Giles was an eremitic saint of the 8th century known for his sanctity. Giles, a noble Athenian by birth, gave his possessions to the poor and moved to southern France when his parents died. In France, he lived in an isolated cave, avoiding all worldliness, and serving God in solitary life.
Giles quiet life was interrupted one day when a royal hunting party cornered a deer in his cave. In an effort to bring down the deer, the archers shot arrows through a thorn bush at the cave entrance, but wounded Giles instead. When the hunters entered the cave and found Giles there and wounded, they cared for his injuries and tried to find out who he was.
When the hunting party learned of Giles' mission to live a simple solitary life, and when they realized his holiness they offered to help him. The king sent doctors to care for Giles' injuries and a relationship began to form between the saint and the king. The king realized Giles holiness and asked him to be the abbot of a monastery that he was building, Giles accepted. The monastery was successful and a town grew up around it.
The combination of the town, monastery, shrine and pilgrims led to many handicapped beggars hoping for alms; this and Giles' insistence that he wished to live outside the walls of the city, and his own damaged leg, led to his patronage of beggars, and to cripples since begging was the only source of income for many. Hospitals and safe houses for the poor, crippled, and leprous were constructed in England and Scotland, and were built so cripples could reach them easily. On their passage to Tyburn for execution, convicts were allowed to stop at Saint Giles' Hospital where they were presented with a bowl of ale called Saint Giles' Bowl, "thereof to drink at their pleasure, as their last refreshing in this life." Once in Scotland during the seventeenth century his relics were stolen from a church and a great riot occurred.
St. Giles died about the year 724 and his tomb became a favorite destination for pilgrims. The celebrarion of St. Giles has been confined to local calendars since 1969.
In Spain, shepherds consider Giles the protector of rams. It was formerly the custom to wash the rams and color their wool a bright shade on Giles' feast day, tie lighted candles to their horns, and bring the animals down the mountain paths to the chapels and churches to have them blessed. Among the Basques, the shepherds come down from the Pyrenees on 1 September, attired in full costume, sheepskin coats, staves, and crooks, to attend Mass with their best rams, an event that marks the beginning of a autumn festivals, marked by processions and dancing in the fields.