Saint Giles

Veneration Saint Giles, Abbot, by Bartolomé Román, Museo del Prado, Madrid. The town of St-Gilles-du-Gard sprang up around the abbey allegedly founded by him in the 7th century. That abbey (which was rededicated to him in the 10th century) remained the centre of his cult, which was particularly strong in Languedoc, even after a rival body of Saint Giles appeared at Toulouse.

He was one of the most popular saints in the Middle Ages. His cult spread rapidly far and wide throughout Europe, as is witnessed by the churches and monasteries dedicated to him in present-day France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Great Britain; by the numerous manuscripts in prose and verse commemorating his virtues and miracles; and especially by the vast concourse of pilgrims who flocked to his shrine.

In 1562, the relics of the saint were secretly transferred to Toulouse to protect them from the Huguenots and the level of pilgrimages declined. The restoration of most of the relics to the abbey of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard in 1862 and the publicized rediscovery of his former tomb there in 1865 helped the pilgrimages recommence.

Saint Giles is the patron saint of people with disabilities and is also invoked as a saint for childhood fears, convulsions, depression, particularly in Normandy, for example in Eure Iville, Saint-Germain-Village or Bernay or in Calvados, Gilles Touques. In medieval art, he is depicted with his symbol, the hind (female deer).

Giles of Provence is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 1 September.