St Giles Lodge No. 8555
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    • St Giles MCF 2021 Festival Challenge >
      • 21st May Michael Perkins, Martin Robinson & John Waller's 30k cycle ride challenge
      • 16th Nov Gary Charnock's challenge
  • Interested in Joining?
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      • Holy Royal Arch
      • WHY THE ROYAL ARCH?
  • Events
    • 2020 >
      • 21 st October St Giles Installation Meeting
      • 19th Sept St Giles Ladies Festival
      • 7th June St Giles BBQ
      • 8th May VE Day Bletchley Masonic centre
      • 14th March Martin Robinson Base Camp Trek
      • 18th Feb Present a donation to SuperShoes
      • 30th Jan COI Meal
    • 2019 >
      • 18th Dec White Table
      • 20th Nov Updated Lodge Photo
      • 10th November Remembrance Day March
      • 14th/15th Sept Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge
      • 13th July St Giles BBQ
      • 22nd June 2021 Celebration Ball
      • 15th June Putt & Pint
      • 19th May Skydive John Waller
      • 17th April Meeting
      • 6th April 2019 Litter Pick
      • 20th Feb Lodge Photo
      • 24th Jan COI Meal
      • Prof displayed in the National Gallery
    • 2018 >
      • Close cut for Jenny
      • 19th December 2018 Lodge Photo
      • 11th November Remembrance Day March
      • 29th September Ladies Night
      • 6 day Walk from Newcastle to Solway on Firth following Hadrian's wall
      • 25th March Cheque Presentation Evening
    • 2017 >
      • 18th Oct St Giles Installation
      • Sept 30th St Giles Ladies Night
      • Sept 2nd Lodge BBQ
      • June 23rd & 24th Martin Robinson's 3 Peaks challenge
      • June 10th Walk for Crohn's & Colitis
      • 21st May Michael Perkins, Martin Robinson & John Waller's 30k cycle ride challenge
      • May 19th St Giles Quiz night
    • 2016 >
      • 21st Dec White Table 2016
      • 25th Nov COI meal
      • 19th Oct St Giles Installation
      • Gary Charnocks challenge
      • 12th Nov Go Karts
      • 6th Nov Spice Hut get together
      • 24th Oct Annual Provincial Meeting
      • 18th Oct Lodge BBQ
      • 3rd July Clay Shoot
      • 30th June Freemasonry In the Community
    • 2015 >
      • 21st October Installation Meeting
      • Lodge BBQ
    • 2014 >
      • Lodge BBQ
      • COI meal
      • Visit to the United Grand
    • 2013 >
      • Freemasonry In the Community
    • 2011 >
      • Freemasonry In the Community
    • 2010 >
      • Jenny & Michael's Ladies Festival

​ St Giles Lodge 8555
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Who Was Saint Giles

Festival Day:
1st September.
Born:
Athens, Greece (date unknown).
Died:
in France c. 710-724.
Representation:
arrow; hind; saint accompanied by a hind.
Patronage:
beggars, blacksmiths, breast cancer, breast feeding, cancer patients, cripples, disabled people, Edinburgh Scotland, epilepsy, epileptics, fear of the night, forests, handicapped people, hermits, horses, insanity, 'lepers', leprosy, mental illness, mentally ill people, paupers, rams, spur makers, sterility, woods.
Little is known of St. Giles (Aegidus in Latin records) except that he may have been born a wealthy aristocratic Greek. When his parents died, Giles used his fortune to help the poor. He became a worker of miracles, and to avoid followers and adulation, he left Greece c. 683 for France where he lived as a hermit in a cave in the deep forests by River Rhône, the mouth of which was guarded by a thick thorn bush. He lived a lifestyle so impoverished that, legend says, God sent a hind to him to nourish him with her milk.
One day after he had lived there for several years in meditation, a royal hunting party chased the hind into Giles' cave. One hunter shot an arrow into the thorn bush hoping to hit the deer, but hit Giles in the leg instead, crippling him (Some legends have it that the arrow pierced his hand or his arm as he held onto the deer to protect her). The king sent doctors to care for the Saint's wound, and though Giles begged to be left alone, the king came often to see him.
From this his fame as sage and miracle worker spread, and would-be followers gathered near the cave. The French king, because of his admiration, built the Monastery of Saint Gilles du Gard at the end of the 11th Century for these followers on the pilgrimage route from Arles to St. James of Compostela in the north of Spain. Giles became its first Abbot, establishing his own discipline there. A small town grew up around the Monastery. When Giles died, his grave became a shrine and place of pilgrimage; the Monastery later became a Benedictine house.
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 [or hand/arm], led to the 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 that cripples could reach them easily. On their passage to Tyburn for execution, convicts were allowed to stop at Saint Giles' 'Leper' 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." It was certainly only on such a journey that many would have taken refreshment from a 'leper' house! Once in Scotland during the 17th Century his relics were stolen from a church and a great riot occurred.
In Spain, shepherds consider Giles the protector of rams. It was formerly the custom to wash the rams and colour 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 1st September, attired in full costume, sheepskin coats, staves, and crooks, to attend Mass with their best rams, an event that marks the beginning of autumn festivals, marked by processions and dancing in the fields.
St. Giles is known as one of the 'Fourteen Holy Helpers' - a group of saints invoked with special confidence because they proved themselves efficacious helpers in adversity and difficulties. Though each has a separate feast or memorial day, the group was collectively venerated on 8th August. However, this feast was dropped and suppressed in the 1969 reform of the calendar.
The 'Fourteen Holy Helpers' are invoked as a group because of the Black Plague which devastated Europe from 1346 to 1349. The fourteen saints and their attributes are:
St. Achatius
(helpful advocate in death) - against headaches.
St. Barbara
(mighty patroness of the dying) - against fever and sudden death.
St. Blaise
(zealous Bishop and benefactor of the poor) - against ills of the throat.
St. Catherine of Alexandria
(victorious defender of the Faith and of purity) - against sudden death.
St. Christopher
(mighty intercessor in dangers) - against plagues and sudden death.
St. Cyriacus
(terror of Hell) - against temptations, especially at time of death.
St. Denis (or Dionysius)
(shining mirror or faith and confidence) - against headaches.
St. Erasmus
(mighty protector of the oppressed) - against abdominal maladies and for the protection of domestic animals.
St. Eustachius
(exemplar of patience in adversity) - against family trouble.
St. George
(valiant Martyr of Christ) - for protection of domestic animals.
St. Giles
(despiser of the world) - against plagues and for a good confession (!).
St. Margaret of Antioch
(valiant champion of the Faith) - for safe childbirth.
St. Pantaleon
(miraculous exemplar of charity) - for physicians and for the protection of domestic animals.
St. Vitus
(special protector of chastity) - against epilepsy, and for the protection of domestic animals.
As devotion spread, Pope Nicholas V attached indulgences to devotion of the Fourteen Holy Helpers in the 16th Century, but these are no longer attached under the modern norms and grants.
 


