Genoveva of Paris

ON ST. GENOVEFA, VIRGIN, AT PARIS IN GAUL.

c. A.D. 509.

Genovefa, Virgin at Paris in Gaul (St.)

[1] The most celebrated name of Genovefa is inscribed in all the Latin Martyrologies on January 3rd. Usuard: "In the city of Paris, of St. Genovefa the Virgin, who, consecrated to Christ by Blessed Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, shone widely for her admirable virtues." The Roman Martyrology, Bellinus, Maurolycus, Galesius, Ado, Notker, Bede, Rabanus, and others say nearly the same.

On January 10th, as we shall say below, the memorial is observed of the Revelation of the relics of St. Genovefa, that is, the opening of the reliquary, which took place on that day in the year 1161. On October 29th is the Translation, which however I have not found recorded on that day in any Martyrology, but on the preceding day — namely the feast of SS. Simon and Jude — it is recorded in the Martyrologies of Usuard, Bellinus, Maurolycus, Ferrarius, and others, and a commemoration of it is made in the Breviary of Quimper. On November 26th is celebrated the Excellence of St. Genovefa, or the feast of miracles; on which day her name is inscribed simply in many Martyrologies, with no mention of the miracles. But the Martyrology of Usuard published at Paris in 1536, and Molanus: "On the same day, of St. Genovefa and St. Marcellus, concerning the miracle of the burning sickness that occurred in the church of the Blessed Mary at Paris." In one MS. I found the Elevation of St. Genovefa recorded on November 26th. On that day at Nantes, in the Cathedral Church, she is venerated with a double feast, in memory of the miracle of the burning sickness, as is clear from the 6th reading; in which, however, it is incorrectly said to have occurred in the year 1100 under Louis VII, whereas (as we shall say below) it happened under Louis the Fat, son of Philip, in the year before Innocent II came to France, which Baronius writes happened in 1130.

[2] "The life of the Virgin St. Genovefa" (says Papirius Masson in his book on the rivers of Gaul) "was written in the time of King Childebert by a certain very learned man, The very ancient life of St. Genovefa whose name I regret has perished." Indeed, sixteen years, as the author himself attests, after her death. Whether this is the same life that is now in our hands, I frankly confess I am not certain. A threefold version exists. I have certainly found a threefold life in manuscripts. The first in the MS. of the Church of St. Martin at Utrecht, which I collated with the MS. of St. Mary de Ripatorio and the MS. of the monastery of St. Mary at Bonne-Fontaine, which agrees with what Vincent of Beauvais has in book 20, chapters 46ff. The second had been copied by Rosweyde from the MS. of Canon Preudhomme of Cambrai, which I then collated with the MSS. of the Imperial monastery of St. Maximin and of the Church of St. Omer, and others. The third, composed by a certain religious of the monastery of St. Genovefa, was furnished to me — though teeming with errors — by a codex of the Fullers' College at Brussels. This third largely agrees with the first, except that certain things are added by way of explanation. I have omitted it here lest the work grow to an excessively vast size. I have, however, appended to the two earlier lives what I found in the same MS. concerning St. Genovefa's miracles, translation, excellence, and revelation, committed to writing by various religious of the monastery of St. Genovefa.

[3] When St. Genovefa died. Concerning the year of death of this most holy Virgin, the opinions of the authors vary. Galesius in his Notes thinks she died around the year 515. Breulius in his Antiquities of Paris and Renatus Benedictus say the year 514. The MS. Florarium says 512. Aimoin nearly agrees, writing in book 1, chapter 24, that she lived until the times of Clothar and Childebert. Baronius, in the year 499, no. 31, writes: "This admirable virgin survived for a long time, inasmuch as the same author says she prolonged her life beyond eighty years. But if St. Germanus set out for Britain in the year 429, as the same Baronius writes, and addressed the holy Genovefa, though still quite young, and exhorted her to preserve her virginity, she certainly cannot have survived much beyond the year 500. For let us suppose she was then eight or nine years old; therefore in the year 500 or 501 she would have been eighty." She cannot have been younger — she who, as is said in the life of St. Germanus, book 1, chapter 21, professed that she had long desired to be bound by the vow of a religious profession, and asked his blessing for this. What is more, in the earlier life it is said that Clovis began to build a magnificent basilica at her tomb, which Clotilde afterwards completed.

[4] In time of need the reliquary of her body is carried in procession. Jacobus Breulius has much about the life and translation of St. Genovefa in book 2 of his Antiquities of Paris, where he also treats of the Abbey of St. Genovefa and its privileges; and he attests that in time of public need it was customary for the reliquary of her relics to be taken down and carried in a public procession with a singular solemnity, all the ceremonies of which he describes.

[5] Innumerable writers have treated of St. Genovefa. Renatus Benedictus writes at length in his Lives of the Saints of Gaul, also commemorating the Translation, miracles, and other matters. Claudius Robert attests that Peter Pontanus of Bruges, called "the Blind" because of an eye defect, wrote nine books of verse about her, which I have not yet seen. In praise of St. Genovefa a double poem was composed and published by our Dionysius Petavius, Fr. Dionysius Petavius healed by the patronage of St. Genovefa having recovered his health through her patronage.

LIFE FROM ANCIENT MSS.

Genovefa, Virgin at Paris in Gaul (St.) BHL Number: 3334

From MSS.

CHAPTER I.

St. Germanus urges virginity upon St. Genovefa.

[1] St. Genovefa's homeland and parents. Blessed Genovefa was born in the parish of Nanterre, which is about *seven miles from the city of Paris. Her father was called Severus, her mother Gerontia. But first I have deemed it fitting to make known to the faithful her devotion from her earliest age, and then the grace of God which was bestowed upon her.

