ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 1st of September
SAINT GILES, ABBOT
(About the end of the 7th century.)
Saint Giles [Aegidius], whose name has been held in great veneration for several ages in France and England, is said to have been an Athenian by birth, and of noble extraction.
His extraordinary piety and learning drew the admiration of the world upon him in such a manner, that it was impossible for him to enjoy in his own country that obscurity and retirement which was the chief object of his desires on earth; and he dreaded the sunshine of temporal prosperity and the applause of men, as fraught with dangerous poison, which easily insinuates itself into the heart.
HE DREADED THE FAKE SUNSHINE OF TEMPORAL PROSPERITY
Therefore, leaving his own country, he sailed to France, and chose an hermitage first in the open deserts near the mouth of the Rhone, afterwards nigh the river Gard, and lastly, in a forest in the diocese of Nismes.
WILD HERBS AND ROOTS
He passed many years in this close solitude, using no other subsistence than wild herbs or roots, and water, conversing only with God, and living rather like an angel than a man; so perfectly was he disengaged from earthly cares, and with so great purity of affections, with such constancy and ardour was his soul employed in the exercises of heavenly contemplation.
EXERCISES OF HEAVENLY CONTEMPLATION
His historian relates, that he was for some time nourished with the milk of a hind in the forest, and that a certain prince discovered him in hunting in those woods, by pursuing the chase of that hind to his hermitage, where the beast had sought for shelter at his feet.
The reputation of the sanctity of this holy hermit was much increased by many miracles which he wrought, and which rendered his name famous throughout all France.
HE COULD NOT BE PREVAILED UPON TO FORSAKE HIS SOLITUDE
St Giles was highly esteemed by the French king; but could not be prevailed upon to forsake his solitude. He, however, admitted several disciples, and settled excellent discipline in the monastery of which he was the founder, and which, in succeeding ages, became a flourishing abbey of the Benedictine Order.
[St Giles is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.]
From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints
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