow, and the king, moved by his holiness, gave him land for a monastery.
Around this hermitage grew the abbey of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, which became a major pilgrimage center on the road to Santiago de Compostela.
Giles became one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages, invoked by the sick, the poor, and the disabled. Because lepers were among those he welcomed and healed, he is venerated as a patron of lepers and of those suffering from leprosy.
Suggested prayer
O God, who sustained St. Giles in the forest by the milk of a hind and let him take the hunter's arrow in his own body, grant through his intercession that all who suffer leprosy and all who are outcast may know they are not forgotten. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