[2] When the holy and venerable bishops Germanus and Lupus were setting out for Britain The Pelagian heresy in England is rooted out by SS. Germanus and Lupus to overcome the Pelagian heresy which threatened those regions — a heresy which, sowing tares among the wheat, claimed that those born of two baptized parents could be saved without baptism, when the divine teaching absolutely affirms that no one can have eternal life unless he is born again of water and the Holy Spirit (John 3:5) — having triumphed over this heresy by the testimonies of Scripture and by the miracles of their virtues, they drove it from that province. Going, as I said, to Britain, they stopped at the aforesaid parish for the purpose of lodging and especially of praying. When a multitude of people came to meet them not far from the church, seeking their blessing, and both sexes — men and women and children — came running out in throngs, St. Germanus, in the midst of the crowd that met them, perceived from afar in the spirit that Genovefa would be most holy, and immediately ordered her to be brought to him. Kissing her head, he inquired of the crowd the name of the girl and whose daughter she was. The name Genovefa was immediately proclaimed by the surrounding people, and her father and mother were summoned and stood before him. St. Germanus said to them: "Is this child your daughter?" St. Germanus foretells the holiness of Genovefa. They replied: "She is ours, Lord." To whom the holy Germanus said: "Happy are you, the parents of so venerable an offspring! Know that at the birth of this child, a great mystery of joy and exultation was celebrated in heaven by the Angels. She will be great before the Lord, and many, marveling at her life and holy resolve, will turn from evil, and converted from a wicked and shameful life to the Lord, will receive from Christ forgiveness of sins and the rewards of life."

[3] And shortly afterward he said to Genovefa: "My daughter, Genovefa." And she answered: "Your handmaid hears, holy Father; command what you will." To whom St. Germanus said: "I ask that you not be afraid to profess to me He urges virginity upon her whether you wish, consecrated in holiness, to preserve your body immaculate and untouched for Christ, as his bride." Genovefa answered: "Blessed are you, my Father, because you have deigned to ask what I desire. I wish it, holy Father, and I **pray that the Lord may deign to fulfill my devotion." St. Germanus said to her: "Be confident, daughter; act manfully, and what you believe in your heart and profess with your mouth, strive to fulfill in your works. For the Lord will give virtue and strength to your beauty."

[4] Coming therefore to the church and celebrating the spiritual office of None and the Twelfth hour, The Canonical Hours St. Germanus kept his hand upon her head the entire time. And when food had been taken and a hymn said, he ordered Severus to go with his daughter to his lodging, and commanded him to return to him the next morning before his departure. When, at the rising of the sun's lamp over the earth, as he had ordered, she was brought by her father, St. Germanus, perceiving something heavenly in her beyond what he had seen before, said to her: "Greetings, daughter Genovefa. Do you remember what you promised me yesterday concerning the integrity of your body?" Genovefa answered: "I remember, holy Father, what I promised to you and to God: that I desire, with God's help, to preserve the most perfect chastity of mind and body to the end." To her St. Germanus gave a bronze coin, found by divine providence on the ground, bearing *the sign of the Cross, as a great gift, saying to her: A coin marked with a cross. "Keep this, pierced and hung from your neck as a remembrance of me; and do not allow your neck or your fingers to be burdened with any ornament of metal — whether gold or silver — or of any pearl. Germanus dissuades Genovefa from vain adornment. For if the slightest charm of this world overcomes your mind, you will also lack eternal and heavenly ornaments." And bidding her farewell and beseeching her to remember him often in Christ, and commending her to her father Severus, they continued the journey they had begun, with the Lord's help.

* Surius: four.

** MS. Utrecht and Rip.: "pray" [ora].

* In memory of this event, it was customary to give blessed bread stamped with the image of this coin to the Canons Regular of St. Genovefa on her feast day. So Renatus Benedictus.

CHAPTER II.

She suffers paralysis. Her holiness is commended in various ways.

[5] Her mother, striking her, is struck blind. It happened some days later that her mother was going to church on a feast day, and although she had commanded Genovefa to stay at home, she could by no means drive her away as she cried out with tears and said: "I will keep the faith that I promised to St. Germanus, with Christ's consolation, and I will frequent the threshold of the church, so that I may deserve to be the bride of Christ, just as that most blessed Confessor promised me." Immediately her mother, filled with rage, struck her daughter a blow on the cheek and was instantly struck with blindness. For three months short of two years, by the will of divine majesty, she endured this blindness in order to manifest the grace of Genovefa. At last her mother, remembering the testimony that the great Pontiff had given concerning her daughter, called her and said: "I beg you, my daughter, take the bucket and go quickly to the well and bring me water." When she had come to the well with the greatest haste and wept upon the rim of the well because her mother had lost her sight on her account, then when she had stopped weeping, she filled the vessel and brought the water to her mother. She anoints her eyes with water blessed by her daughter, and is healed. Her mother, stretching her hands toward heaven, received with faith and veneration the water brought by her daughter — water that had been signed with the power of the cross by the girl's own sigh. Bathing her eyes with it, she began to see a little. And when she had done this two or three times, she fully recovered her lost sight.

[6] Her holiness is revealed to the bishop. It happened that she was presented for consecration to Bishop *Julicus together with two girls much older than herself. When they were brought forward for consecration according to their age, the aforesaid Pontiff perceived through a divine revelation that Genovefa was far more sublime in merits than the virgins placed before her. He said: "Let the one who follows behind be placed first, for she has already obtained sanctification from heaven." And so, having received the blessing, they departed from the Pontiff's sight.

[7] She moves to Paris. When the parents of Blessed Genovefa had died, she was summoned by her spiritual mother and moved to the city of Paris. And so that the Lord's power might be proven through her weakness and the grace of Christ bestowed upon her might shine more brightly, for a time her body was so seized by paralysis that with loosened limbs no joint seemed to hold its place. She suffers from paralysis. Exceedingly afflicted by this infirmity, for three days her body lay lifeless, only her cheeks still slightly flushed. When she had again obtained bodily health, she professed that in spirit she had been led by an Angel to the resting place of the just, and there she had seen prepared for those who love God rewards She sees the abodes of the blessed that are deemed incredible by unbelievers. *

[8] She perceives the secrets of hearts. For she clearly revealed the secret consciences of many still living in this world. Concerning this, I have preferred to be silent rather than to make it known to the envious, on account of the arrogant, who have a great devotion to slander; for while they envy the good they reveal their own superstitious conscience.

