Giles was a hermit and his legend was extremely popular during the Middle Ages. It was said his name was originally Aegidius and he was born in Athens. Rejecting the wealth of the world, he sailed to the mouth of the river Rhone and went to live in the forest not far from Nimes. There he lived on the milk of a hind for a time. When King Wamba was out hunting he shot the hind with an arrow; on looking for the carcass he found the living animal beside the wounded Giles. The king was very contrite and gave alms to the hermit. Giles asked him to spend the money on founding an abbey; the king agreed on condition the hermit became its first abbot.

Towards the end of his life Giles went to Rome and offered his monastery to the Pope, who gave special privileges to anyone who visited it. The monastery was named after its abbot, Saint Gilles and the area was called Provence - from the Latin Provincia Sancti Aegidii.
Giles died in about 710 AD and it was said he was warned in a dream he would die on Sunday September lst. His relics were kept at the monastery.
Saint-Gilles was on the pilgrim routes to Compostela in Spain and the Holy Land, and it became an important place for the care of pilgrims. Giles always looked after the sick and wounded and was particularly concerned for lepers. He became the patron saint of beggars, cripples and sick people.
His cult was spread throughout Europe by crusaders, and it was very popular in England. 162 churches and 24 hospitals were dedicated to him; they were built on the outskirts of towns as the sick and people with loathsome skin diseases as well as leprosy were shunned.
Two famous churches are St Giles, Cripplegate, in London and St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. In the latter in 1637 the congregation rebelled when English prayer books were first used there. This led to the Scots signing a covenant to keep their Calvinist faith. All this ultimately led to the Civil Wars (1642 - 1649).
The name Giles is Celtic and means 'servant'