Saint Genevieve

Life story

Genevieve was born around 419 in Nanterre, a village near Paris, in the declining years of the Western Roman Empire. According to a biography written not long after her death, when Bishop Germanus of Auxerre passed through Nanterre he recognised a special calling in the girl, and Genevieve was consecrated as a woman dedicated to God, living in virginity. After her parents died she went to live in Paris. The biography, composed by an unknown author within a few decades of her death, is the main early source, and later medieval writers added many further stories to it.

Her life was bound up with the political upheavals of Gaul. According to tradition, when Attila's Huns invaded Gaul in 451, she urged the people of Paris not to flee the city, and it was not attacked; historians doubt that the Huns intended to attack Paris, so this detail is read as tradition. Later, while Paris was under siege and famine raged, she organised boat expeditions to bring grain from other regions for the people. King Childeric and then King Clovis both showed her respect.

Genevieve died around 512, aged more than eighty. She was buried on a hill south of the Seine, where Clovis had a church built, which later became an abbey and eventually the present Panthéon. Parisians visited her tomb for centuries, and processions of her relics were held when the city faced disaster. Her relics were burned during the French Revolution in 1793. She remains honoured as the patron of Paris. The church dedicated to her, and the feast kept on 3 January, ensured that her name was never forgotten in the city.

Works and witness

• Born around 419 in Nanterre near Paris
• Noticed by Bishop Germanus of Auxerre and consecrated to God
• By tradition, urged Parisians to stay as Attila invaded Gaul in 451
• Organised food supplies for Paris during a siege famine
• Died around 512; honoured as patron of Paris

Patron of

Paris

Saints from the same country

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Joan of Arc, Saint Francis de Sales

References

• Vita Genovefae virginis Parisiensis
• Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum
• Martyrologium Romanum

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.