The Life of St Giles in Scripture

Detail - Saint Giles from The Hermit Saints Triptych by Hieronymus Bosch

If we wanted to meditate on the Life of St Giles using scripture, which passages might we choose?

The different accounts of the Life of St Giles (summarised in a post at this link) offer a number of possibilities:

The Life of St Giles - a Living Text

The Mass of Saint Giles, by The Master of St Giles c1500 (The National Gallery)

My parish church is dedicated to St Giles whose feast day is September 1st. Surveying recent scholarship on surviving manuscripts shows how the ‘Life of St Giles’ is a living text - how his story has evolved as he inspired each new generation. How do we respond to the text today?

A Bouquet for Saint Giles

Saint Giles and the Deer by The Master of Saint Gilles, c1500 (National Gallery)

‘Saint Giles and the Deer’ by the mysterious ‘Master of Saint Giles’ originally formed one section of a multi-panelled altarpiece dating from the early 1500’s. 

The painting and its companion piece ‘The Mass of St Giles” depict two of the three most popular stories about the saint mentioned in the accounts of his life, the most recent of which being The Golden Legend, a famous medieval hagiography.

 

Both paintings can be seen in The National Gallery and their website allows us to zoom in to see minute detail. The commentary for St Giles and the Deer states: “The different types of plants and flowers in the wilderness are perhaps a reference to the legend that the desert flowered around Giles’s hermitage.” Tantalisingly no description of the flora or what it might symbolise is offered - nor in The Golden Legend or other versions of the Life of St Giles - so I have attempted to make an educated guess!

Sermon - Forgiving the Unjust Steward

Fraternal Forgiveness, Andrey Yanev

A sermon given during Holy Communion at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 6th August 2023 (The Ninth Sunday after Trinity) based on readings from 1 Corinthians 10.1-13 and Luke 16.1-9

BOOK REVIEW : Praying the Psalms by Thomas Merton

Abbey of Gethsemani – August 1962 by Pimon Singhasin

Since starting at St Giles-in-the-Fields I think have said more psalms each day than ever before! The Book of Common Prayer is the basis for all the liturgy here. In it, all 150 psalms are said consecutively, with the Psalter dividing the text into sixty groups of Psalms to be said each day of the month at Morning and Evening Prayer.  When a month has thirty one days, the psalms set for the thirtieth day are repeated. 

‘Praying the Psalms’ is a short essay by the Catholic Priest and Trappist Monk Thomas Merton. In it he offers advice on how to gain a “lived sense” of the Psalms - something he says is vital if we are to truly pray with them. 

Sermon - The Miracle of Multiplication

Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish. Jesus Mafa Project, Cameroon

A sermon given during Holy Communion at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 23rd July 2023. The Seventh Sunday after Trinity. Based on readings from Romans 6.19-end and Mark 8.1-9 (BCP). 

Coffee with Caiaphas - The Chester Mystery Plays 2023

The Mystery Plays tapestry quilt by B.J.Elvgren, displayed in Chester Cathedral

I once met a nun who felt called to a cloistered life after being captivated by the musical Godspell as a teenager. I confess that I too find dramatic representations of the Passion of Christ encountered outside of the liturgy of the church to be particularly powerful. One of the most arresting such experiences has been watching the Mystery Plays. 

Sermon - Holy, Holey, Wholly

The Vision of Isaiah, Marc Chagall, 1968

A sermon preached at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 2nd July 2023 (The Fourth Sunday after Trinity) based on readings from Isaiah 6.1-7 and Acts 6.1-8. The first sermon I preached as Curate of the church.

Start:Stop - All that is seen and unseen

Pillars of Creation - Image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Hello and welcome to St Stephen Walbrook where on Tuesday mornings we start the day by stopping to reflect for ten minutes. Please stay as long as your schedule allows. Today our reflection is inspired by the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope which took place on this day in 1990. We begin with a short Bible Reading. 

You can listen to an audio recording of this reflection at this link.

Church of England National Online Service - The Road to Emmaus

Frances Watt - Road to Emmaus

It was a great pleasure to be invited to contribute to the Church of England’s online service which we recorded today for release on Sunday 23rd April 2023. I was asked to speak for two minutes about what I had learnt from my time at St Stephen Walbrook, framing the response around themes from the gospel reading – the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24.13-35). This is what I said:

Reflection - What Next?.....

The Three Maries at the Sepulchre, 1862, Eugène Delacroix

A reflection given at Evensong at St Stephen’s Rochester Row on Sunday 16th April 2023 (Year A, Easter 2) based on Mark 15.46-16.8.

Four years ago today Europe was left dumbstruck as it awoke to pictures of a smouldering Notre Dame. After a night described by one fire-service chaplain as hell on earth - when endless waterfalls of flames engulfed the ancient beams of the roof - the next morning, the shell of the cathedral stood empty.