Genevieve

Genevieve (French: Sainte Geneviève; Latin: Sancta

Saint Genevieve
Genovefa, Genoveva; from Gaullish geno "race, lineage" and
uida "sage")[1] (Nanterre, c. 419/422 AD – Paris 502/512
AD), is the patron saint of Paris in the Roman Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox traditions. Her feast day is kept on January
the 3rd.

She was born in Nanterre and moved to Paris after

encountering Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes and
dedicated herself to a Christian life.[2] In 451 she led a "prayer
marathon"[3] that was said to have saved Paris by diverting
Attila's Huns away from the city. When the Germanic king Saint Genevieve, seventeenth-century
Childeric I besieged the city in 464, she acted as an painting, Musée Carnavalet, Paris
intermediary between the city and its besiegers, collecting Born c. 419–422
food and convincing Childeric to release his prisoners.[2] Nanterre, France
Died 502–512 (aged 79–93)
Her following and her status as patron saint of Paris were
Paris, France
promoted by Clotilde, who may have commissioned the
writing of her vita. This was most likely written in Tours, Venerated in Roman Catholic Church,
where Clotilde retired after her husband's death, as evidenced Eastern Orthodox
also by the importance of Martin of Tours as a saintly Church
model.[2] Canonized Pre-congregation
Feast 3 January
Attributes a candle
Contents Patronage Paris

Life
Death and burial
Canons of Saint Genevieve
See also
References
External links

Life
Though there is a vita that purports to be written by a contemporary, Genevieve's history cannot be
separated from her hagiography. She was described as a peasant girl born in Nanterre to Severus (a
Gallo-Roman) and Geroncia (Greek origins). On his way to Britain, Germanus of Auxerre stopped at
Nanterre, and Genevieve confided to him that she wanted to live only for God. He encouraged her and at
the age of fifteen, Genevieve became a nun. On the deaths of her parents, she went to live with her
godmother Lutetia in Paris ("Lutetia" was the former name of the city of Paris, so this has symbolic
weight.) There the young woman became admired for her piety and devotion to works of charity, and
practiced corporal austerities which included abstaining from meat and breaking her fast only twice in the
week. "These mortifications she continued for over thirty years, till her ecclesiastical superiors thought it
their duty to make her diminish her austerities."[4] She encountered opposition and criticism for her
activities, both before and after she was again visited by Germanus from those who were jealous or
considered her an impostor or hypocrite.

Geneviève had frequent visions of heavenly saints and angels. She reported her visions and prophecies,
until her enemies conspired to drown her in a lake. Through the intervention of Germanus, their
animosity was finally overcome. The Bishop of Paris appointed her to look after the welfare of the
virgins dedicated to God, and by her instruction and example she led them to a high degree of sanctity.[4]

Shortly before the attack of the Huns under Attila in 451 on Paris, Genevieve and Germanus' archdeacon
persuaded the panic-stricken people of Paris not to flee but to pray. It is claimed that the intercession of
Genevieve's prayers caused Attila's army to go to Orléans instead.[5] During Childeric's siege and
blockade of Paris in 464, Geneviève passed through the siege lines in a boat to Troyes, bringing grain to
the city. She also pleaded to Childeric for the welfare of prisoners-of-war, and met with a favorable
response. Through her influence, Childeric and Clovis displayed unwonted clemency towards the
citizens.[4]

Genevieve cherished a particular devotion to Saint Denis, and wished to erect a chapel in his honor to
house his relics. Around 475 Genevieve purchased some land at the site of the his burial and exhorted the
neighboring priests to use their utmost endeavors. When they replied that they had no lime, she sent them
to the bridge of Paris, where they learned the whereabouts of large quantities of this material from the
conversation of two swineherds. After this the building proceeded successfully.[6] The small chapel
became a famous place of pilgrimage during the fifth and sixth centuries.[7]

Her attribute is a candle, and she is sometimes also depicted with the devil, who is said to have blown it
out when she went to pray in church at night.[8]

Death and burial

Clovis I founded an abbey where Genevieve might minister, and where she herself was later buried.[9]
Under the care of the Benedictines, who established a monastery there, the church witnessed numerous
miracles wrought at her tomb. As Genevieve was popularly venerated there, the church was rededicated
in her name; people eventually enriched the church with their gifts. It was plundered by the Vikings in
847 and was partially rebuilt, but was completed only in 1177.

In 1129, when the city was suffering from an epidemic of ergot poisoning, this "burning sickness" was
stayed after Saint Genevieve's relics were carried in a public procession. This was repeated annually with
the relics being brought to the cathedral; Mme de Sévigné gave a description of the pageant in one of her
letters. The relief from the epidemic is still commemorated in the churches of Paris.[10]

After the old church fell into decay, Louis XV ordered a new church worthy of the patron saint of Paris;
he entrusted the Marquis of Marigny with the construction. The marquis gave the commission to his
protégé Jacques-Germain Soufflot, who planned a neo-classical design. After Soufflot's death, the church
was completed by his pupil, Jean-Baptiste Rondelet.
 The Revolution broke out
before the new church
was dedicated. It was
taken over in 1791 by the
National Constituent
Assembly and renamed
the Panthéon, to be a
burial place for
distinguished Frenchmen.
It became an important
monument in Paris.

