3-097-613 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Saint Giles the Abbot, 1616. Giles the Hermit (c650-c710) was a Greek Christian ascetic active in France. The Abbey of Saint-Gilles in southern France, a monastery purportedly founded by Giles, became a pilgrimage centre and a stop on the Camino de Santiago. He is depicted with his symbol, the hind (female deer). This painting has always been considered part of the series of Benedictine saints and venerables from the Museo de la Trinidad, and it has been reasonably assumed that it could have come from the Benedictine monastery of San Martín in Madrid, with which the artist was closely associated.