[9] St. Germanus goes to Britain a second time. After this, when St. Germanus came again to Paris and was setting out a second time for Britain, the entire populace went out from the city to meet him. But he immediately inquired anxiously about Genovefa and what she was doing. But the common people, who are readier to detract from good people than to imitate them, claimed that she was less than he believed. He honors and praises Genovefa. Utterly despising their unjust words, the holy Pontiff entered the city and went all the way to Genovefa's lodging. He greeted her with such humility that all marveled. And after praying, he showed those who held her in contempt, in the secret chamber of her dwelling, the ground wet and soaked with her tears. And sitting down, he described to them the beginning of her life, just as he had declared publicly to all at Nanterre; and commending her to the people, he directed his steps on the way he had begun.

* MS. Bonif.: illico. Claudius Robert calls him Flavianus. ** alt.: "might grow." * MS. Utrecht adds: "and the punishment of the wicked."

CHAPTER III.

She turns the Huns away from Paris by her prayers.

[10] As Attila approaches, the Parisians wish to flee elsewhere. When the news went forth that Attila, King of the Huns, was going to devastate Gaul most savagely, the terrified citizens of Paris were striving to carry their goods and the resources of their estates to other safer cities. But Genovefa, summoning the matrons, urged them to persist in fasting, prayers, and vigils, so that they might, like Judith and Esther, escape the approaching disaster. Consenting therefore to Genovefa, they spent several days holding vigils in the baptistery with fasting and prayers, as Genovefa had urged, devoting themselves to God. She also urged the men Genovefa dissuades them from it not to carry their goods away from Paris, for the foreign nation in its fury would devastate those cities which they believed to be safer; but the city of Paris, with Christ's protection, would be saved unharmed from the enemies.

[11] But the citizens of Paris rose up against her, saying that a false prophetess had appeared in their times, A tumult arises against her because she was preventing them from transferring their goods to safer cities, as from a city that was about to perish. The citizens deliberated whether to punish Genovefa by stoning or drowning. Meanwhile, an Archdeacon arriving from the city of Auxerre, who had once heard St. Germanus give a magnificent testimony about Genovefa, found the citizens holding meetings in various places and deliberating about the killing of Genovefa. When he learned of their plan, he said to them: "Do not, O citizens, commit such a crime. She about whose death you are already deliberating — St. Germanus on his deathbed sends eulogies to her we have heard from St. Germanus our Bishop that she was chosen by God from her mother's womb; and behold, I present the eulogies *directed to her by St. Germanus." When the citizens of Paris therefore learned that Genovefa was, by the testimony of St. Germanus, the most faithful servant of God — seeing also the eulogies which had been brought to her by the Archdeacon — fearing God and marveling at what the Archdeacon said, they abandoned their wicked plan and ceased their plotting.

[12] On that day the saying of the Apostle was fulfilled: "For not all have faith; but the Lord is faithful, who will preserve you and guard you from evil" (2 Thess. 3:2-3). The great bishops Martin and Anianus were greatly praised for the admiration inspired by their virtues — one because at the city of Worms, unarmed and about to be offered the next day for battle, with the fury of both armies calmed, he obtained a treaty of peace; the other because he won by the merits of his prayers that the city of Orleans, surrounded by the army of the Huns, should not perish, with the help of the Patrician Aetius and the Goths. And is not Genovefa worthy of being honored, She drives away the enemy by her prayers who likewise by her prayers drove back the aforementioned army from approaching and surrounding Paris?

* alt. "left behind."

CHAPTER IV.

She builds the basilica now called the Priory of St. Denis de la Chartre.

[13] For from her fifteenth until her fiftieth year, Her abstinence from Sunday to Thursday and from Thursday to Sunday, she never broke her fast. For only on those two sacred days of the week — that is, Sunday and Thursday — did she take a small amount of food; on the remaining days of the entire week she persevered in abstinence. Her food was barley bread and beans, which after two or three weeks she ate cooked and remixed in a pot. She never drank wine or anything that could cause intoxication in her entire life. After her fiftieth year, at the urging of bishops — to contradict whom is sacrilege — and fearing the Lord's saying, "He who hears you hears me; he who scorns you scorns me" (Luke 10:16) — she began to eat fish and milk with barley bread.

[14] Gazing at heaven, she weeps. As often as she beheld the sky, so often did she weep; and since she was pure of heart, just as the Evangelist Luke describes of the most blessed Stephen, she too was believed to see the heavens opened and our Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God — since the Lord's promise is not in vain: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Acts 7:55; Matt. 5:8).

[15] Her mystical companions. Twelve spiritual virgins, described by Hermas, also called the Shepherd, in his book, were her inseparable companions; who are named thus: Faith, Abstinence, Patience, Magnanimity, Simplicity, Innocence, Concord, Charity, Discipline, Chastity, Truth, and Prudence (Shepherd, book 3, similitude 9). These were the inseparable and undivided companions of Genovefa.

[16] With what veneration and love she cherished the village of Catholicacum, Her piety toward St. Denis in which St. Denis was martyred with his companions Rusticus and Eleutherius and was buried, I consider by no means to be passed over in silence. *For the most blessed Genovefa burned with the fervent desire to build a basilica in honor of St. Denis, Bishop and Martyr; but she lacked the means. When the presbyters of the city came to meet her on a certain day as usual, she said to them: She proposes the building of a basilica for St. Denis. "Venerable Fathers and my elders in Christ, I beseech you to make a collection so that a basilica may be built in honor of St. Denis. For no one should doubt that his place is fearful and awe-inspiring." They answered: "Perhaps our small resources will lack the means to build, for there is no supply of lime to be burned." Genovefa, filled with the Holy Spirit, with a clear countenance and a mind still more radiant, prophesying, gave a manifest word and said to them: "Let your holiness go forth, I pray, and walk across the bridge of the city, and report to me what you hear."

[17] When they had gone out into the street, they stood waiting to hear something fitting for the holy virgin's wish. And behold, two swineherds, standing not far from them, were conversing with each other, and one said to the other: "While I was following the tracks of a wandering pig **searching for food, I found a lime kiln of wondrous size." To whom the other swineherd answered in turn: "Likewise, I too found in the forest a tree torn up by the roots by the wind, The lime necessary for the work is miraculously found and under its roots, similarly, a lime kiln, from which I believe nothing has ever been taken." Hearing these things, the presbyters, with faces lifted to the sky and eyes fixed on heaven with joy, blessed God, who had deigned to bestow such great grace upon his servant Genovefa. Finding the places where the lime kilns were located, about which the swineherds were conversing, the presbyters returned and reported to Genovefa what they had learned from the herders. But she immediately filled her lap with tears of joy, Genovefa gives thanks to God and when the presbyters had left her house, with knees bent and fixed on the ground, she spent the whole night in prayer and tears, beseeching the Lord to bring her aid and assistance, so that she might build a basilica in honor of the supreme Pontiff and Martyr St. Denis.

