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St. Giles (ca. 650 - 710) was a Greek man who is said to have
been born of nobility. From a young age he was drawn to the pursuit of
holiness, and was able by the power of God to effect the miraculous. He
cured the sick -- even as a child, when he gave his coat to a sick man
who was cured as soon as he put it on. He cured a man who'd been bitten
by a vemonous snake, and drove demons out of the possessed.
Making his way to the sea, he calmed a storm that was endangering some
sailors and, in return, they allowed him to sail with them to Rome. He
made his way to Arles, where he became known for his works and, later,
went into the wilderness to live as a hermit, making a home out of a
little pit, and taking as his only friend a deer who was kind enough to
keep him alive with her milk. "The Golden Legend," by Jacobus de
Voragine, A.D. 1275, tells us:
And on a time
servants of the king rode on hunting, and much people and many hounds
with them. It happed that they espied this hind, and they thought that
she was so fair that they followed her with hounds, and when she was
sore constrained she fled for succour to the feet of S. Giles, whom she
nourished, and then he was much abashed when he saw her so chauffed,
and more than she was wont to be.
And then he sprang up and espied the hunters. Then he prayed to our
Lord Jesu Christ that like as he sent her to him, to be nourished by
her, that he would save her. Then the hounds durst not approach her by
the space of a stone cast, but they howled together, and returned to
the hunters, and then the night came, and they returned home again and
took nothing.
And when the king heard say of this thing he had suspicion what it
might be, and went and warned the bishop, and both went thither with
great multitude of hunters, and when the hounds were on the place
whereas the hind was, they durst not go forth as they did before, but
then they all environed the bush for to see what there was, but that
bush was so thick that no man ne beast might enter therein for the
brambles and thorns that were there.
And then one of the knights drew up an arrow follily for to make it
afeard and spring out, but he wounded and hurt the holy man, which
ceased not to pray for the fair hind. And after this the hunters made
way with their swords and went into the pit, and saw there this ancient
man, which was clothed in the habit of a monk, of a right honourable
figure and parure, and the hind Iying by him.
And the king and the bishop went alone to him, and demanded him from
whence he was, and what he was, and why he had taken so great a
thickness of desert, and of whom he was so hurt; and he answered right
honestly to every demand; and when they had heard him speak they
thought that he was a holy man, and required him humbly pardon. And
they sent to him masters and surgeons to heal his wound, and offered
him many gifts, but he would never lay medicine to his wound, ne
receive their gifts, but refused them. And he prayed our Lord that he
might never be whole thereof in his life, for he knew well that virtue
should profit to him in infirmity.
The King visited
him often, and built him a monastery, whence the miracles continued,
causing St. Giles to one day be known as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
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