Blessed Brother Giles

Some time after he had been instructed by Saint Francis in all the rules and the manner of living in accordance with the Institute, he had a great desire to go and visit the holiest places out of devotion. Saint Francis, who knew the uprightness of his intentions and the good he was capable of doing wherever he would pass on his journey, gave him permission. He therefore set out on his way, dressed in his poor habit, barefoot, without money and without any provisions. He first went to Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia; he lived on the alm Saint-Jacques de Compostelle A major pilgrimage site visited by the saint. s that people were willing to give him. One day, he met a poor man who had nothing to cover himself with: Giles cut a part of his cloak to give it to him, so that he himself was, for twenty days, exposed to the insults of the weather and to the mockery of those who saw him pass by dressed in this way.

He undertook the pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the same manner; most oft en, he would Terre-Sainte Region visited during their only excursion from seclusion. stop from time to time, working at the pleasure of those who gave him bread, in order to earn it by his labor. One day, exhausted by the fatigues of the journey and by hunger, he fell, and Providence sent him a sweet sleep. Upon waking, he found, near his head, like Elijah, a mysterious bread, which he ate while giving great thanks to God.

He shared with other poor people what was given to him, and he refused to receive more than he had earned by his labor. When someone wanted to give him more than the other workers with whom he had labored, he replied that his status as a religious required him to accept less rather than more. He did not shrink from the most arduous tasks, such as carrying wood or water from afar, or harvesting wheat during all the long and scorching days of summer; nevertheless, he regulated his time so as to fulfill his religious duties, just as in the cloister.

The Cardinal-Bishop of Tusculum, who had take n a liking to him and enjoyed Le cardinal-évêque de Tusculum Friend of Gilles who welcomed him into his house. his conversation, begged him to stay in his house and accept from him the things he needed; but the Blessed one refused to receive the slightest thing for free; so the cardinal proposed that he come and eat at his table what he had earned by his labor. The Blessed one consented. One day when the rain had prevented Giles from attending to his ordinary work, the cardinal, quite joyful, said to him: "Brother Giles, you will surely have to live on our alms today." Giles went out without saying a word, and, going to find the cook, he asked him why his kitchen was so dirty. "It is," he replied, "because I have no one to clean it." Giles cleaned it for two loaves of bread, which he went to eat at the cardinal's table, without touching any of the dishes.

Giles withdrew, with a companion in penance, to a mountain to spend forty days there in prayer and austerity; they settled in a chapel dedicated to Saint Lawrence that had long been abandoned: they were not to leave it except to go and collect the alms necessary for their subsistence; but no sooner had they arrived than snow fell in abundance and closed the path they had climbed. They would have died of hunger if God, whom they implored with confidence, had not revealed their state to a pious inhabitant of the neighborhood; the latter, who knew all the approaches to the mountain, cleared a path to the solitaries, bringing them something to restore their strength. They were able to live like this for forty days, without leaving their retreat, thanks to the generosity of the surrounding populations, who, in reward, received great graces through the prayers and exhortations of the two hermits: many even entered the Order of Saint Francis, while others lived in a Christian manner.

The humility of Giles will seem strange to those who do not know all the secrets of this virtue. He sought every means to make himself vile, abject. One day, he stripped off his religious habit, then, having put himself in the state in which criminals being led to their death were at that time, with a rope around his neck, he had himself dragged before the other religious, declaring himself unworthy to wear their holy habit; he said that he was happy who did not seek to enjoy more esteem among men than he enjoyed before God. He also held it as a maxim that, to have complete peace of soul, one must know how to place oneself below all men.

This spirit, so detached from all created things, was in constant communion with God, who communicated Himself to him in the most marvelous way. His ecstasies were long and frequent: when having spiritual conversations with him, one avoided bringing up certain subjects, such as the glory and happiness of the elect; for immediately one would lose, so to speak, the presence of the Saint; he would remain enraptured for entire hours, without hearing or answering. This is what happ ened when Pope pape Grégoire X Pope who convened the Council of Lyon. Gregory X, desiring to see him, had him brought before him; no sooner had he spoken to him than the holy religious was rapt in God and remained motionless, his eyes fixed on heaven. The Sovereign Pontiff was often a witness to this beautiful spectacle, for he loved Giles very much and had great confidence in his prayers. One day he compelled him to give him advice on his office as Vicar of Jesus Christ; the Saint replied that he should keep both eyes open continually: the right, to contemplate without ceasing the heavenly and eternal things, which must be the rule of all our actions; the left, to put in order the present and temporal things, which were committed to his care and vigilance.

