Blessed Giles of Assisi
Brother Giles was the third companion to join St Francis at the Portiuncula,
outside Assisi in 1209. As a young man, he dedicated himself to itinerant preaching like all of the early franciscans. However, after St Francis' death in 1226, he turned to an eremetical lifestyle. He moved to an isolated cell on what later became the site of the Convento di Monteripido, and died there in 1262.
Giles had wished to be buried at the Portiuncula, but the Commune posted guards to ensure that his body
remained in Perugia. He was duly buried at San Francesco al Prato, which soon became devoted to his cult. This was despite the fact that Giles had warned
them that he would never be canonised and never perform posthumous
miracles. Indeed, he had quoted the words of Christ as a
warning to the Perugians not to expect posthumous miracles: “An evil
and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to
it except the sign of Jonah” (Matt: 13, 39). When an early Christian
sarcophagus bearing reliefs of the story of Jonah and the
whale was discovered soon after in the Campo d’ Orto (now Piazza San Francesco - see Walk III around Perugia), this was taken as a miracle. The earlier occupants were
removed and the sarcophagus was re-used for Brother Giles.
The
Franciscan Fr. Salimbene recorded in his “Chronicle” (1280s) that:
“Brother Giles ... lies in a stone tomb in the church of the Brothers”,
a reference to San Francesco al Prato. This sarcophagus was probably located
in the left transept and seems to have been raised on columns so that pilgrims and
those seeking miraculous cures could clamber under and around it.
In 1439, Bishop Giovanni Baglioni put in hand a renovation of the shrine, probably as part of a conscious revival of the cult.
The sarcophagus was placed under an altar in the left transept that was probably re-dedicated to the Blessed Giles.
The Commune paid for a fine metal grill to surround the reconstituted shrine.
An altarpiece (see below) was commissioned.
A new altarpiece was commissioned for the altar in ca. 1513. This altarpiece and the sarcophagus were moved to another altar in the transept after the rebuilding of the church in the 1730s. The relics and the sarcophagus seem to have been separated in 1781:
The relics were translated in succession: to the Palazzo Vescovile (in 1872); to the Duomo (in 1880); to the Convento di Monteripido (in 1920); and finally to the Oratorio di San Bernardino (in 1936). The original high altar of the oratory was removed at this point and a stucco altar was built under which the relics were placed.
The sarcophagus was moved to the Museo Civico in 1872 and remained there until 1946, when it was reunited with the relics in the Oratorio di san Bernardino, where it replaced the stucco altar.
Altarpieces from the Altare di Sant' Egidio
Altarpiece of the Blessed Giles (ca. 1439)
This altarpiece, which is attributed to Mariano d’ Antonio, was commissioned in ca. 1439 as part of the renovation of the shrine in the left transept of San Francesco al Prato . (According to tradition, it wa painted on the wooden panel upon which Giles’ body had been carried from his hermitage to the church for burial). The altarpiece was moved to the sacristy in ca. 1513 and is now in the Galleria Nazionale [where ???].
The altarpiece depicts the standing figure of the Blessed Giles in a fictive aedicule,
with three scenes from his life and posthumous miracles to each side. The format used for the altarpiece was consciously archaic and based on that
of a number of dossals that had been produced in the 13th century to celebrate the
canonisation of St Francis. One of the better-preserved narrative scenes, which depicts a miracle
occurring beside the sarcophagus shortly after Giles had died, is
important for our understanding of the original arrangement of the cult
site.
Crucifixion (ca. 1513)
This panel by Pompeo Cocchi replaced the altarpiece described above in the left transept of San Francesco al Prato . It was taken to France in 1797 and is now in the Louvre, Paris.
The altarpece depicts the Crucifixion with
two angels set in a landscape, with the Virgin, St John the Evangelist
and the Blessed Giles kneeling at the foot of the Cross.
Return to the Convento di Monteripido.
Return to San Francesco al Prato.
Return to the Oratorio di San Bernardino .