St. Giles, Abbot September 1

St. Giles, Abbot (Patron of Physically Disabled) Feast day - September 1

St. Giles is said to have been a seventh century Athenian of noble birth. His piety and learning made him so conspicuous and an object of such admiration in his own country that, dreading praise and longing for a hidden life, he left his home and sailed for France. At first he took up his abode in a wilderness near the mouth of the Rhone river, afterward near the river Gard, and, finally, in the diocese of Nimes. Legend also relates that whilst the King Wamba was out hunting in a forest he chased a hind who went into a thicket into which the king shot an arrow. Upon investigating the King found Giles wounded by the arrow whilst protecting the hind.

He spend many years in solitude conversing only with God. The fame of his miracles became so great that his reputation spread throughout France. He was highly esteemed by the French king, but he could not be prevailed upon to forsake his solitude. He admitted several disciples, however, to share it with him. Giles founded a monastery at a place near Arles, which was later named Saint-Gilles (Provence). Towards the end of his life Giles went to Rome and offered the monastery to the pope who gave Giles two doors of cypress wood which Giles threw into the sea but which were washed up on a beach near his monastery. St. Giles became a popular saint in Western Europe due partly to the Crusaders who passed through Saint Gilles (Provence) on their way to the Holy Land. As a result of his encounter with King Wamba and becoming wounded and a cripple, St. Giles became the patron saint of cripples, lepers and nursing mothers. In Great Britain alone over 150 churches and 25 hospitals are dedicated to his name. St. Giles Feast was celebrated by all English Benedictine Monasteries on September 1st . Churches dedicated to St. Giles are often found at road junctions enabling travellers to visit whilst their horses were being shod at the nearby smithies, St Giles being their patron also.

St Giles Fairs. There have been at least two famous fairs in England connected to St. Giles day: one was in Winchester and the other at Oxford, their original purpose being for buying and selling local produce. We do not know exactly when the Church at Farnborough was dedicated to St. Giles, but in 1292 Thom Earl of Lancaster of the family of Grandison, was granted by the King a licence to hold a market in Farnborough every week upon a Tuesday and a yearly fair on the Feast of St. Giles.



In succeeding ages it embraced the rule of St. Benedict. St. Giles died probably in the beginning of the eighth century, about the year 724.