BL. GILES OF VAOZELA, PENITENT - 14 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 14th of May

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. GILES OF VAOZELA, RELIGIOUS

➡️ More information about Bl. Giles

Up to about the age of forty, Blessed Giles, a native of Vaozela, Portugal, had been pursuing a life of sin as a doctor who dabbled in black magic, a man said to have sold his soul to the devil.

But one day, when Giles was alone in his library, he saw a spectre reminiscent of the terrifying ‘Commendatore’ who appears near the end of Mozart’s opera ‘Don Giovanni’:

HE WAS ALARMED

Giles experienced a vision of a statue of marble that had come to life, a man of arms brandishing a spear and mounted on a horse of marble. The spectre warned, “Change the state of your life,” before disappearing.

Giles was initially alarmed, but he soon dismissed what he had seen as a phantom and resumed his evil ways.

"CHANGE YOUR STATE OF LIFE"

A few days later, as Giles was reading in his library, the marble spectre returned, and told him again, “Change, change the state of your life, otherwise I shall slay you.”

This time Giles promised that he would reform his life, and the vision disappeared.

HE BURNED HIS "NEW AGE" MAGIC BOOKS

Giles burned his “new age” magic books, confessed his sins, and became a Dominican priest of great holiness. God rewarded this deeply repentant sinner with numerous ecstasies in his prayers. Giles is commemorated on May 14. He died in 1265.

“Far as east from west is distant,

He hath put away our sin;

Like the pity of a father

Hath the Lord’s compassion been.”