Saint Aegidius, known in Italian as Egidio and in English as Giles, was a Benedictine monk and abbot. In his early life, he lived as a hermit in France. He is one of the fourteen Holy Helpers and is invoked for the cure of cripples. He has a beautiful church named for him near the Rhone River in France. He has one hundred and sixty churches dedicated to him in England.
A boss in the ceiling of the Thistle Chapel at St Giles’ Cathedral Edinburgh. Saint Giles’ is the patron saint of Edinburgh and the city’s ancient parish church is dedicated to him. The Thistle Chapel was designed Robert Lorimer and built between 1909 and 1911. It is the spiritual home of the Order of the Thistle: Scotland’s highest chivalric order. The stone carving is by Joseph Hayes using designs by Louis Deuchars. Photo by CPClegg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
