The Legendary Hermit, Saints Giles, or Egidio
The life of Saint Giles, as many mediaeval saints, is steeped in legend. What we do know is that he had quite a following, his popularity attested by the countless places, villages, cities, churches are named after him, including the Italian variant of his name, Egidio. He was a hermit, likely in the 6th century, but perhaps a bit later (there is a story that a secret sin of Charlemagne’s, which the emperor had been too shamed to confess, was revealed to the saint, but that would put Giles two or three centuries beyond his traditional lifespan).
Giles lived in the Rhone valley, renowned for its stunning scenery – the Alps, Lake Geneva, the Mediterranean coast, and all the rest of it – as well as its wines, which the saint likely did not imbibe all that much. In his solitary life in the midst of God’s natural beauty, he befriended a deer, and when the king’s hunters cornered the poor animal, the intended arrow hit Giles instead; although wounded, he lived, making him the patron saint of invalids, along with a host of other ailments for which he is invoked – “childhood fears, convulsions and depression”. As one of the ‘Fourteen Holy Helpers’ – early saints invoked for their particular power against certain maladies, particularly, and originally, the Black Death – Giles is also prayed to for a good confession. He is, curiously enough, the only non-martyr amongst them.
His burial place at Saint-Gilles-du-Gard in southern France was one of the primary sites of pilgrimage up to the 19th century, and continues to be, for some. The abbey still stands, a masterpiece of Romanesque architectural, even if some of it be in ruins (the Huguenots used it as a fort in the Wars of Religion). There must be some solid truth behind all the legends, for such devotion does not spring out of nowhere, and may we pray to the holy hermit Saint Giles today, for whatever ails and needs we have.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000 1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→