[18] The presbyter Genesius oversees the work. At first light, exhausted from her vigils, she hastened to the presbyter Genesius and implored him to build a basilica in honor of the aforesaid Martyr. She also told him about the lime which God had provided. Citizens contribute various things to the work. When the presbyter Genesius heard about the lime, overcome with awe, he prostrated himself on the ground before Genovefa and promised that he would diligently fulfill her commands day and night. And so, with all the citizens bringing aid at Genovefa's entreaty, the basilica was built to its full height in honor of the oft-mentioned Martyr.

[19] It is also worth reporting what miracle the Lord performed through her. When carpenters had been gathered — some of whom were cutting and shaping the necessary timbers in the forest, while others were loading them onto wagons for the frequently mentioned building — it happened that the drink ran out. And Genovefa did not know that there was no drink. The presbyter Genesius began to tell Genovefa to encourage the workers She obtains drink for the workers from God while he went to the city to fetch drink as quickly as possible. Hearing this, Genovefa ordered the vessel in which the drink had previously been brought — which they call a cupa — to be brought to her. When it had been brought, she ordered everyone to stand apart from her. And she, with knees fixed on the ground, shedding tears, when she perceived that she had obtained what she was praying for, rose and, having completed her prayer, made the sign of the Cross over the drinking vessel. The drink does not fail for a long time. Marvelous to relate: immediately the cupa was filled to the brim with drink, and from it those who had been summoned to work drank most abundantly, giving the greatest thanks to God, for the entire duration until the whole work of the basilica was completed.

* MSS. Bonif. and Rip.: Catholacensem. ** Here the MS. Utrecht inserts much about the mission of St. Denis to Gaul, which since it is absent from the other MSS., we omit. * MS. Rip.: "she was suspected of intending." ** alt. "wandering from its young."

CHAPTER V.

She heals a blind woman and a paralytic; she relights an extinguished candle by her prayers.

[20] She had the devotion of spending the entire night of the Sabbath, She spends the night of the Sabbath awake in vigil which dawns on the first day of the week, according to the Lord's tradition — like a servant awaiting his master's return from the wedding — entirely awake. On one occasion, after the dead of night, with the approaching Sunday already announced by the crowing of roosters, she went out from her lodging to proceed to the basilica of St. Denis. It happened that the candle carried before her was extinguished; and the virgins who were with her were disturbed by the horror of the dark night and by the excessive mud and rain that poured heavily from the clouds. Immediately Genovefa asked that the extinguished candle be given to her. She relights an extinguished candle without fire. When she took it in her hand, it was immediately lit; and carrying it in her hand, she arrived at the basilica, and there the candle, still burning before her, was consumed by its own flame.

[21] The same thing happens on two other occasions. Similarly, at the same time, having entered the church and lying prostrate on the floor for a very long time in prayer, when she rose from the pavement after completing her prayer, a candle not yet touched by fire was divinely kindled and lit in her hand.

[22] Many are healed by particles of that candle. Likewise, they say that in her cell a candle was lit in her hand without the application of fire. From this candle, moreover, many sick people, urged by faith, reverently taking a small piece, recovered their former health.

[23] [A woman who stole her shoes is struck blind; she is healed by Genovefa with the sign of the cross:] A certain woman secretly stole her shoes; and as soon as she returned to her house, she immediately lost the light of her eyes. When the petty thief realized that heaven was avenging the wrong done to Genovefa, she returned the shoes, led by another's guidance, and throwing herself at Genovefa's feet, begged both to be forgiven and to have her lost sight restored. But Genovefa, being most kind, lifted her from the ground with a smile, and making the sign of the cross over her eyes, restored her former sight.

[24] Likewise, another paralytic woman is healed. In the town of Lugdunum, what miracle the Lord performed through her, the sequence of the reading requires us to tell. When Genovefa arrived not far from the town, a great part of the populace came to meet her, among whom were the parents of a girl who for nine years had been so afflicted with paralysis that she could not be helped by the use of any *limb. When the parents of the girl and the elders of the people entreated her, she came to the girl's house. After praying and touching the loosened limbs, she ordered her to dress and put on her shoes with her own hands. And so, rising from her bed, she went to the church with the people, fully healed. When the crowds saw this miracle, they blessed our Lord Jesus Christ, who had deigned to bestow such great grace upon those who love him. And as Genovefa returned from that town, the people escorted her with psalms and rejoicing.

* So MS. Bonne-Fontaine; but Utrecht: "so that no one could identify the structure of her limbs." MS. Rip.: "so that she could not move herself with any structure of her limbs."

CHAPTER VI.

Doors and hearts lie open to her. She puts demons to flight.

[25] Childeric holds her in great esteem. When the illustrious Childeric was King of the Franks, I cannot express the veneration with which he loved her — so much so that on one occasion, lest Genovefa should snatch away the prisoners whom he was planning to execute, *as he left the city of Paris he ordered the gate to be closed. But when the King's deliberation reached Genovefa through a faithful messenger, she immediately directed her steps to go and free the souls. The gates of Paris open of their own accord for Genovefa. It was no small spectacle for the astonished populace, how the city gate opened in her hands without a key. And so, following the King, she obtained that the prisoners should not be beheaded.

[26] There was a certain holy man in the regions of the East, a great despiser of the world, named Simeon, [St. Simeon Stylites (of whom we treat on January 5th) greets Genovefa, known to him through the spirit] who remained on a pillar in Cilician Syria, not far from Antioch, for nearly forty years. They say that he diligently questioned merchants going back and forth about Genovefa, and that he greeted her with profound veneration, and earnestly besought that she be mindful of him in her prayers.

