Saint Giles

Martyrdom

SAINT GILES
Abbot

TWELVE HOLY BROTHERS
Martyrs

SIMPLE / WHITE
Tradition tells us that in the seventh century the Athenian Giles left his native Greece for a rough hermitage in far-distant Gaul. Hunters of a local ruler accidentally wounded Giles as he was shielding a fleeing deer. The ruler, Flavius said to him, "This must be the holy Giles! Come out of your hermitage, servant of God, and teach my Franks about heaven. They need you more than this forest does." Flavius built a monastery on the site of the hermitage; and under Giles' leadership it became a center of civilization and Christianity for all that sector of Gaul.

Mass of an ABBOT, except

COLLECT
Let the blessed abbot Giles intercede for us, O Lord. May his prayers win us Your help, since our own actions cannot merit it. Through our Lord . . .

Commemoration of the TWELVE HOLY BROTHERS
These fourth-century apostles refused to offer sacrifice to pagan gods. After imprisonment in an African jail, they died for Christ in pagan spectacles at various places along the Italian coast.

O Lord, may the martyrdom of these brothers warm our hearts with joy, enliven our faith by an increase of virtue, and comfort us by the added number of intercessors we have in heaven. Through our Lord . . .

SECRET
May the offerings we lay upon Your sacred altar, O Lord, bring us closer to our salvation through the intercession of the blessed abbot Giles. Through our Lord . . .

Commemoration of the TWELVE HOLY BROTHERS
O Lord, grant that we may celebrate these sacred mysteries with devotion to honor Your holy martyrs, so that through this sacrifice we may have new help and a deeper joy. Through our Lord . . .

POSTCOMMUNION 
May the Sacrament we have received and the prayers of the blessed abbot Giles protect us, O Lord. Grant also that we may imitate the virtues of this saint who is our intercessor with You in heaven. Through our Lord . . .

Commemoration of the TWELVE HOLY BROTHERS
O Almighty God, grant that we may grow in grace by emulating the faith of these martyrs whose memory we honor by the reception of Your Sacrament. Through our Lord . . .