Geneviève

SAINT GENEVIEVE 

Feast Day – January 3rd

 

Patron  of the City of Paris

Geneviève’s was a very young girl when she first fell in love.  Her life provides us with one of the earliest recorded accounts of  the call of the Lord upon a young life.  A precocious seven year old,  Geneviève announced to her family her intentions to give her life to Christ and to Him alone.  Centuries later another saint – Saint Catherine of Siena  – did the same at that age.  And centuries after that, in the early 1900’s Saint Faustina – again at age 7 – did the same.  It’s a good reminder to us all that one is never to small for God to ask great things of a life.

Her wealthy parents did not know what to do with Geneviève.  They tried to dissuade  Geneviève’ but she was was unshakeable.  They thought that if they took her to the Bishop, he could talk some sense into her little head. Instead, after a long conversation with the child, the Bishop became completely convinced of the authenticity of her call.  He comforted her parents and encouraged Geneviève to be steadfast in her resolve, but humble and obedient to her parents  This she accepted.  The bishop sent Geneviève in her way with a gold medallion engraved with a Cross, asking her to wear this, and no other jewelry, as a sign of the promise she had already made to Jesus. She wore that medallion every day for the rest of her life.

It was not until her 16th birthday that Geneviève was allowed to pursue her chosen path.  But this path was filled with trials which no one could have foreseen.

We learn from Scripture that it is not uncommon for jealousy to well up in the hearts of others when confronted with the holiness of another.

“Let us beset the just one for he is obnoxious to us.”
(Jeremiah 18:18)

Men and women of Geneviève’s village petitioned the Bishop to try to convince him that this little girl was a  fake, a hypocrite and a liar and that her parents were even worse. Geneviève however, fully aware of the accusations leveled against her,  asked her parents to forgive them and to remain as kind and as gentle as they had been to them all in the past.  This only enraged her accusers who continued to pound away  at her reputation to the Bishop and to anyone else who would listen.

In the end, her quiet acceptance and her continued joy in the face of the onslaught silenced her accusers, and only convinced the Bishop to put Geneviève in charge of the young girls from the village who wished to enter religious life, just as she had since done. Her example of patience and trust in God, of humility and obedience towards her parents and superiors won a remarkable number of vocations to religious life, and in fact, the conversion of many hearts in her village and beyond.  Word of her holiness spread across France and this once hated and scorned young girl became a favorite of the townsfolk of Paris.

In the year 451 Paris found itself in the direct path of Attila the Hun and braced itself for his reign of terror which was sweeping Europe.  It was Geneviève – still only a young woman, who gathered the people together and encouraged them to pray with hope and to trust that God was with them.  She promised them that if they would turn their sufferings into their own personal sacrifice for others, their town would be spared.  And so it was.  The people of Paris did as Geneviève advised and, for reasons never explained, the fierce and terrible Attila changed his course, leaving the city of Paris and its people untouched.

Rallying around their miraculous escape, the people of Parish assisted Geneviève in building the first Church in Paris in honor of Saints Peter and Paul – the pillars of the Christian faith.  Still young, healthy and filled with energy, no one could have suspected that one evening, shortly after the construction began, Geneviève would pass quietly into the arms of her Heavenly Father. 

The entire city grieved.  People from miles around streamed into the village to pray at her tomb.  So many miracles began to occur at the site that it was decided to name the church, the Church of Sainte-Geneviève. 

Hundreds of years later, devotion to this young saint remained strong and alive.  Once again the city of Paris found itself facing annihilation in 834.  They gathered in the Church of Sainte-Geneviève and once again, the city was spared.  And, in the year 1129 the people of Paris sought the intercession of Geneviève at the outbreak of a terrible plague.  Miraculously the plague ceased during a procession which the people held honoring Geneviève as their special patron.  Pope Innocent II, after thoroughly examining this miracle declared its authenticity and ordered a feast to be kept annually in her honor.

In 1619 the “Cannons Regular of Saint Geneviève” was formed and with it, an order of nuns – The Daughters of Saint Geneviève – a community dedicated to the care and education of young girls.  In 1806 the community’s name was changed to the Sisters of the Holy Family and today serves over 150 schools and orphanages.

Saint Geneviève, pray for us!

References:

• The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints,” by the Rev. Alban Butler.
  
• The Penguin Dictionary of Saints (3 ed.), Attwater, Donald; John, Catherine Rachel, Penguin, NY
• Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, McNamara, Jo Ann; Halberg, John E.; Whatley, E. Gordon, (1992Durham: Duke UP
• “Saint Geneviève” in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)
• “Geneviève of Paris,” at SaintPatrickDC.org,  Saint of the Day, January 3