The tomb of Saint Egidio , venerated in an abbey in the Nîmes region of France, probably dates from the Merovingian period, although the inscription is no earlier than the 10th century, the year in which the Life of the Holy Abbot, woven with prodigies, was also written. It is from this moment that we begin to try to reconstruct the life of Saint Egidio, which popular legend places in a forest on the banks of the Rhône in southern France, where he settled as a hermit to live with greater dedication to the service of God. He spent his time in prayer, austerity, and fasting. He ate herbs, roots, and wild fruits; he slept on the bare earth with a stone as his pillow. Moved by so many sacrifices, the Lord sent Egidio a doe that supplied him with milk every day. But during a hunting trip, the hermit was discovered by Flavius, king of the Goths, and fell into his favor. In reality, the sovereign shot an arrow to shoot the doe and mistakenly wounded the saint, beside whom the animal had taken refuge. A friendship grew between the two, and the king, who had taken pity on everything that had happened, decided to offer Egidio a piece of land on which to build an abbey. Here, the anchorite, in exchange for his irretrievably lost solitude, had the satisfaction of seeing an active community of monks flourish, of which he was the spiritual father until his death on September 1, 720. The monastery took the name “Abbey of Saint Egidio.”

Devotion and miracles also in Italy

Together with the monks, Saint Egidio  undertook a great task of evangelization and civilization in the region, present-day Languedoc. He tilled the fields, fertilized lands previously uncultivated, opened trade routes, and especially preached the Gospel, converting sinners and inducing them to penitence. Because of the many miracles he performed, Egidio became known throughout France under the name of the “saint miracle worker.” His cult spread, as numerous testimonies show, even to Belgium, Holland, and Italy. Among his emblematic sites are Tolfa in Lazio, and Latronico, a small center in Basilicata where the “miracle of manna,” attributed to the holy hermit, is renewed every three centuries.

In the Italian region of Basilicata, on one or more Fridays in March, a colorless liquid begins to “exude” from the fresco depicting Saint Egidio performing penance in a hermitage. The event, which chronicles reported as early as 1709, was decisively confirmed in 1716, when, according to accounts, the townspeople, concerned about the threat of natural disasters, prayed to Saint Egidio to make them cease. The prayers were answered, and the liquid likely represented a sign of the “miracle.” On February 22, 1728, the bishop issued a decree allowing the liquid to be collected whenever it appeared. To this day, the mysterious event is repeated almost every year, and people eagerly await it.