Our Venerable Fathers Giles and Arcanus of Sansepolcro
Life
Giles and Arcanus are remembered as the pilgrim founders of the monastic community in central Italy that grew into the town of Borgo San Sepolcro (Sansepolcro) in Tuscany. According to tradition they undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and, on their return, established a monastic life around a chapel that became a Benedictine abbey.
Little secure biographical detail survives for the two founders, and the sources differ on when they lived: some place their pilgrimage in the mid-tenth century and their deaths around 1050, while others describe them as ninth-century pilgrims. They are commemorated together on September 1.
Contributions & Legacy
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Pilgrimage and Foundation
By tradition the two pilgrims travelled to the Holy Land and gathered relics, among them a stone from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Returning to the region of upper Tuscany, they built a chapel dedicated to Saint Leonard and established a monastic way of life there.
The stone brought from the Holy Sepulchre was installed in the monastery and gave the place its name, Sansepolcro, meaning 'Holy Sepulchre.' According to one account, Giles was born in Spain and Arcanus in Italy, though the sources preserve few personal details about either man.
Legacy
The monastery the two founded became a popular pilgrimage site and was in time raised to the rank of the Benedictine Abbey of Sansepolcro, known as the Badia. The first historical mentions of Sansepolcro date to 1012, referring to the construction of the monastery.
The settlement that gathered around the abbey developed into the town of Borgo San Sepolcro, which became a prosperous and influential centre in Tuscany. The founders are honoured as the origin of both the community and its name.
