2024-09-01 00:00:00
Every 1 September the Church celebrates San Gilalso known as San Egidio Abad.
Among the “helpers”
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San Gil (in Latin: Aegidiusin French: Guyin Italian: Egidio), sometimes known as Egidio the Hermit, was a Benedictine monk of Greek origin who lived between the 6th and 7th centuries. Tradition held him up as an example of goodness and a merciful spirit. His biographers often emphasize the sensitivity and wisdom he treated everyone who came into 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 who are known for their “efficacy” in responding to the requests of their devotees.
France, the land of holiness
Egidio was born in Athens (Greece, at that time part of the Byzantine Empire) into a wealthy noble family. The exact date of his birth is not certain, but it is believed to have been around the year 640.
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After realizing that God was calling him along the path of world abandonment, Gil distributed the patrimony that belonged to him to the poor. Then he marched towards Provençal, in the south of France, a country where he settled and dedicated himself to asceticism and prayer.
According to tradition, the saint performed many miracles there: he healed people with paralysis, he healed people with snake bites, or people with fever; He turned barren lands and – according to legend – he even raised the dead. As this brought him public fame, he decided to retire to the forest near the mouth of the Rhône River. When he settled there, he lived as a hermit.
May God forgive all sins, all
One day when King Childebert I was hunting – some say it was actually Charles Martel – he saw Egidio (San Gil) near the hermitage where he lived, feeding on the milk of a deer that had he intends to hunt.
Then a meeting was held between the two: a dialogue that preceded the king’s conversion. He confessed to him a very serious sin – it is believed to be beheading – but he came to find comfort in Egidio’s words.
The monarch decided to repair the evil that had been done as far as possible and, as a result of seeing that he was loved by God despite his race, he decided to offer his help to the hermit. The king ordered a monastery to be built in that same place – which was later called the “San Egidio Forest” – where the saint would be named as the first abbot. It was the Benedictine rule that welcomed the monastery.
Giving God’s mercy
The place soon began to fill with pilgrims looking for the saint to heal their ailments, whether of the body or the soul. Naomh Gil stayed in that monastery for many years, welcoming those who needed him and, whenever he could, returning to the silence and solitude where he found God.
Already an old man, he went to the Pyrenees of Catalonia, where he died a holy death at the age of 84 (c. 720-725).
Veneration
Saint Egidio is known as the “advocate of sinners”; “protector of the poor, the young and the archers” (according to a medieval story he was once wounded by an arrow, it is said, because some hunters wanted to kill the deer that were his company); “defender against disease”, especially against cancer and epilepsy – called by some the “San Gil disease” -. He is also considered by many to be the patron saint of lepers.
This saint has 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. His name is on beautiful places on the Old Continent and in America.
Echoes in our time
Today we have come to know the Community of San Egidio, an institution founded by the Italian historian Andrea Riccardi in the city of Rome in 1968.
All its members organize to do work with a great social impact: they fought for the abolition of the death penalty, to give fair and adequate treatment to HIV/AIDS patients, or to protect old age. His work has been recognized by Pope 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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