De sancto Aegidio
The Life and Flight of Saint Giles
Saint Giles, a man of great charity and humility, flees the praise of the world to live as a hermit in the wilderness.
The name Aegidius comes from 'e', meaning 'without', 'geos' for 'earth', and 'dyan' for 'clear' or 'divine'. He was indeed 'without earth' through his contempt for worldly things, 'clear' through the illumination of knowledge, and 'divine' through love, which makes the lover like the one who is loved. Aegidius was born in Athens to a royal family and was educated in sacred letters from childhood. One day, while on his way to church, he gave his own tunic to a sick man lying in the street who was begging for alms; the man put it on and was immediately restored to full health. After this, when his parents had passed away in the Lord, he made Christ the heir of his estate. Once, while returning from church, he encountered a man who had been bitten by a snake, but Aegidius offered a prayer and immediately drove out the poison. Aegidius healed a man possessed by a demon who was in the church with others and disturbing the faithful with his shouting, by driving the demon out. Fearing the danger of human praise, he secretly sought the seashore, where he saw some sailors in peril on the sea; he offered a prayer and calmed the entire storm. When the sailors arrived and heard that he was heading to Rome, they gave thanks for his merits and promised to carry him with them for free. When he had arrived in Arles and had stayed for two years with the holy Caesarius, the bishop of that city, and had there cured a man who had been feverish for three years, he desired the desert and left, and he stayed for a long time with the hermit Veredemius, who was conspicuous for his holiness, where he ended the sterility of the land through his merits. But as he was shining everywhere with miracles, he feared the danger of human praise, left that place, and penetrated into the inner desert, where he found a cave and a small spring, and also had a hind prepared for him there as a nurse, which provided him with the nourishment of milk at certain hours. But when the king's men were hunting there, they saw the aforementioned hind, and ignoring the other wild animals, they pursued this one with their dogs. While she was being hard-pressed by them, she fled to the feet of her foster-father. He, wondering why she was bellowing in such an unusual way, went out, and upon hearing the hunters, he prayed to the Lord to protect the nurse He had provided for him. None of the dogs dared to approach him within a stone's throw, but they returned to the hunters with excessive howling. Night fell and they returned home, and when they came back the next day, they went home again after a fruitless effort.
The King, the Hermit, and the Divine Pardon
The king discovers Giles in his cave, and through the saint's intercession, receives divine forgiveness for a hidden sin.
When the king heard this, he suspected what was happening and hurried there with the bishop and a crowd of hunters. But when the dogs refused to approach as they had before, and all returned howling, they surrounded the place, which was inaccessible due to the density of the thickets. One man, however, carelessly shot an arrow to flush out the deer, but he inflicted a serious wound on the man of God who was praying for the deer. The soldiers then cut a path through with their iron tools and reached his cave, where they saw an old man dressed in a monk’s habit, venerable in his gray hair and age, with the deer also lying at his knees. The bishop and the king approached him alone on foot, having ordered the others to stay back, and they asked him who he was, where he had come from, why he had sought out such a dense and desolate wilderness, and who had dared to wound him so severely. When he had answered them point by point and they had humbly asked his forgiveness, they promised to provide doctors to heal his wound and offered him many gifts. But he refused to accept any medicine and, despising the gifts, would not even look at them. Instead, knowing that power is made perfect in weakness, he prayed to the Lord that he might not be restored to his former health as long as he lived. But as the king visited him frequently and received the bread of salvation from him, he offered him immense wealth; yet he refused to accept it, advising him instead to build a monastery there where the discipline of the monastic order might flourish. When the king had done this, Giles, overcome by the king’s tears and prayers, finally agreed after much refusal and took charge of that monastery. When King Charles heard of his reputation, he requested that he come to him and received him with reverence. Among other conversations about salvation, the king asked him to deign to pray for him, because he had committed a certain enormous crime that he dared not confess to anyone, not even to the saint himself. On the following Sunday, while Giles was celebrating Mass and praying for the king, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and placed a note on the altar. It was written there that both the king’s sin and its forgiveness through Giles’s prayers had been granted; yet he was to remain penitent, confess, and from then on abstain from that sin. It was added at the end that whoever invoked Saint Giles for any committed sin, if he would only turn away from it, should not doubt that it was forgiven through his merits. Once the note was presented to the king and he recognized his sin, he humbly asked for forgiveness. Giles, returning with honor, raised the son of a prince at Nîmes who had died at that time. After some time, foreseeing that his monastery would not long be safe from destruction by enemies, he went to Rome and obtained from the Pope a privilege for the church and two cypress doors, on which the images of the apostles were carved; he released them into the Tiber, commending them to divine guidance. Returning to the monastery, he restored the ability to walk to a certain crippled man near the Tiber. When he returned to the monastery, he found the aforementioned doors in the harbor and, giving thanks to God that He had kept them unharmed through so many dangers of the sea, he erected them at the entrance of his church for the honor of the church and as a monument to the pact with the Roman See. Finally, the Lord revealed to him through the Spirit that the day of his death was approaching; he told this to the brothers, urged them to pray for him, and fell asleep happily in the Lord, where many testified that they heard choirs of angels carrying his soul into heaven.
A Holy Departure
The saint concludes his earthly life around the year 700.
He flourished around the year 700.
