Gilles de Tyr born in Saumur had a brilliant career. When he was a priest, Louis IX the future Saint Louis noticed him at the Fêtes given in Saumur in June 1241. In 1248, Gilles accompanied the King in his crusade to Egypt and after the catch of the Damiette harbour, he became an archbishop.
In 1252 he is appointed Archbishop of Tyr on the lebanese coast. He died in 1266. He wanted his body to be brought back to Saumur and buried under a slab in the chancel of Notre Dame de Nantilly.
In 1613 a grave-digger found his coffin there. It contained his body in papal clothes, his chalice, his name engraved on a plate, his enamelled and champlevé brass crozier. Around 1830 the historian Jean-François Bodin had it hung on a wall in the church. It stayed there until 1988 when it was stolen. In 2006, a remarkable wooden copy made by a parishioner replaced it. You can notice Adam and Eve surrounded with the snake on each side of the Good and Evil tree .
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