[27] A certain girl of marriageable age, already betrothed, named Cilinia, when she learned of the grace of Christ bestowed upon Genovefa, asked her to change her garment. When the young man to whom she had been promised heard this, She consecrates to God a betrothed girl who wishes it, and saves her from danger he immediately came, filled with indignation, to the city of Meaux, where Cilinia was staying with Genovefa. As soon as Genovefa and Cilinia learned that the young man had arrived, they went with the greatest haste to the church. It was a matter of great miracle how the baptistery, which was inside, opened of its own accord as they fled to the church. And so the aforesaid girl, freed from the shipwreck and contamination of this world, persevered in abstinence and chastity until the end of her life.

[28] She heals a lame woman. At the same time the aforesaid Cilinia presented to Genovefa a girl from her household, who had been sick for nearly two years and had also lost the use of her feet. As soon as Genovefa touched her with her hands, she immediately recovered her health.

[29] She frees twelve demoniacs by her prayers and the sign of the cross. It happened that in Paris, her own city, twelve souls were brought to her — men and women — who were most grievously tormented by demons. Immediately Genovefa, invoking Christ to her aid, had recourse to prayer; and at once the demoniacs were suspended in the air, so that neither their hands touched the ceiling nor their feet the ground. When she rose from prayer, she ordered them to go to the basilica of St. Denis the Martyr. *But the demoniacs cried out that they could in no way be permitted to walk unless they were released by her. And so, signed by Genovefa, with their hands bound behind their backs and in silence, they proceeded to the basilica of the said Martyr. And she, following them after about two hours, arrived at the oft-mentioned basilica. When she began to pray, as was her custom, clinging to the pavement with weeping, the demoniacs cried out with a great shout that those were now near whose coming Genovefa was beseeching for their comfort — perhaps, as I think, Angels or Martyrs or whichever Saints were gathering to her aid. At least the Lord himself, who is near to all who call upon him in truth, was present — he who does the will of those who fear him and hears the prayer of the righteous, that they may be saved by him. And Genovefa, rising from prayer and signing each one of them individually, all who had been possessed by unclean spirits were immediately healed. The demons depart with a stench. And straightaway a most foul stench assailed the noses of all who were present — clearly so that all might believe that the souls had been cleansed from the torment of demons. And the entire assembly glorified the Lord at such a sign.

[30] A certain girl came from the city of Bourges to Paris Genovefa perceives hidden sins who after her consecration had violated her body, but was believed by people to be immaculate. She was questioned by Genovefa whether she was a consecrated religious or a widow. She answered that she was consecrated in holiness and offered a worthy service to Christ with an untouched body. Genovefa, on the contrary, revealed the place and time and the very man who had violated her body. And she who falsely professed herself the bride of Christ, convicted by her conscience, immediately fell at Genovefa's feet. I could tell of many such persons, but I have passed them over in silence because of the length of the narrative.

* Others read "great." Perhaps "pagan." ** alt. "entering." * MS. Bonif.: "immediately."

CHAPTER VII.

She restores sight, strength, and life to various people. She procures food for the poor in time of famine.

[31] After no long interval there was with her a woman She restores a drowned boy to life who had been cleansed from demonic torment by her. This woman had a four-year-old son who fell into a well and lay submerged for nearly three hours. He was pulled out by his mother and placed, dead, before Genovefa's feet with weeping and groaning and a contrite face. When Genovefa received him and covered him with her cloak, prostrate in prayer, she did not cease to weep until death released the dead boy. It was during the days of Lent at the time, and the child himself had already been made a catechumen and was being instructed in the Catholic faith; indeed, being baptized at the Easter vigil, he was named *Cellomerus, because he had received in the cell of the oft-mentioned Genovefa the life he had lost.

[32] In the city of Meaux a man met her with his arm and hand withered up to the elbow, begging that health be restored to him through her. She heals a man's hand by her touch. Taking his withered hand and the joints of his fingers and his contracted arm and fortifying them with the standard of the cross, within half an hour his hand was restored.

[33] The birthday of the chalice, i.e., the day of the Lord's Supper. From the holy day of Epiphany until the birthday of the chalice, which is the Lord's Supper, it was Blessed Genovefa's custom to remain shut up alone in her cell, so that more freely she might serve God alone with prayers and vigils. One day a **certain woman came, moved more by curiosity than faith, wishing to learn secretly what Genovefa was doing in her cell. As soon as she reached the door, she lost the light of her eyes. Some treacherous thought, no doubt, brought divine punishment upon her. Genovefa restores sight to a blind woman. When Genovefa emerged from her cell at the end of Lent, she illuminated the woman's eyes with prayer and the sign of the cross.

[34] At the time when Paris endured a siege by the Franks for twice five years, as they say, famine had so afflicted the district of that city that some are known to have perished from hunger. In time of famine she brings aid to the Parisians. It happened that Genovefa set out by boat to the town of Arcis to procure grain. When she reached the place in the River Seine where there was a tree that used to sink ships, She uproots a tree dangerous to sailors by her prayers Genovefa ordered the sailors to draw near to the bank for a moment; and after praying she ordered the tree to be cut down. When her naval companions began to cut it with axes, while Genovefa prayed the tree was uprooted of its own accord. At once two monsters of *various colors are said to have emerged from that place, from whose stench the sailors were considerably afflicted by the most fetid blast for nearly two hours. She drives away the demon who caused shipwrecks. No one sailing there is reported to have suffered shipwreck from that time onward.

[35] Then when she had entered the town of Arcis, a certain Tribune named Passivus came to meet her and entreated her to visit and heal his wife, who had long been detained by the languor of paralysis. At the entreaty of the Tribune and the elders of that place, she entered his house and approached the bed of the sick woman, She heals a paralytic woman with the sign of the cross and immediately, as was always her custom, she gave herself to prayer; and when the prayer was completed, she ordered the woman, strengthened by the sign of the cross, to rise from her bed. Immediately the woman, who, as they asserted, had for nearly four years been unable to move by her own strength because of her illness and pain, at Genovefa's command immediately rose from her bed in full health. For this shared miracle, all glorified the wonderful God in his Saints.

[36] When she had arrived at the city of Troyes, a multitude of people came to meet her, bringing the sick. She heals many sick people and two blind people by the sign of the cross. Signing and blessing them, she restored them to health. A man was brought to her in that same city whom divine punishment had blinded because he had worked on the Lord's Day; and also a girl about twelve years old, similarly blind; she illuminated their eyes by making the sign of the Cross and invoking the undivided Trinity.

