Saint Giles

Giles lived as a hermit or monk along the lower Rhône, most likely in the 7th century, around 650 to 710. The facts of his life dissolved into hagiography early, leaving more story than record. Still, his cult spread wide. A monastery supposedly founded by him became the seed of a town that took his name, and that town became a pilgrimage centre and a waypoint on the Way of Saint James. The devotion outlasted the man by a millennium.