Genevieve (; ; 419/422 AD – 502/512 AD) was a consecrated virgin, and is one of the two patron saints of Paris in the Catholic Church, and she is also venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Her feast day is on 3 January.

Recognized for her religious devotion at a young age, she met Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes when she was a child and dedicated herself to a virginal life. Miracles and healings began to happen around her early on and she became known for changing the weather. She moved from Nanterre, her hometown, to Paris, after her parents died and became known for her piety, healings, and miracles, although the residents of Paris resented her and would have killed her if not for Germanus's interventions. Her prayers saved Paris from being destroyed by the Huns under Attila in 451 and other wars; her organisation of the city's women was called a "prayer marathon" and Genevieve's "most famous feat". A candle is one of her most common attributes; she is sometimes depicted with the devil, who is said to have blown out her candle when she prayed at night. When Genevieve was seven years old (), Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes stopped at Nanterre on their way to Britain from Gaul to put an end to the Pelagian heresy. Germanus saw Genevieve in a crowd of villagers who gathered to meet and obtain Germanus's and Lupus's blessing and observed her thoughtfulness and piety. After speaking to her and encouraging her "to persevere in the path of virtue", and that by her example, lead and teach many consecrated virgins.thumb|The Consecration of Ste. Genevieve; painting by M. Basterot in the Church of Ste. Geneviève, Missouri

thumb|Genevieve, with [[Germanus of Auxerre, created by sculptor Henri Chapu (c. 1875)]]

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Germanus gave Genevieve a medal engraved with a cross and instructed her to wear it instead of pearls and gold jewelry to help her to remember her commitment to Christ. It is unknown when Genevieve received the consecration of virgins; some sources state that she received her veil from Pope Gregory I, while others state that she, along with two companions, received them from the Bishop of Paris when she was 15 years old. The Nanterre well was a popular site of veneration well into the 15th century. By the 16th century, many miracles occurred at the site and it was one of the major pilgrimage sites in the Ile-de-France.

In the 1700s, an annual pilgrimage to Nanterre was celebrated the first Sunday after Easter and many of the well's visitors were members of the French royal family. For example, Anne of Austria had a "special devotion" to Genevieve and would make yearly pilgrimages on January 3, Genevieve's feast day, to the well in Nanterre and to pray for the birth of a male heir. After Anne's son was born, she visited Nanterre to thank Genevieve and in 1642, donated the cornerstone for a new seminary there. According to Sluhovsky, other fountains and springs were associated with Genevieve and were attributed with healing powers, including against high fevers, into the early modern period. In 1599, the Swiss physician and writer Thomas Platter recorded a possibly earlier water miracle: when Genevieve was still in school, a bridge appeared over a ditch filled with water, and then disappeared after she crossed it. Platter argued that this miracle was the reason the residents of Paris ascribed Genevieve with the power to change the weather.

Later life and death

After her parents' deaths, Genevieve went to live with her godmother in Paris, devoting herself to prayer and charitable works. She became severely paralysed and almost died; after she recovered, she reported that she had seen visions of heaven. In Paris, she became admired for her piety and devotion to works of charity, and practiced fasting, "severe corporal austerities", She devoutly kept vigil each Saturday night, "following the teaching of the Lord concerning the servant who awaited the master's return from a wedding".

Genevieve's neighbours, "filled with jealousy and envy", The bishop of Paris appointed her to care for other consecrated virgins; "by her instruction and example she led them to a high degree of sanctity". According to her vita, Genevieve persuaded the women of Paris to undertake a series of fasts, prayers, and vigils "in order to ward off the threatening disaster, as Esther and Judith had done in the past". McNamara, who translated Genevieve's vita, calls it a "prayer marathon" and Genevieve's "most famous feat". Attawater states that Genevieve asked Clovis to free prisoners and be lenient to lawbreakers. According to Farmer, she "won Childeric's respect". Back in Paris, she gave food to the poor first.

Genevieve was also involved in two major construction projects in Paris. She had a strong devotion to Saint Denis of Paris, the city's first bishop, and wanted to build a basilica in his honour in 475, even though the local priests had few resources. She told them to go to the bridge of Paris, where they found an abandoned lime kiln, which provided the building materials for the basilica. After praying all night, one of the priests promised to raise the funds needed to hire workers, and carpenters donated their time to gather wood and other resources. When the workers ran out of water to drink, Genevieve prayed and made the sign of the cross over a vessel, and water was miraculously provided. The basilica was later called the Priory of Saint Denis de Strata.

