Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century/Genovefa, patron saint of Paris and France
Genovefa (Geneviève), patron saint of Paris and of France. The
most ancient records tell the story of her life as follows: About
a.d. 430 St. Germanus of Auxerre and
St. Lupus of Troyes, proceeding to England to combat the Pelagian heresy, stayed
one evening at Nanterre, then a village, about 7 miles from Paris. The villagers
assembled to see the two renowned prelates, and a little girl attracted the notice
of St. Germanus. He learnt that her name was Genovefa, her parents' names Severus
and Gerontia. The parents were summoned, and bidden rejoice in the sanctity of their
daughter, who would be the means of saving many. Addressing himself to the child,
he dwelt on the high state of virginity, and engaged her to consecrate herself.
Before departing St. Germanus reminded her of her promise, and gave her a brazen
coin marked with the cross, to wear as her only ornament. Henceforth miracles marked
her out as the spouse of Christ. When St. Germanus arrived in Paris on a second
journey to Britain, he asked tidings of St. Genovefa, and was met with the murmurs
of her detractors. Disregarding their tales, he sought her dwelling, humbly saluted
her, shewed the people the floor of her chamber wet with her secret tears, and commended
her to their love. When the rumour of Attila's merciless and irresistible progress
reached Paris, the terrified citizens were for fleeing with their families and goods.
But Genovefa
assembled the matrons and bade them seek deliverance by prayer and fasting rather than by flight. The Huns were diverted through the efficacy of her prayers, as after-ages believed (c. 448). Her abstinence and self-inflicted privations were notable. From her 15th to her 50th year she ate but twice a week, and then only bread of barley or beans. Thereafter, by command of her bishops, she added a little fish and milk. Every Saturday she kept a vigil in her church of St. Denys, and from Epiphany till Easter remained immured in her cell. Before her death Clovis, of whose conversion a later legend has made her the joint author with Clotilda, began to build for her the church which later bore her name. Unfinished at his death, it was completed by Clotilda, and dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul. Upon Genovefa's death (Jan. 3, 512) she was buried in it.
The chief authority for her history is an anonymous author, who asserts that he wrote 18 years after her death, therefore c. a.d. 530. This life was first published by Jean Ravisi, of Nevers, in his Des Femmes illustres (Paris, 521), and then by Surius, with corrections in the style (Jan. 3); again, by the Bollandists, in 1643, from better MSS., together with another Life differing only in unimportant particulars (Acta SS. Jan. 1, 138 seq.). The Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre by Constantius (c. 5, Boll. Acta SS. Jul. vii. 211), and that part of St. Genovefa's which relates to him, almost certainly have a common source, or else one is taken from the other, with slight alterations. That episode being subtracted, there is nothing in the remainder which might not be the work of a later age. The history, therefore, must be accepted with great doubt. Innumerable Lives of St. Genovefa have appeared in France in modern times, mostly of a devotional character, and useless for critical or historical purposes. Saintyves, Vie de Ste. Geneviève; Baillet, Vies des saints, Jan. 3, t. ii. 417; Bedouet, Hist. et eulte de Ste. G. (Paris, 1866); Lefeuve, Hist. de Ste. G. c. xiii. (Paris, 1842); Fleury, Hist. ecclés. lxix. 22, lxxiv. 39; Dulaure, Hist. de Paris, i. 240–241.
[S.A.B.]