Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1891 — St. Giles. [ARTICLE]

St. Giles.

St. Giles, saint, was born at Athens, and died abbot of Nismes, France, in the year 750; he is said to have been so pious that he sold not only his patrimony, hut even his coat, to enable him to bestow charity upon poor Christians. St. Giles became the patron of cripples, in consequence of his refusing to be cured of an accidental lameness, caused by the arrow of a huntsman’s bow, lest he might not otherwise have sufficient means of mortifying himself. The churches dedicated to him have generally been in the suburbs; and at Cripplegate, in London, even before thq Conquest, cripples used there to solicit charity, from the example of the lame man who begged alms of St. Peter and St. John at the gate of the temple. St. Giles is the patron saint of Edinburgh, and the High Church of the Scottish capital is dedicated to him. Many marvels are gravely recorded of him, and he still retains the title of patron of beggars and cripples.