[37] She heals another sick person by the sign of the cross. A certain Subdeacon, when he saw such great marvels performed through her, brought her his son, who had been severely afflicted by chills and fevers for twice five months. Genovefa immediately ordered water to be brought; which when she had received, invoking the Lord's name and signing it with the standard of the cross, she gave it to the sick man to drink. Then, the Lord Jesus Christ being propitiated, he was immediately made well.

[38] Miracles are performed by the fringes of her garment. Many at that time, filled with faith, taking fringes from her garment, were healed of various infirmities. Several who were possessed by demons were cleansed through her.

[39] Returning from Arcis, where she had stayed for some days, and thence returning to her own city, the wife of the Tribune, who had been restored to health through her, accompanied her until she boarded the ship. As they were returning by boat, it happened that their ships, driven by the wind, were in such danger among the rocks and trees that the * holds in which they carried the grain were overturned to the side, and even the ships were filling with water. She escapes shipwreck with her companions by her prayers. Immediately Genovefa, with hands stretched to heaven, implored help from Christ, and the ships were at once set on their course. And so through her, God our Lord saved eleven grain-laden ships. When the presbyter Bessus saw this — whose very warmth had left his bones from fear — filled with joy, he sang in a clear voice: "The Lord has become our helper and protector unto salvation." And all with him, with voices raised to heaven, singing the canticle of Exodus in the manner of a rowing-song, glorified God, through whom they had been saved at the prayer of his servant Genovefa (Exod. 15).

[40] Having returned to the city of Paris, she distributed grain to each person as was needed; and to some who lacked the strength because of their poverty, she freely gave whole loaves, She generously aids the poor so that often the girls who were in her service, returning to the oven, could not find their share of the bread they had placed in it, since the greater part had been secretly given away by her to the poor. Then at last it was discovered who had taken the bread from the oven, when shortly afterward they heard the poor carrying hot loaves through the city, blessing and magnifying the name of Genovefa. Her hope was not in the things that are seen, but in those that are not seen. * For the saying of the Prophet was true: "He who gives to the poor lends to God" (Prov. 19:17). To her also that homeland She saw the joys of heaven; hence she always weeps in which those who lend to the needy seek their treasure had once been shown through the revelation of the Holy Spirit; and for this reason she was accustomed to weep without ceasing, since she knew that while in the body she was a pilgrim from the Lord.

* MS. Bonif. and Rip.: Cellomeris. Utrecht: Collomerus. ** Some MSS. add "religious." * MS. Rip.: "for five years." ** MS. Rip.: "of the most hideous color." * MS. Utrecht: "struck." alt. "smitten." MS. Bonif.: Tricassim. * alt. Archiacum. ** MS. Bonif.: castellatim. * MS. Rip.: "was possible." The following up to n. 41 are absent from MS. Rip.

CHAPTER VIII.

She aids various sick people with the sign of the cross.

[41] She heals a deaf man with the sign of the cross. A certain Defensor from the city of Meaux, named *Fruminius, whose ear canals had been closed for four years, sought out Genovefa at Paris, begging that his hearing be restored by the touch of her hands. When she had signed his ears, touching them with her hand, he immediately recovered his hearing and blessed the Lord Jesus Christ.

[42] In the city of Orleans, what miracle was performed through her, the order of the reading demands to be told. When the news of her coming reached the matron Fraterna, She heals a dying girl by her prayers who was weeping over her daughter Claudia, who lay at the point of death, she immediately hastened to Genovefa to plead for her daughter. Finding Genovefa praying in the basilica of St. Anianus the Bishop, she fell at her feet and, wailing, is said to have begged only this: "Restore to me, Lady Genovefa, my daughter." Genovefa, when she saw her faith, is said to have answered: "Cease from disturbing and troubling me; your daughter's health has been restored." After this reply, Fraterna rose joyfully and returned to her lodging with Genovefa. By the wondrous power of God, Claudia, recalled from the jaws of death, was so immediately healed that she met Genovefa, fully recovered, in the vestibule of the house. And the entire crowd glorified the Lord for the sudden restoration of Claudia's health through the merits of Genovefa.

[43] A man who refuses to forgive his servant is struck with illness. It happened in the same city that she entreated a certain man on behalf of his guilty servant, but he, hardened by pride and stubbornness, refused to forgive his servant. She is said to have addressed him with these words: "If you hold me in contempt as I supplicate you, my Lord Jesus Christ does not despise me, for he is merciful and kind to forgive." But when the man returned to his house, he was so stricken with fever that he spent the whole night gasping and burning, unable to rest. The very next morning at dawn, with mouth gaping and tongue dripping saliva from the disease that is called the daily ox-fever, he was cast at Genovefa's feet, begging for the forgiveness he had not granted to his servant the day before. He is healed by Genovefa with the sign of the cross. Holy Genovefa, signing him, drove away all fever and illness from him, and restored both the master to health of mind and body, and the servant from blame. Without a doubt an Angel of the Lord was afflicting him, just as we read happened to Anicianus the most obstinate Judge, before whose door St. Martin arrived at dead of night to plead for prisoners — who was also cuffed by an Angel, as the reading relates, so that he came before his house to meet St. Martin and granted everything he asked.

MS. Bonif.: Frummius. MS. Rip.: Frunimius.

CHAPTER IX.

She drives demons from human bodies.

[44] From there she set out by boat for Tours, and endured many dangers on the Loire River. From the city of Orleans to the city of Tours, which is called the Third Lugdunensis, there are about six hundred stadia. When she came to the port of the city of Tours, a multitude of demoniacs from the basilica of St. Martin came to meet her, She cures many demoniacs with the sign of the cross the most wicked spirits crying out that they were being burned by flames between St. Martin and Genovefa. Indeed they confessed that they had sent the dangers she endured on the Loire River as a provocation. Meanwhile Genovefa, entering the basilica of St. Martin, cleansed many who were possessed by demons through prayer and the sign of the cross. Those from whom the unclean spirits departed Genovefa's fingers appear to them to be on fire confessed that at the hour of their torment, the fingers of Genovefa's hands blazed individually like candles with divine heavenly fire, and the demons raved most foully, crying out that they were burning all around them.