Genevieve's vita states that "she passed over in ripe old age, full of virtue"; Healings took place at her shrine after Genevieve's death; oil that was kept in the Abbey of Saint Genevieve, which was built early in the 6th century, was reported to heal blindness as late as the 9th century. Additional miracles experienced by pilgrims to her shrine were recorded into the 14th century. Similar to the miracles that occurred during Genevieve's lifetime, there were reports of miracles such as the healing of eye disease, paralysis, the plague, and high fever.

Miracles

According to McNamara, during the Franks' many sieges of Paris, Genevieve had to convince them "that she and her God were allies worth having". McNamara also states that Genevieve "aligned with the poor and the conquered against unharnessed secular power". Later stories about this event report that a demon was trying to extinguish the candle and that an angel protected her. According to Sluhovsky, the residents of Paris were familiar with this story because an angel, looking over her right shoulder, and a demon, looking over her left shoulder, were featured with her in the most common iconographic representations of Genevieve, including in several late medieval and early modern drawings, miniatures, and engravings. The image also appeared in the earliest surviving statues and miniatures of her, including her statue at the Louvre, created in the 13th century, and a miniature at her abbey.

Genevieve's vita states that when a woman stole Genevieve's shoes, the woman was struck blind when she arrived at her home; someone led her back to Genevieve, who healed her after she asked for her forgiveness. Her vita also reports that Genevieve was able to discern that a young woman was lying about her chastity and that "she restored vision, strength, and life to various people". Genevieve also healed a nine-year-old girl who lived in Lyon and healed, by the laying on of her hands, a young girl who had not been able to walk for two years. Also during Easter, she healed a blind woman with prayers and with the sign of the cross. She healed a man from Meaux who had a withered hand and arm; she prayed for him, touched his arm and joints, and made the sign of the cross over him; he was restored to health in 30 minutes. She released twelve people who lived in Paris of demon possession; she ordered them to go to the Basilica of Saint-Denis and healed them after making the sign of the cross over each of them. She healed a city official, who had been deaf for four years, by touching his ears while making the sign of the cross over them. Her vita describes miracles that happened in Orléans through her intercessions, including raising the daughter of a family's matriarch from the dead and healing a man who became ill because he refused to forgive his servant. Genevieve then visited Tours, "braving many perils on the River Loure"; she was greeted there by a crowd of people possessed by demons, whom she healed, with prayers and the sign of the cross, in the Basilica of Saint Martin. Some victims reported that Genevieve's fingers "blazed up one by one with celestial fire" while healing them. She also healed three women of demon possession privately, in their homes, and at the request of their husbands. Genevieve's vita reports that in Tours, "everyone honored her in her comings and goings".

The parents of a young boy brought her their son, whom she healed of blindness, deafness, and paralysis by making the sign of the cross and rubbing oil on him. Her prayers protected a harvest near Meaux from a whirlwind during a rainstorm; neither the reapers nor the crops were touched by any water. Another time, while traveling by ship on the Seine, her prayers saved the ship; her vita makes the connection between this and the miracle of Christ calming the storm in the Gospels.

Influence

thumb|"Vision of Saint Genevieve" (1892) by [[Alphonse Osbert, which depicts Genevieve as a shepherdess]]

By the 14th century, Genevieve was recognized as the patron saint and a protector of Paris, which Sluhovsky finds remarkable because she was a woman.

According to Sluhovsky, Genevieve's cult experienced renewed popularity when she represented Catholic opposition to Republicanism. She was invoked to save France during World War I and a procession carrying her relics occurred to prevent the German occupation of France during World War II. Also according to Sluhovsky, although Genevieve remains as the patron saint of Paris, her cult has never returned to its pre-Revolutionary popularity and unifying status.

References

Works cited

  • "Genovefa (423-502)". Sainted Women of the Dark Ages. Edited and translated from Acta Sanctorum by McNamara, Jo Ann; Halborg, John E. Durham; with Whatley, E. Gordon. England: Duke University Press. 1992. pp. 17–37. ISBN 0-8223-1200-X.