14th Sunday After Trinity
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Readings: Deuteronomy 4: 1-2, 6-9 and Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23
It is not often that St. Giles’ day , 1st September, falls on a Sunday, and with this feast day falling at the end of the holiday season we do not always pay much attention to our patron saint, so it seems appropriate to make something of this festival today.
I’m sure most of you know the bare bones of St. Giles’ life, such as we have them. Some accounts of his life say that he was a Greek, born in or near Athens. He was active most likely in the 6th-century in the lower Rhone region of France, where the Visigothic king Wamba founded a monastery for Giles. Pope Benedict II granted a charter for this foundation in 684 or 685, but it was not dedicated to St Giles until about 910. The town of St-Gilles-du-Gard sprang up around the abbey, and his cult spread rapidly after his death.
He was known as one of the ‘Fourteen Holy Helpers’, which I can only describe as an ‘elite’ team of intercessors, whose cult originated in the 14th-century. The prayers of these fourteen were considered to be particularly effective, especially during the Black Death. Giles was particularly prayed to in relation to the plague, and epilepsy, and mental illness, and for a good confession. So perhaps we could aspire to be ‘Holy helpers’, unsparing in our intercession for other people and the world.
In the UK over 150 churches are dedicated in Giles’ memory, though there is another St Giles who lived two hundred years earlier. Ronald Bryer’s book Not the Least – The story of Little Malvern, says that the church was dedicated by Bishop Giffard in October 1282; that it was dedicated to St. Giles from the first, possibly because he was the patron saint of forests and woodlands. We shouldn’t forget that the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist were added as patrons, probably in the 13th-century, though I haven’t been able to discover why.
Our St. Giles has become the patron saint of beggars, blacksmiths, breast cancer and breast feeding, disabled people, epilepsy, hermits, horses, lepers, mental illness, outcasts, poor people, rams, spur makers and sterility – and of Edinburgh.
Many of the St Giles churches are found on the edges of communities, as those with the affliction of leprosy were not permitted to come into centres of population. One can only imagine the sense of complete isolation and despair this caused them. It is interesting that we have recently identified the leper tiles in the floor of our sanctuary here, maybe suggesting that this place could have been a sanctuary for such who were afflicted, seeking refuge at the priory here in its isolated position.
St. Giles himself wished to live outside the walls of the city, better to serve those on the outside – ‘on the edge.’ Perhaps he also had in mind that Jesus, as the letter to the Hebrews reminds us, ‘suffered outside the city gate’, which that writer sees as having great significance – for the bodies of animals brought to sacrifice for sin by the high priest in old testament days were then burned outside the camp. “Let us then,” he writes, “go to him outside the city gate and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”
St. Giles’ hospital in London, which cared for the poor, the crippled and leprous, was on the route to Tyburn for those condemned to execution. They were allowed to stop at the hospital where they were presented with a bowl of ale called ‘St Giles’ Ale’ – “thereof to drink at their pleasure, as their last refreshing in this life.”
The patron saint of the outcast. Maybe we can aspire also to be friends of the outcast. Times have, of course, changed, and we don’t find lepers outside the city walls. But there are still many categories of outcast today. Loneliness is one of society’s greatest problems, apparently, and this would be much alleviated if other folk took more of an interest in the people around them. I’m sure it’s something we have to work at, as we all get immersed in our own agendas and problems and our usual circle of friends and relatives. Our support for ‘Amaze’ this month is just a small way in which we can show care for the underprivileged in our local society. Homelessness can so easily lead to loneliness, as slowly but surely one begins to lose the contacts and supports we all need for fulfilling lives.
Then we can say that St. Giles was in tune with the natural world around him. He lived for a long time in the seclusion of the forest; befriended animals – particularly the deer we all know about. The deer was chased by the king’s hunters to its place of refuge – that is, to the side of Saint Giles. An arrow shot at the deer wounded the saint himself, who was then crippled for life, and so became the patron saint of the physically disabled. Giles was content to live on whatever fruits and vegetation he could find. We could say he was an early ecologist. He shunned the unnecessary domination of animals, refusing to wear their skins for clothing, which would have been an unusual stand to take in his time. The Catholic ecologist William Patenaude observes that Giles’ lifestyle was “in itself a critique of the prevalent banquet and hunting culture of his age.” So here is another challenge to us: not to be so enmeshed in today’s culture that people wonder what it is that makes us distinctive as Christians.
It seems to me that humility is a quality embracing these three challenges that St. Giles throws at us. Giles lost both his parents at an early age, and inherited great wealth: castles, vineyards, horses, gold and silver. But Giles didn’t want any of it. He fled Athens to avoid the honours his countrymen wished to bestow on him, and fixed his hermitage in a deserted spot. He felt that among his friends, animals, and the small plot of land where he had settled, he had everything he could want. He decided to give the entire inheritance to God, donating the property to local abbeys and hospitals and sending the money to poor families.
A clever theologian friend of mine used to say that congregations should try to emulate the character of the patron saint of their church. I’ve noted three aspirations through which we may emulate St. Giles. To be unsparing in intercession for the world and its people; to be friends to the outcast; to live counter-culturally and so to challenge the prevailing spirits of the age. We don’t seek to become saints or known as saints, but may we pursue saintly lives of humility, gentleness and praise, that we may be the more open to receiving and truly living in the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.