EGIDIO di ASSISI, Blessed. - The third companion of s. Francesco d'Assisi, whom he joined about 1208. He made great pilgrimages, earning his bread by work, to Rome, to S. Giacomo di Compostella, and to the Holy Land. Thereafter he withdrew to the hermitages of Umbria, especially to Monteripido outside Perugia, where he died on 23 Apr. 1262 (1261). A great contemplative and ecstatic. His cult was confirmed by Pio VI in 1777. Feast on 23 Apr.
His companions collected his Sayings or spiritual teachings, at times full of wit and simple wisdom, Dicta B. Aegidii Assizionis (Bibliotheca Franciscana ascetica medii aevi, 3, Quaracchi 1905), Italian trans., with good studies, edited by N. Vian: Beato E. di Assisi, I Detti (Brescia 1923).
BIBL.: The Life attributed to frate Leone, in Analecta Franciscana, 3 (Quaracchi 1897), pp. 74-115, and a shorter recension in L. Lemmens, Scripto fr. Leoni, ibid. 1901, pp. 37-63; W. Seton, Blessed Giles of Assisi, Manchester 1918. Liviole Oliver