Though Saint Genevieve's

relics had been publicly
Tomb of Saint Genevieve in the
burnt at the Place de Front of the Church of the former
church of Saint Etienne du Mont
Grève in 1793 during the Abbey of St Genevieve-(which she
was said to have inspired)
French Revolution, the
Panthéon was restored to Catholic purposes in 1821. In 1831 it
was secularized again as a national mausoleum, but returned to the Catholic Church in 1852. Though the
Communards had dispersed the relics (there is no proof of this allegation, the relics having been burnt
during the Revolution on november 8th 1793 when the golden socket was taken to the Monnaie de Paris
to be melt and the gems removed), some managed to be recovered. In 1885 the Catholic Church
reconsecrated the structure to St. Geneviève.

Canons of Saint Genevieve

About 1619 Louis XIII named Cardinal François de La
Rochefoucauld abbot of Saint Genevieve's. The canons had
been lax and the cardinal selected Charles Faure to reform
them. This holy man was born in 1594, and entered the
canons regular at Senlis. He was remarkable for his piety,
and, when ordained, succeeded after a hard struggle in
reforming the abbey. Many of the houses of the canons
regular adopted his reform. In 1634, he and a dozen
companions took charge of Saint-Geneviève-du-Mont of
Paris. This became the mother-house of a new congregation,
The Panthéon, Paris
the Canons Regular of Ste. Genevieve, which spread widely
over France.

The institute named after the saint was the Daughters of Ste. Geneviève, founded at Paris in 1636, by
Francesca de Blosset, with the object of nursing the sick and teaching young girls. A somewhat similar
institute, popular buriel Miramiones, had been founded under the invocation of the Holy Trinity in 1611
by Marie Bonneau de Rubella Beauharnais de Miramion. These two institutes were united in 1665, and
the associates called the Canonesses of Ste. Geneviève. The members took no vows, but merely promised
obedience to the rules as long as they remained in the institute. Suppressed during the Revolution, the
institute was revived in 1806 by Jeanne-Claude Jacoulet under the name of the Sisters of the Holy
Family.
See also
Argol Parish close
History of France
Religion in France
Roman Catholicism in France
Saint Genevieve, patron saint archive

References
Notes

1. Evans, D. Ellis (1967). Gaulish personal names: a study of some Continental Celtic
formations (https://books.google.fr/books?id=qGBmAAAAMAAJ&q=Gaulish+personal+nam
es&dq=Gaulish+personal+names&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQmeCA2dLWAhWLJ8AKHS
h8Ac0Q6AEIKTAA). Clarendon P.
2. McNamara, Halborg, and Whatley 18.
3. McNamara, Halborg, and Whatley 4.
4. MacErlean, Andrew. "St. Genevieve." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert
Appleton Company, 1909. 19 Jul. 2014 (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06413f.htm)
5. Bentley, James (1993). A calendar of saints: the lives of the principal saints of the Christian
Year. London: Little, Brown. p. 9. ISBN 9780316908139.
6. Hinds, Allen Banks. Hinds, “Saint Genevieve”. A Garner of Saints, 1900.
CatholicSaints.Info. 19 April 2017 (https://catholicsaints.info/a-garner-of-saints-saint-genevi
eve/)
7. Alston, George Cyprian. "Abbey of Saint-Denis." The Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.ne
wadvent.org/cathen/13343b.htm) Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 2
December 2017
8. Saint Geneviève (https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/philosophy-and-religion/saints/saint
-genevieve) in Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
9. Farmer, David Hugh (1997). The Oxford dictionary of saints (4. ed.). Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford
Univ. Press. pp. 200–201. ISBN 9780192800589.
10. Attwater.

Bibliography

Attwater, Donald; John, Catherine Rachel (1993). The Penguin Dictionary of Saints (3 ed.).
New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-051312-4.
McNamara, Jo Ann; Halberg, John E.; Whatley, E. Gordon (1992). Sainted Women of the
Dark Ages (https://books.google.com/books?id=a6acuOZt5bkC). Durham: Duke UP.
ISBN 978-0-8223-1216-1.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.
(1913). "St. Genevieve". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.

External links
Saint of the Day, January 3: Geneviève of Paris (http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0103.shtm
l#gene) at SaintPatrickDC.org
 "St.Genevieve, Chief Patroness of the City of Paris", Butler, Alban. "The Lives or the
Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, Vol.I (http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/GEN
EVIEV.htm)

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