[45] She cures three demoniacs with blessed oil. Three men came to her whose wives were secretly tormented by demons in their homes, begging her to cleanse them of the most wicked spirits by her visit. She, being most kind, followed them. Entering each one's house, their wives were anointed with prayer and blessed oil and were cleansed through her from the torment of demons.

[46] Likewise another. The day after next, while she was attending the vigils of St. Martin, praying in a corner of the basilica, blessing and praising the Lord, and standing unrecognized in the midst of the crowd, one of the psalm-singers was seized by a demon, tearing his own limbs *which in his madness he believed to be alien to himself, and rushed from the apse toward Genovefa. When Genovefa commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man's body, and the wicked spirit threatened to exit through his eye, at Genovefa's command, leaving foul traces, it was expelled through a discharge of the bowels. Without delay, faster than words can tell, the demon was cast out and the person was cleansed. With many honors everyone honored her as she went and returned.

[47] She expels a demon from a flask. At the same time, standing at the entrance of her house, she saw a certain girl passing by carrying a flask in her hand. When she called her over and asked what she was carrying, the girl said: "A flask for the liquid seasoning that was recently sold to me by merchants." Genovefa, however, perceiving the enemy of the human race sitting at the mouth of the flask, breathed upon it threateningly; and immediately a portion of the flask's mouth broke and fell off. Then, having signed the flask, she ordered the girl to depart. Those who saw this were greatly amazed that the devil had been utterly unable to hide himself from her.

Side Note* MS. Bonif.: "believed himself to be alien."

CHAPTER X.

She drives away rain, storms, and diseases by her prayers.

[48] She heals a boy who was blind, deaf, mute, and lame. A certain little boy named Maroveus was brought to Genovefa by his parents — blind, deaf, mute, and lame. She anointed him with blessed oil and fortified him with the sign of the Cross. And so, with his legs strengthened, he walked straight, and having recovered his sight, he fully regained his hearing and speech.

[49] She turns away rain by her prayers. Likewise, in the territory of the city of Meaux, when reapers had been gathered and the oft-mentioned virgin was reaping her own harvest, the reapers were greatly disturbed by a sudden rainstorm that was threatening with a squall. Immediately Genovefa entered the *tent and, as was her custom, began to pray clinging to the ground with weeping. Christ showed an admirable power for all who watched: for although rain was watering the crops all around, not even a single drop of moisture touched either the harvest or the reapers of Genovefa.

[50] She calms a storm by her prayers. It happened afterward that while she was traveling by boat on the River Seine, the sky's serenity changed unexpectedly, as often happens, and a storm having arisen, her boat was so battered by the wind that it was nearly overwhelmed by the waves. Immediately Genovefa, looking up to heaven with hands outstretched, prayed for help from the Lord. Such an immediate calm followed that without a doubt Christ was believed to have been present and to have commanded the winds and the river.

[51] She heals diseases and drives out a demon with blessed oil. She continually restored the sick to health by anointing them with sacred oil. It happened that she wished to anoint a certain man tormented by a demon with oil, but the flask that had contained the blessed oil was brought to her empty, according to her instruction. The holy servant of God, Genovefa, being greatly troubled, hesitated as to what she should do. For the Bishop who would bless the oil for her was absent. Meanwhile, lying prostrate on the ground, she implored with sacred prayers that heavenly help might come to her aid for restoring the sick person. The flask is filled with oil by her prayers. As soon as she rose from prayer, the flask was filled with oil in her hands. And so a double miracle, through Christ's working, appeared through her in a single hour: both that the flask which had no oil was filled while empty in her hands, and that the demoniac, anointed with that very oil, was restored to health, freed from the torment of demons.

When the life was written. For sixteen years after her death, when I set my mind to writing her life, I saw the very flask with the oil that had increased during her prayer.

Side Note* alt. "threshing floor."

CHAPTER XI.

Miracles after her death: a basilica is erected for her.

[52] She dies at more than eighty years of age. But concerning the departure of her life and the honor of her funeral, pursuing brevity, I have chosen to remain silent. She passed away in a good old age, full of virtues, having lived in the world more than eighty years as a pilgrim from the Lord, and was buried in peace on the 3rd of the Nones of January.

[53] A certain *man named Prudens — how he obtained a remedy and cure at her tomb — I consider it not unfitting to make known to the faithful, Kidney stones cured at her tomb out of reverence for that place. When his parents despaired of his life because he was exceedingly afflicted by the disease of kidney stones, and they had implored a cure for his illness at the tomb of Genovefa with groaning and weeping, on that very day the stone generated by the illness passed from him, and the aforesaid illness troubled him no more.

[54] Contraction of the hands healed. A certain Goth who had worked on the Lord's Day had the use of both his hands taken away by contraction. When he had implored all night at Genovefa's tomb for his health to be restored, the next morning he came forth from the oratory built of wood above the tomb with the use of his hands fully recovered.

[55] Indeed, King Clovis of glorious memory, fearsome by right of war, frequently granted pardon to those confined in prison for love of the holy Virgin, and often at Genovefa's plea released even the guilty unharmed from the punishment for their crimes. He had even begun to build a basilica in her honor, Basilica begun by Clovis, completed by Clotilde which after his death was completed and raised to its lofty roof by the zeal of his most excellent Queen Clotilde.* To it a triple portico has been attached, and the painting portrays the true faith of ancient times — the Patriarchs, Prophets, Martyrs, and Confessors — as handed down in books and the pages of history. And therefore all of us who adore the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit according to the substance of the Godhead, and confess unity in Trinity, let us ceaselessly beseech Genovefa, the most faithful servant of God, to implore forgiveness for our past sins, that being reconciled, we may glorify our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory, honor, dominion, and power forever and ever, Amen.

Side Note* MS. Rip.: "a boy." Side Note* MS. Bonif.: "of his body."

ANOTHER LIFE FROM ANCIENT MSS.

Genovefa, Virgin at Paris in Gaul (St.) BHL Number: 3336

From MSS.

CHAPTER I.

St. Germanus urges virginity upon St. Genovefa.