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  • Home
  • About
    • Where we meet
    • The History of Freemasonry
    • Hallstone Jewel
    • The History of St Giles
    • Who was Saint Giles
    • The History of Holy Royal Arch
    • St Giles 8555 Website Security Policy
  • Our Charities
    • Charities we support
    • St Giles MCF 2021 Festival Challenge >
      • 21st May Michael Perkins, Martin Robinson & John Waller's 30k cycle ride challenge
      • 16th Nov Gary Charnock's challenge
  • Interested in Joining?
    • How do I join St Giles
    • What is Freemasonry
    • Next step the Royal Arch >
      • Holy Royal Arch
      • WHY THE ROYAL ARCH?
  • Events
    • 2020 >
      • 21 st October St Giles Installation Meeting
      • 19th Sept St Giles Ladies Festival
      • 7th June St Giles BBQ
      • 8th May VE Day Bletchley Masonic centre
      • 14th March Martin Robinson Base Camp Trek
      • 18th Feb Present a donation to SuperShoes
      • 30th Jan COI Meal
    • 2019 >
      • 18th Dec White Table
      • 20th Nov Updated Lodge Photo
      • 10th November Remembrance Day March
      • 14th/15th Sept Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge
      • 13th July St Giles BBQ
      • 22nd June 2021 Celebration Ball
      • 15th June Putt & Pint
      • 19th May Skydive John Waller
      • 17th April Meeting
      • 6th April 2019 Litter Pick
      • 20th Feb Lodge Photo
      • 24th Jan COI Meal
      • Prof displayed in the National Gallery
    • 2018 >
      • Close cut for Jenny
      • 19th December 2018 Lodge Photo
      • 11th November Remembrance Day March
      • 29th September Ladies Night
      • 6 day Walk from Newcastle to Solway on Firth following Hadrian's wall
      • 25th March Cheque Presentation Evening
    • 2017 >
      • 18th Oct St Giles Installation
      • Sept 30th St Giles Ladies Night
      • Sept 2nd Lodge BBQ
      • June 23rd & 24th Martin Robinson's 3 Peaks challenge
      • June 10th Walk for Crohn's & Colitis
      • 21st May Michael Perkins, Martin Robinson & John Waller's 30k cycle ride challenge
      • May 19th St Giles Quiz night
    • 2016 >
      • 21st Dec White Table 2016
      • 25th Nov COI meal
      • 19th Oct St Giles Installation
      • Gary Charnocks challenge
      • 12th Nov Go Karts
      • 6th Nov Spice Hut get together
      • 24th Oct Annual Provincial Meeting
      • 18th Oct Lodge BBQ
      • 3rd July Clay Shoot
      • 30th June Freemasonry In the Community
    • 2015 >
      • 21st October Installation Meeting
      • Lodge BBQ
    • 2014 >
      • Lodge BBQ
      • COI meal
      • Visit to the United Grand
    • 2013 >
      • Freemasonry In the Community
    • 2011 >
      • Freemasonry In the Community
    • 2010 >
      • Jenny & Michael's Ladies Festival