Even children knew that the name of Paradise transported him far from this world and would run after him crying: "Paradise! Paradise!" and that was enough to cause him to fall into raptures. One day, while he was speaking with Sa int Bonaventure a saint Bonaventure Doctor of the Church cited in the epigraph. bout the love of God, Giles regarded his ignorance as an obstacle to this love; the holy Doctor replied to him: Even if God granted a man no other talents than that of loving Him, that would suffice. — What! Can an ignorant person love God as well as a learned one? — Even more, a simple woman can love God more than a doctor of theology. The Blessed one immediately went out into the garden and began to shout: Listen, simple men, listen, good women, you can love God more than Brother Bonaventure. He then fell into an ecstasy that lasted three hours.

Saint Louis Saint Louis King of France who visited the relics of Saint Hildevert. , King of France, also wished to see this holy religious, whose reputation was European. It is said that having departed by sea for the Holy Land, he landed secretly in Italy and spent some time there, disguised as a pilgrim, to visit the most venerated sanctuaries. He therefore came t o Perug Pérouse City where the saint studied law and began his career before entering the convent there. ia and presented himself at the mo nastery of the Frères Mineurs Religious order welcomed by Engelbert in Cologne. Friars Minor. He asked to speak to Brother Giles, who immediately descended from his cell, having known by revelation who it was that asked for him; as soon as he appeared, the king and he knelt on the ground; they embraced very closely, giving each other testimonies of goodwill with as much tenderness as if they had known each other very familiarly for a long time. After having remained thus united, both on their knees, in a profound silence, they parted without saying any words outwardly. The superior of the monastery, having learned subsequently that this pilgrim was the King of France, wished to give a great reprimand to Brother Giles for not having said a few words of edification to the most Christian king, who had come expressly. But this great contemplative soon satisfied his superior by telling him that the king and he had spoken heart to heart, as much as they could have wished; that God had made them know inwardly, in that silence, the depths of their souls, and that they had said more things to each other than if they had spoken in any other way.

No one ever observed silence more exactly than he. He said that one could only preserve the graces received from heaven by fleeing the company of men. The Brother, who was his companion and as it were his disciple for twenty years, assured that he had never heard him utter a single idle word. There was no greater delight for him than to be alone in his cell, where he was found continually in prayer.

The demons, unable to endure the extraordinary progress that this good servant of God made day by day in virtue, waged great battles against him. One day, while he was praying in his cell, one of these evil spirits suddenly appeared to him in a figure so terrifying that the Saint lost his speech for some time; but, having raised his heart to God to obtain help, he regained his calm and his ordinary state. Another time, in the church of Saint Apollinaris in Spoleto, the demon came to throw himself with extreme fury upon him, and held h Spolète Episcopal city and site of the martyrdom of Sabinus. im tightly oppressed as if to suffocate him, until Giles, having dragged himself to the holy water font and having made the sign of the cross on himself with the holy water, was delivered. This persecution by the demon lasted until the end of his life; but Brother Giles was so accustomed to it that, although he suffered much from it, he was no longer astonished by it; that is why he gave everyone such a horror of vice and sin, which places us under the chains and tyranny of an enemy so pitiless and so contrary to our happiness.

Although this generous soldier of Jesus Christ never ceased to be tormented, he always knew how to keep his soul in joy, knowing that nothing is more suitable for thwarting diabolical ruses. He usually said that one should be no more astonished by the assaults that the demon launched against us to destroy us than by a dog that came to us to bite us; and that, just as one only rids oneself of the importunity of a dog that barks and wants to bite by giving it a blow, one must also, in our temptations, fight the demon by despising him and opposing him with some holy Christian practice, or some sentence of Scripture, which are the weapons with which one must fight him.

