This book is an accurate Italian edition of old texts about the life of Sant'Egidio, a saint with a European scale popularity who lived between the 7th and 8th centuries and died in 720. It was a difficult time in Europe's long history. Egidio was from a distant land, from Greece, and you could say that he was a refugee who narrowly escaped the dangers of the sea. It is a story that has been going on for so many migrants to the present day because of that 'civilised' Europe that does nothing but look the other way when faced with boats of refugees. It thus gives up thinking about its own future. It thus refuses to think about its own future. Life in that time was marked by epidemics, wars, hunger. The European population plummeted less than half in five centuries, from 200 to 700, from 67 to 27 million. Why don't we learn from history?
Sant'Egidio is a meek man of prayer, he is not afraid to confront power with no weapons, only with the weak force of encounter. Iconography portrays him as the one who saves a meek and humble doe from the arrow of a powerful king. His hand is wounded and his gesture stops the king, who is intimidated and disturbed by his own violent gesture. Over the years, the fame of Sant'Egidio spread. Monarchs regarded him with a sense of awe and asked him for advice. He gave hope to men and women full of fear. Egidio transmitted a peaceful relationship with other men and with nature in a world apparently dominated by uncontrollable forces.
The authors have collected, together with the Life of the saint, some other documents about him: the liturgical office for celebrating his feast day, edited by Fulbert of Chartres, around the year 1000; the book of Miracles, which a monk of Saint-Gilles narrated in the 12th century, for the first time translated into Italian, and finally the Liber Sancti Jacobi, a sort of guide for pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, as Saint-Gilles is on the way.
We present the contributions on the text by several experts, to help better understand the Saint's figure and the value of this publication.
