02/09/2026
St Giles' Feast Day
Yesterday was the feast day of St Giles, a patron of our Archdiocese and of one of our churches in Kennoway. May St Giles continue praying for us that the fire of faith may continue to burn in our hearts. Read about his life below:
Saint Giles lived from about 650 to about 714. He is also known as Giles the Hermit and is the patron saint of lepers and, amongst many other places across Europe, Edinburgh and Elgin. Not much is known with certainty about him except that he was a monk, that he was known for his sanctity and generosity, and that he settled, and was laid to rest, in France. He never Visited Scotland, yet a monastery under his patronage was already in existence in Edinburgh by 1150, and the later collegiate church of St Giles in the city possessed an arm of the saint encased in a rich reliquary gifted by the City of Edinburgh. He died in 714.
Saint Giles was said to have been the son of King Theodore and Queen Pelagia of Athens, though doubt has been cast on the historical accuracy of this claim. Whatever his origins, he seems to have spent most of his life in the area around modern Arles and Nîmes in southern France. According to legend, he became a hermit deep in the forests of the area, with his only companion being a deer. His solitude came to an end when hunters catching meat for the Frankish King Wamba chased the deer and accidentally shot St Giles with an arrow. By way of recompense, King Wamba built a monastery for Giles, which became known as Saint-Gilles-du-Gard. Giles placed the monastery under the Benedictine rule and spent the remainder of his life there, gaining a reputation for piety and miracles that spread far and wide.
Saint Giles remains highly venerated today. The centre of his cult is the abbey at Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, which can still be found near Nîmes in southern France and remains a place of pilgrimage. During the middle ages, a large number of churches across Europe were dedicated to St Giles, including St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh and St Giles' Church in Elgin. Meanwhile he is the patron saint of lepers, disabled people, the mentally ill, hermits, horses, outcasts, beggars, poor people, blacksmiths and spur makers, amongst many others. He is also the patron saint of Edinburgh, Elgin, Graz, Nuremberg, Osnabrück, Sankt Gilgen, Brunswick, Wollaberg, Saint-Gilles (near Brussels) and Saint-Gillis-Waas and his feast day is 1 September.
