SAINTS DAYS COMMEMORATED IN SEPTEMBER
1 September St Giles ( or Aegidius , died about 710 )
He was one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages . He may have been born in Athens and became a hermit in France . He built the monastery St Gilles near Arles .
This was on the pilgrim route to Santiago and to the Holy Land and legends attracted pilgrims . St Giles was included in the list of 14 helpers , but was not martyred . He became the patron saint of beggars , cripples and lepers and was invoked against cancer and night terrors .
His cult spread all over Europe , he is the Patron Saint of Edinburgh . Most of the saint ’ s bones were taken to Saint Sermin in Toulouse after his monastery was destroyed .
4 September St Hildegard of Bingen ( 1098-1179 )
She has in recent years become something of a cult figure through the wide dissemination of her music , which was only one of the accomplishments of this remarkable woman . The daughter of a German nobleman she was educated by an ‘ anchoress ’ named Jutta and followed her as abbess . From the age of three she had visions and was encouraged to write them down . Her constant theme is the live-giving power of God . Often verging on pantheism , she has an appeal to modern ‘ deep ecology ’ spirituality . She had a practical side which showed when she had water piped to all offices of her community on the Rupertsberg near Bingen on the Rhine .
She wrote a book on natural history and one on medicine , which described the circulation of the blood five centuries before Harvey . She produced words and music for hymns and canticles as well as a cantata for the nuns to perform and she preached in public . On top of this she wrote to everyone from the Pope and kings downward . She died peacefully aged over eighty , miracles were reported at her tomb and a cult developed . This was given public approval by Pope John XXII in 1324 , but she was never officially canonized .
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