GILLESPIE
560
6ILLIS
the solitary, and would have heaped every honour
upon him; but the humility of the saint was proof
against all temptations. He consented, however, to
receive thenceforth some disciples, and built a mon-
astery in his valley, which he placed under the rule of
St. Benedict. Here he died in the early part of the
eighth century, with the highest repute for sanctity
and miracles.
His cult spread rapidly far and wide throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, as is witnessed by the numberless churches and monasteries dedicated to him in France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and the British Isles; by the numerous MSS. in prose and verse commemorating his virtues and miracles; and especially by tlie vast concourse of pilgrims who from all Europe flocked to his shrine. In 1562 the relics of the saint were secretly transferred to Toulouse to save them from the liideous excesses of the Huguenots who were then ravaging France, and the pilgrimage in consequence declined. With the restoration of a great part of the relics to the church of St. Giles in 1862, and the discovery of his former tomb there in 1865, the pilgrimages have recommenced. Besides the city of St-Gilles, which sprang up around the abbey, nineteen other cities bear his name. St-Gilles, Toulouse, and a multitude of French cities, Antwerp, Bruges, and Tournai in Belgium, Cologne and Bam- berg in Germany, Prague and Gran in Austria-Hun- gary, Rome and Bologna in Italy, possess celebrated relics of St. Giles. In medieval art he is a frequent subject, being always depicted with his symbol, the hind. His feast is kept on 1 September. On this day there are also commemorated another St. Giles, an Italian hermit of the tenth century (Acta SS., XLI, 305), and a Blessed Giles, d. about 1203, a Cistercian abbot of Castaneda in the Diocese of Astorga, Spain (op. cit., XLI, 308).
Acta SS.. XLI, 284-304; Analccta BoUandiana, VIII, 103; IX, 393; Butler, Lives of the Saints, III, 40i; Guehin, Les Petits BolUmdistes, X, 401.
John F. X. Murphy.
Gillespie, (1) Eliza Maria (in religion Mother Mary OF St. Angela), b. in Washington county, Pennsyl- vania, 21 February, 1824; d. at St. Mary's convent, Notre Dame, Indiana, 4 March, 1SS7. She w^as the daughter of John Purcell Gillespie and Mary Madeleine Miers, the latter a convert to the Church. After her husband's death, Mrs. Gillespie in 1838 went with her three children to her former home, Lancaster, Ohio. Eliza Maria first attended the school of the Dominican sisters at Somerset, Ohio, and completed her studies at the Visitation Convent at Georgetown, D. C, in 1844. Her kinsman, Thomas Ewing of Ohio, was then eminent in public life, and this fact, joined to her beauty and accomplishments, made her at once a prominent figure in the social life of Washington and of Ohio. Her sympathy was roused by the sufferings of the Irish people during the famine, and she and her cousin, Eleanor Ewing, by their joint efforts, collected a large sum of money for their relief. In 1853 she felt the call to the religious life and determined to enter the order of the Sisters of Mercy. She went to Notre Dame, Indiana, to bid farewell to her brother, who was there engaged in hisstudies for the priesthood, and here she met Rev. Edward Sorin, provincial of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in the United States, through whose influence she was led to cast her lot with this small and struggling community. She received the religious habit in 1853, taking the name of Sister Mary of St. Angela. She was then sent to France, when^ slio ma<le her novitiate at the con- vent of the Sisters of Bon Secours, at Caen, making her religious profession by special dispensation 8 December, 1853, at the hands of Very Rev. Father Moreau, the founder of the congregation.
In January, 1855, Sister Angela returned to America and was made superior of St. Mary's Academy at
Bertrand, Michigan. On 15 August, 1855, she trans-
ferred the academy to its present location near Notre
Dame, Indiana, and procured for it a charter from
the Indiana legislature. When the Civil War broke
out Mother Angela organized a corps of the Sisters of
the Holy Cross to care for the sick and wounded
soldiers. She established hospitals, both temporary
and permanent, and, when generals failed to secure
needed aid for the sick and wounded, she made flying
trips to Washington on their behalf. Her head-
quarters were at Cairo, Illinois, in ill-iirovidcd build-
ings. Tlie close of the war left her physically enfee-
bled, but she returned to St. Mary's anil resumed her
educational work, and compiled two series of readers
for use in Catholic schools, the "Metropolitan" and
"Excelsior".
In 1869, at the advice of Bishop Luers of Fort Wayne, the Sisters of the Holy Cross in the United States determined on a separation from the members of the congregation in France. This was effected, with Mother Angela as superior of the new commvmity. Under her rule thirty-five institutions were founded throughout the United States, among them St. Cecilia's and Holy Cross Academies, Washington, D.C.; St. Mary's Academy, Salt Lake City, Utah; St. Mary's Academy, Austin, Texas; St. Catherine's Normal Institute, Baltimore, Maryland; and Hawke's Hospital, Mt. Carmel, Columbus, Ohio. Mother Angela was the moving spirit in the establishment in 1865 of the "Ave Maria", to whose pages she made many contributions. On laying down the burdens of her superiorship, Mother Angela was chosen mistress of novices at St. Mary's, and in September, 1886, she was again made the head of St. Mary's Academy, at which post she remained until her death.
Jn Memoriam, Mother Mary of Si. Angela (Notre Dame, Indi- ana, 1887).
(2) NealHenry Gillespie, brother of theforegoing; b. in Washington county. Pa., 19 January, 1831; d. at St. Mary's, Notre Dame, Indiana, 12 November, 1874. He was one of the first students of the Uni- versity of Notre Dame, Indiana, and in 1849 received the first degree conferred by that institution. On 1 September, 1851, he entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Holy Cross at Notre Dame, Ind., made his religious profession 15 August, 1853, and was ordained priest 29 June, 1856, at Rome, where he had been sent to complete his theological studies. Returning to America, he filled the post of vice- president and director of studies at Notre Dame (1856-59), and then was appointed president of the College of St. Mary of the Lake, Chicago, Illinois. In 1863 he was called to the mother-house of the con- gregation at Le Mans, France, where he remained until 1866. He then returned to Notre Dame, and assumed the editorship of the "Ave Maria", which position he filled until his death. In addition to his editorial labours, he was a frequent contributor to its pages, as well as to many other Catholic periodicals.
John G. Ewing.
Gillis, James, Scottish bishop; b. at Montreal, Can- ada, 7 April, 1802; d. at Edinburgh, 24 February, 1864. He was the only son of a native of Banffshire, who had emigrated to Canada and married there. Edueateil in the Sulpieian college at Montreal, where he acquired a perfect knowledge of French, he came to Scotland in 1S16, and next year entered the semi- nary at Aquhorties, studying afterwards at .St. Nicho- las's College in Paris, and at Issy. He was ordained priest on 9 June, 1827, and was stationed at Edin- burgh, where his preaching soon attracted attention. He visited France in 1829 to collect money for his church, and again in 1831 to rai.se funds for the foundation of an Ursuliiie convent — the first religious house established in Scotland since the sixteenth cen- tury — which was openetl in 1835. In July, 1838, he
