Sermon-The lives of St Giles through the scriptures

The seal of the hospital of St Giles

A sermon given during Evensong at St Giles-in-the-Fields on St Giles Day, Sunday 1st September 2024, based on the text of 2 Corinthians 12.1-10 and Matthew 5.1-12 and Psalm 131 (texts specially chosen for this day. For more suggested texts for St Giles Day, see this post

Our first lesson this evening - in which St Paul describes a thorn in his side and the strength he finds through faith in Christ to endure it  - is one of only two direct quotations from scripture in the earliest surviving account of the Life of St Giles. 

Verse nine in particular is said to have brought Giles comfort when he fell ill after he was punctured by something a bit larger than a thorn. Giles is shot with an arrow fired by one of the King’s huntsmen, intended for a doe - a deer, a female deer - that had been sustaining the saint during his time in his woodland hermitage.   

The scripture reads: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Giles’ encounter with the deer is one of a handful events that appear in each of the various accounts of his life. 

The earliest, Latin text, dates from the ninth century and describes Giles as arriving in France as a gifted young student and coming to the attention of the authorities through his holiness and piety. 

It is likely to have been written by a monk from the Abbey of St Giles in the south of France, to provide provenance for its foundation and justification for its continuing independence from the local Bishops and aristocracy. In this version, Giles’ life mimics that of other well known saints of the time. His Greek origins closely resemble that of Saint Denis of Paris, the celebrated first bishop of nearby Arles. Giles’ arrival in France reflects a local legend that Mary Magdalene was washed ashore at Marseilles. His feast day of 1st September appropriated from that of St Priscus, a locally venerated martyr bishop. This story of the life of St Giles could not get more local. Rooted physically, spiritually and mythologically to the monastery and the area around it.

Their back-story having secured their independence from the money-grabbing Counts, the saintly spin doctors turned their attention from the local to the global - capitalising on the location of the Abbey on the pilgrimage route to Compostella. And the scriptures through which the life of St Giles is read, change with this new perspective. 

Later versions of the story of Giles, including the earliest Anglo-Saxon text, are expanded to include more detail about the miracles that Giles performed - encouraging footfall to the Abbey which houses his relics. By the time of the Norman conquest of England, Giles was already well known here, thanks to the sheer number of pilgrims passing through the Abbey town of Saint Gilles each year. 

Addressing this new global audience, St Giles’ local connections are cast aside and the story of his life is rooted in that of Jesus. In one of the most obvious examples, the account of Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter is used to enhance the report of the saint healing a rich widow’s daughter. Several passages - such as Giles sending the crowds out of Teocrita’s house before he will perform the miracle, and the words Giles speaks before her daughter is raised, are drawn directly from the account in Mark’s gospel. 

The most elaborate and embellished Life of St Giles is a long rhyming poem by Guillaume de Berneville. ‘La Vie de Saint Gilles’ is renowned as one of the masterpieces of French medieval literature. 

Following the literary fashions of the day, the story of St Giles is romanticized. More focus is given to power relationships between characters in the story and descriptions of them. This account of a youthful Giles emphasises the physical attributes of the best medieval knights:

“Gilles was a very beautiful child. He was the flower of all the other young men in the land where he was born. He had blond, curly hair. His skin was white like milk. His eyes were smiling. His nose was wellmade. He had white teeth and a beautiful mouth. He did not have any whiskers on his cheeks. He had beautiful hands and white fingers. He had a long torso, thin sides and large hips. Nature never made a creature more beautiful than he.”

It is not only Giles’ appearance which is dramatized in La Vie. His riches, his benevolence and his relationships are all enhanced with considerable detail. 

Much of the tension between Giles and those around him arises from his eschewing of worldly wealth.

‘But he distributed [his inheritance] without counting. He did not give it to the debauched, to the whores, to the jugglers, but he made abbeys for the poor, hospitals for the paralyzed, the sick, the infirm, the lepers and the ill: it is to them that he distributed his wealth’ the poem states - the first documented link between St Giles and lepers - he became known as patron saint of leprosy. The text continues by recounting Giles’ benevolent acts in a way that mimics the beatitudes - the passage we heard in our second lesson. 

Livid that Giles has given away his wealth, the barons (who rely on the King for their income and status) give a sixty-line speech questioning his judgement and urging him to take a rich wife to maintain his authority. Something Giles refuses to do, choosing instead to live as a hermit. 

La Vie adds considerable detail to Giles’ relationship with the natural world - especially the doe; painting the connection between man and beast as one of co-habiting equals; the deer feeding in the woods during the day and returning at night when Giles became hungry and offering him her milk. Drawn from the Psalms, including Psalm 131 which the choir sang earlier, the metaphor of breastfeeding is used in the Rule of Saint Benedict - a popular text of the time - to illustrate the virtue of humility. The image may also help to explain why the Pelican in her piety - a common symbol for Holy Communion - is particularly prominent in many churches dedicated to Saint Giles? 

The symbiotic relationship between Giles and the deer is contrasted by contemporary commentators with the prevailing ‘hunting and feasting’ mentality of those in positions of authority and influence at the time, to highlight the progressive environmental ethics of St Giles. Today, read through the Psalms, the life of St Giles is gaining traction as that of the first eco-saint, trumping Saint Francis of Assisi by centuries. 

From local lad made good to locum for Christ then lushious-lipped liege, the latest ‘Life of St Giles’ like its predecessors reveals how the scriptures have been used as a lens to apply a new perspective to the life of the saint at different times through history - sometimes to the advantage of the writer!