Read the original Latin
Aegidius dicitur ab e, quod est sine, et geos terra et dyan clarum sive divinum. Ipse namque fuit sine terra per terrenorum despectionem, clarus per scientiae illustrationem, divinus per amorem, qui assimilat amantem amato, — Aegidius Athenis ex regia stirpe progenitus et sacris litteris ab infantia ernditus, dum quadam die ad ecclesiam pergeret, cuidam aegro in platea jacenti et elemosinam pelenti tunicam suam tribuit, qua indutus sanitatem integram mox recepit, Post hoec, parentibus suis in domino quiescentibus, patrimonii sui Christum fecit heredem, Quadam vice dum ab ecclesia rediret, quidam vir a serpente percussus eidem obvius exstitit, sed oratione fusa Aegidius protinus virus fugavit. Quendam daemoniacum in ecclesia cum caeteris exsistentem et fideles clamoribus suis turbantem Aegidius daemone fugato sanavit. Verum humani favoris formidans periculum clam littus maris petiit et nautas quosdam in mari periclitantes conspexit et facta oratione tempestatem omnem sedavit. Applicantibus autem nautis, audito, quod Romam tenderet, gratias ejus meritis egerunt et, quod eum secum gratis veherent, promiserunt. Cum igitur Arelatem venisset et biennio cum sancto Caesario ejusdem civitatis episcopo mansisset et ibidem quendam triennio febricitantem curasset, eremuni cupiens tlam discéssit et cumVeredonio eremita sanctitate conspicuo diu mansit, ubi sterilitatem terrae suis meritis fngavit. Sed dum ubique miraculis coruscaret, humanae laudis timens pericnlum relicto eo interiorem eremum penetravit, ubi quoddam antrum et quendam fonticulum reperiens quandam nihilominus cervam praeparatam ibidem habnit in nutricem, quae certis horis lactis alimoniam sibi praebebat, Sed cum ibidem regis pueri venarentur, praedictam videntes cervam caeteris feris contemtis hane cum canibus insequuntur; a quibus dum vehementer urgeretur, ad pedes sui confugit alumni, Ille vero admirans, cur praeter solitum sic mugiret, exiens et venatores audiens dominum exoravit, ut, quam sibi tribuerat nutricem, servaret, Canum autem nullus infra lapidis jactum sibi appropinquare ausus est, sed cum nimio ululatu ad venatores revertebantur. Nocte igitur superveniente domum redeunt ct insequenti die illuc revertentes casso labore domum iterum redierunt.
Quod dum rex audiisset, rem ut erat suspicatus, cum episcopo et multitudine venatorum illuc properavit, sed cum canes ut prius non accedere praesumerent, sed omnes ululando redirent, locum veprium densitate inaccessibilem in girum circumdederunt, unus autem incaute sagittam dirigens, ut inde cervam expelleret, viro Dei pro cerva oranti grave vulnus inflixit, sed milites semitam ferro aperientes ad ipsius devenerunt speluncam et videntes senem habitu monachali vestitum, canitie autem et aetate venerabilem, cervam quoque ad ejus genua provolutam, solus episcopus et rex eum pedites adierunt, caeteris retro stare jussis, et interrogaverunt eum, quis esset vel unde venisset aut cur tam densam cremi vastitatem petiisset seu quis eum vulnerare tam graviter praesumsisset. Quibus cum ad singula respondisset et illi ab eo humiliter veniam postulassent, medicos sanando vulneri spoponderunt et multa donaria obtulerunt, sed ipse nec medicinam adhibere voluit et munera contemnens ad ipsa etiam non respexit, quin potius sciens virtutem in infirmitate perfici, dominum exoravit, ne, quamdiu viveret, sanitati pristinae redderetur. Sed cum rex eum frequenter visitaret et pabulum salutis ab eo reciperet, immensas divitias obtulit, sed eas ille recipere recusavit, admonens, ut inde monasterium constrneret, uhi monastici ordinis disciplina vigeret. Quod cum rex )fecisset, victus Aegidius lacrymis et precibus regis, postquam plurimum renuisset, illius monasterii curam suscepit. Hujus famam rex Carolus ut audivit, ejus impetrato adventu reverenter eum suscepit. Inter caetera salutis colloquia rex eum rogavit, ut pro eo dignaretur orare, quia quoddam facinus enorme commiserat, quod nulli unquam nec ipsi sancto confiteri auderet. Sequenti igitar dominica, dum Aegidius celebrans pro rege oraret, angelus domini eidem apparens schedulam super altare posuit, in qua scriptum erat per ordinem et regis peccatum et Aegidii precibus jam esse dimissum, sed tamen poenitens et confitens ab illo deinceps abstineret, Adjunctum erat in fine, ut, quisquis sanctum Aegidium pro quocunque commisso invocaret, si tamen ab illo desisteret, ejus meritis sibi remissum non dubitaret. Oblata igitur regi schedula peccato suo rex agnito veniam humiliter postulavit, Aegidius autem cum honore rediens apud Nemausensem urbem filium principis, qui tunc obierat, suscitavit, Post aliquantulum vero temporis praenuntians monasterium suum non longe ab hostibus evertendum Romam adiit et privilegium ecclesiae duoque ostia cyparissima, in quibus sculptae erant imagines apostolorum, a papa impetrans dimittensque ea in Tyberim divino regimini commendavit et ad monasterium rediens cuidam contracto apud Tyberonem gressum restituit, Cumque ad monasterium rediisset, praedicta ostia in portu invenit et gratias agens Deo, quod inter tot maris pericula illaesa servasset, ea inliminibus ecclesiae suae ad decus ecelesiae et monimentum pacti Romanae sedis erexit, Tandem dominus diem sui obitus imminere sibi per spiritum revelavit, quod ille fratribus indicans et pro se orare suadens in domino feliciter obdormivit, ubi choros angelorum ejus animam in coelum ferentium plurimi se audivisse testati sunt.
Claruit circa annum domini DCC.
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