The great austerities and continual vigils of the holy penitent caused him several infirmities; in his old age, he was afflicted with great pains in his head and stomach, and subsequently with a very acute fever, accompanied by a most troublesome cough; so that he could no longer take food or rest. The inhabitants of Perugia, learning of his illness and fearing that he would be taken from them after his death, sent armed men to guard him. In the end, unable to sustain himself, Giles was obliged to take to his bed; there he received all the sacraments of the Church with great sentiments of piety; and finally, without giving any sign of death, gently closing his mouth and eyes, he rendered his beautiful soul to his God, to go and enjoy forever the glory that his heroic virtues, and above all his simplicity and humility, had earned him. This was in the year of grace 1272, after having lived fifty-two years in religion. His body was placed in a very beautiful marble sepulcher, which the inhabitants of the city had erected for him. His history states that a revelation was received after his death of the glory he enjoyed in heaven. A Dominican friar died on the same day as Brother Giles. During his illness, he had promised another preaching friar to tell him what his fate would be; and God permitted him to appear to him to fulfill his promise. — Well! what has become of you? asked his friend with anxiety. — I am happy, replied the Dominican; for I died on the same day as a holy Friar Minor named Giles, to whom Our Lord, in reward for his great holiness, granted the favor of introducing with him into Paradise all the souls who were then in Purgatory. I was among the number of those who were suffering in that place of expiation; but I was delivered from it by the merits of this holy brother.

Saint Bonaventure said that all those who invoked this servant of God, for matters concerning their salvation, were heard.

An infinite number of miracles occurred during his life and after his death through his intercession. There were few illnesses that he did not heal. His maxims were collected with all the more respect as he never spoke without necessity, and was in constant communication with God. Here are a few of them: he advised those who wished to ensure their salvation and the peace of their soul: 1st, to be always disposed to endure the miseries and adversities of life; 2nd, to humble themselves all the more as they receive more humiliations from others; 3rd, to have the greatest esteem for eternal goods, even though one does not see them.

"Happy is he," he said, "who has much charity for everyone, and who nevertheless does not desire that others have it for him; happy is he who renders great services to his neighbor, and who does not trouble himself to receive any from others." He also said: "It is better to endure a great injury without murmuring than to feed a great number of the poor, or to fast very austerely."

Two religious of his Order complaining to him that they had been driven from their country by the Emperor Frederick, he rebuked them severely, saying th at they should ra empereur Frédéric Holy Roman Emperor. ther thank God and pray for the prince, for he had thereby given them the occasion to observe their rule, which obliged them to have no country nor any land.

He said that one of his great astonishments was to see with what assiduity and with what eagerness people worked for the life of the body, without troubling themselves at all to maintain the spiritual life of the soul. He compared those who hasten with such activity to acquire temporal goods to a mole, which has no greater occupation than to dig continually in the earth, and which always seeks to enter and bury itself in it when it is outside, regarding the earth as the place of its dwelling and its rest; this, he said, is the true figure of worldlings and misers who cannot live if they do not work to plunge themselves into the goods of this world.

Speaking again of those who have too much eagerness to preserve goods, to provide for the future, he said that he was very much of the sentiment of his blessed father Saint Francis, who esteemed birds much more than ants, because ants took too much care to make provisions for the winter, and birds, on the contrary, prepared nothing for the morrow, contenting themselves with seeking at each moment the things they needed to feed themselves. He said that the goods of the earth were of such a nature that those who had the least share of them were those who were the best off.

One day when he was asked why he had so much trouble going to visit seculars who desired him to speak to them of God: "I am very glad," he replied, "to please my neighbor, but not to the prejudice of my soul." He added that Our Lord had said: "That he who would leave father, mother, brothers, sisters, relatives, and friends for the love of him, would receive a hundredfold in this world and eternal life in the other." He asserted that, to become very learned, one must become very humble; and that a Christian can be content with knowing how to live well, without occupying himself with other sciences. "The highest of all sciences," he said another time, "is to fear God and to love Him."

Pius V Pie VI Pope cited as having approved the cult of Julie in 1821. I authorized his cult for the Order of Saint Francis and the city of Perugia. Revelations, prophecies, and spiritual maxims were collected from Brother Giles: they can be read in the Acta Sanctor um on April 23 Acta Sanctorum Monumental hagiographic collection by the Bollandists. .