Genevieve, St

Genevieve, St.

the patron saint of Paris, was, according to tradition, born at Nanterre, near Paris, about 423. By the advice of St. German, bishop of Auxerre, she took the vow of chastity, and when afterwards accused of hypocrisy and superstition, she was warmly defended by the bishop. When the inhabitants of Paris, frightened at the approach of Attila, contemplated leaving their city, Genevieve dissuaded them, saying that Paris would be spared; and as the prediction proved true, she became the object of general veneration. She also advised the building of a church to St. Peter and St. Paul, in which she was afterwards buried, and which bears her name. She died in 512. Her reputation for sanctity became so great that Simeon Stylites inquired about her from all persons coming from Gaul. Miracles were said to take place at her tomb. There exists a life of her in Latin, claiming to have been written eighteen years after the death of Clovis. The life of St. Germain by the priest Constance, said to have been written during her lifetime, relates her consecration by that bishop. See the Bollandists, Acta Sanct. July 31; Charpentier, Vie de St. Genevieve (1687); Butler, Lives of the Saints, January 3.