Saint Egidio in the art: the tender face of a friend of the defenceless and of the Word of God

The cult linked to Sant’Egidio, saint of the difficult causes and protector of the weak, has assumed a European dimension in the X-XII centuries. There are several representations of the saint, especially in Flemish art, but not only: you can see some representations in the photo gallery below. He is represented with the doe persecuted by the king's arrow, which the saint protects with his hand. In the iconography, as in the canvas preserved in the church of Sant'Egidio in Rome, the saint is depicted with the Bible held in the hand in which he is wounded by the arrow, to indicate the link between the Word of God and the defense of the weakest.