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GILE, GYLE (saint). Giles is the English name for Aegidius, an Athenian who built a hermitage near Rome, where he died c. A.D. 720. There are no historical sources for his life, and his feast has been removed from the church calendar. During the Middle Ages St. Giles was regarded as the patron saint of blacksmiths and of outcasts such as lepers, cripples, and beggars (Legenda aurea CXXX). His most famous shrine in England is at Cripplegate, London.

"By Seint Gile" occurs as a rhyming tag, CYT 1185; "Be Seynt Gyle," also a rhyming tag, occurs HF III.1183.

F. Brittain, Saint Giles; A. Haskell, "The Saint Giles Oath in the Canon's Yeoman's Tale." Essays on Chaucer's Saints, 26-29; Jacobus de Voragine, GL, trans. G. Ryan and H. Ripperger, 516-519; ibid., LA, ed. Th. Graesse, 582-584; The South-English Legendary, ed. C. D'Evelyn and A.J. Mill, II: 384-389.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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