Saint of the day September 1: San Gil or San Egidio. Catholic Saints

Every September 1 the Church celebrates San Gilwho is also known as San Egidio Abad.

Among the “helpers”

San Gil (in Latin: Aegidiusin French: Gillesin Italian: Egidio), sometimes called Egidio the Hermit, was a Benedictine monk of Greek origin who lived between the 6th and 7th centuries. Tradition has raised him as an example of goodness and merciful spirit. His biographers often highlight the delicacy and wisdom with which he treated everyone who came to his presence, as well as his constant encouragement to call everyone to conversion.

An ancient Germanic devotion places him among the “fourteen holy helpers”, that is, among those blessed ones famous for “their effectiveness” in responding to the requests of their devotees.

France, land of holiness

Egidio was born in Athens (Greece, at that time part of the Byzantine Empire) into a noble and wealthy family. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but it is believed to have been around the year 640.

After discovering that God was calling him along the path of renunciation of the world, Gil distributed the patrimony that belonged to him among the poor. He then marched towards Provençal, in the south of France, a land in which he settled and where he devoted himself to asceticism and prayer.

According to an ancient tradition, the saint performed many miracles there: he healed people with paralysis, he cured people with snake bites, or people with fever; He turned barren lands into fertile ones and – according to legend – even raised the dead. As this brought him fame and public veneration, he decided to retire to the forest near the mouth of the Rhône River. Once established there, he lived as a hermit.

God forgives all sins, all

One day when King Childebert I was hunting – some say that it was actually Charles Martel – he saw Egidio (San Gil) near the hermitage where he lived, feeding on the milk of a deer that he intended to hunt. .

Then a meeting took place between the two: a dialogue that became the beginning of the king’s conversion. He confessed to him a very serious sin – believed to be incest – but he came to find comfort in Egidio’s words.

The monarch decided to repair the evil committed to the extent possible and, as a consequence of seeing himself loved by God despite his iniquity, he decided to offer his help to the hermit. The king ordered the construction of a monastery in that same place – later known as the “Forest of San Egidio” -, in which the saint would be named the first abbot. The rule that the monastery welcomed was the Benedictine one.

Bringing God’s mercy

Soon the place began to fill with pilgrims looking for the saint to cure them of their illnesses, whether of the body or the soul. Saint Gil remained in that monastery for many years, welcoming those who needed him and, whenever he could, returning to the silence and solitude in which he found God.

Already an old man, he headed to the Catalan Pyrenees where, at the age of 84, he died a holy death (c. 720-725).

Veneration

Saint Egidio is called “advocate of sinners”; “protector of the poor, the crippled and archers” (according to a medieval story he himself was once wounded by an arrow, it is said, because some hunters wanted to kill the deer that served as his company); “defender against diseases”, especially against cancer and epilepsy – called by some the “San Gil disease” -. Many also consider him the patron saint of lepers.

This saint enjoys great devotion in Europe. Churches, hospitals, altars and images made in his honor can be found in countries such as France, Spain, England, Poland, Italy and Germany. Beautiful places on the Old Continent and in America are named after him.

Echoes in our time

Today the Community of San Egidio has become known, an institution founded by the Italian historian Andrea Riccardi in the city of Rome in 1968.

Its members, all lay, organize to carry out works of great social impact: they have fought for the abolition of the death penalty, for the fair and adequate treatment of HIV/AIDS patients, or for the protection of old age. abandoned. His work has been recognized by Popes Saint John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.

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If you want to know a little more about San Gil, we recommend the following article from the Catholic Encyclopedia: https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/San_Giles.

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