“5:43. You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour, and hate thy enemy.
5:44. But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate
you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you:
5:45. That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who
maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the
just and the unjust.
5:46. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have?
do not even the publicans this?
The publicans. . .These were the gatherers of the public taxes: a set of
men, odious and “infamous among the Jews, for their extortions and
injustice.
5:47. And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not
also the heathens this?
5:48. Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is
perfect.
St Giles, an Athenian, fled to the south of France, where he lived as a hermit in a vast forest. Discovered by King Theodoric, he founded a renowned monastery and was so famous on account of his miracles that a great number of churches were dedicated to him. He died in the sixth century.