[1] Holy Genovefa was born in the parish of Nanterre, which is situated about seven miles from the city of Paris, St. Genovefa's homeland and parents the daughter of her father Severus and her mother Gerontia. How great a knowledge she had obtained from her earliest age by the grace of God, and with what devotion of religion she served God, the words set forth in the records attest, intended to profit the hearing and advancement of the faithful.

[2] She meets the Bishop St. Germanus. When, therefore, Germanus and Lupus, those illustrious and great Pontiffs, were setting out for Britain to suppress the Pelagian heresy which had then emerged in those regions, they stopped by chance at the aforesaid parish for the purpose of praying or lodging. When a multitude of both sexes poured forth from the village in throngs and came out to meet them from *the church, this young girl followed in the footsteps of her parents among the rest of the crowd. When St. Germanus perceived her from afar, foreseeing something spiritual in her and aware of her future merits, he immediately began to inquire both the girl's name and whose daughter she was. The names of both the girl and her parents were promptly supplied by the bystanders. To whom St. Germanus said: "Is this your daughter?" They said: "She is ours." To whom he replied: "Happy are you, parents of so venerable an offspring."

[3] Coming therefore to the church, when the twelfth hour had been celebrated, St. Germanus ordered the parents and the girl to retire to his own lodging, and commanded the girl to be brought to him early the next morning before his departure. She is stirred to the pursuit of chastity. The next day, as the dawn rose, the parents and daughter arrived as St. Germanus had directed. And when the said Pontiff, foreknowing the future, urged the girl as a gentle exhorter to embrace the resolution of the religious life, she replied — young indeed in age but hardly childish in her profession — that she desired the gift of this merit.

[4] And as St. Germanus greatly marveled at both the gift of God and the already perfect beginnings of faith in the girl, his eyes *being fixed on the ground in astonishment at so admirable a thing, he noticed a bronze coin lying on the ground, stamped with the mark of the cross. A coin marked with a cross. The blessed Pontiff, lifting it from the dust of the ground, left it to the girl as a kind of pledge of his religious gift, and directed that it be pierced and hung around her neck; and he admonished her to adorn herself henceforth with no ornaments of metal or pearls, so that despising the world's ornaments, she might not lack the beauty of true splendor and heavenly grace. And bidding her farewell, commending her to her parents, the persevering traveler continued the journey they had begun.

Side Note* MS. Aud.: "to the church." Side Note* MS. Preudh.: "the ninth hour." Side Note* MS. Max.: "Moreover, on the day..." Side Note* MS. Aud.: "firmly."

CHAPTER II.

She suffers paralysis. Her holiness is commended in various ways.

[5] Some days later her mother planned to go to church on a feast day, and *ordered Genovefa to stay at home and go away. When she could by no means drive her away as she went to church, and the girl kept crying out that, mindful of her promise, she wished to frequent the church out of devotion to prayer, her mother, enraged, struck her cheek with her palm. Genovefa's mother, striking her, goes blind. She was immediately deprived of the vision of light and incurred the punishment of perpetual blindness. For three months short of two years she is most clearly attested to have been without sight. At last, as is credible, inspired by God, her mother remembered what the great Pontiff St. Germanus had judged about her daughter's future merit, and calling her, said: "I beg you, take the bucket, go quickly to the well, and bring water to your mother, who is half-dead, deprived of the benefit of light." She anoints her eyes with water blessed by her daughter, and is healed. The child, so as not to burden her, ran with the greatest haste to the well, and brought to her mother the water she had requested. Her mother, with hands raised to heaven, received the water brought by her daughter; and she asked that the sign of the cross be placed upon the water by her daughter. Bathing her eyes with it, she felt that she had recovered a little sight. And when she had done this two or three times, it is clear that she reached full purity of the sight that had been taken away, her health restored in full.

[6] It also happened that with Blessed Genovefa, two girls who far exceeded her in age were being led to Bishop *Julicus for consecration. When they were being put forward for consecration according to their age, the Pontiff, perceiving something of spiritual grace proper to her, She is consecrated, preferred above others for her merits ordered her to be presented for the blessing before the others; and so the others also subsequently received their blessing and departed from the sight of the said Pontiff.

[7] When her parents had died, she moved to the city of Paris at the summons and encouragement of her spiritual mother. She moves to Paris. After she had settled in the city, the grace of Christ poured out more particularly upon her in her infirmity came to the notice of the entire populace and grew all the more; and paralysis so severely dominated and dissolved her body She suffers paralysis that, with the destructive force of the disease, absolutely no joint held to its limbs. For three days she lies in a faint. She learns many secrets. Pressed down more severely by the violence of this infirmity, she lay for three days half-dead, only her cheeks slightly flushed. When she had again obtained bodily health, with God's mercy helping, she professed to certain spiritual persons that she had seen many things in the spirit, which because of the slander of unbelievers and the envy of boasting, it is not necessary to recount.

[8] St. Germanus goes to Britain a second time. When St. Germanus came again to Paris and was going once more to Britain, all the people went out to meet him far from the city out of veneration for so great a Pontiff. But he immediately inquired anxiously about Genovefa's life and conduct. But certain people, envious of the good and ready for gossip and slander, tried to obscure the clear brightness of her life with vain whispering detraction. He visits and honors Genovefa. St. Germanus immediately despised them with pontifical gravity, entered the city, and asked to be shown Genovefa's lodging. Greeting her with the greatest humility and veneration, he proclaimed the quality of her life to the entire people, just as he had done at Nanterre. And departing from the city, he continued the course of his planned journey.

Side Note* alt.: "to sleep in the morning and stay at home." And this seems to be the reading Surius followed. Side Note* MS. Preudh.: illico. S. Max.: Juliaco.

CHAPTER III.

She turns the Huns away from Paris by her prayers.

[9] Attila devastates Gaul. At that same time Attila, King of the Huns, had begun to devastate the provinces of Gaul with severe plundering. Then the Parisians, fearing the violence and fury of that hostility, The Parisians plan to flee elsewhere had begun to wish to transfer themselves with their wives and children and their fortunes from Paris to cities founded in safer locations. Genovefa dissuades them through their wives. St. Genovefa began more urgently to exhort their wives not to desert, in this despair, the city in which they had been born and raised, but rather to arm themselves or their husbands with fasting and prayers against the onslaught of swords, so that with God's help they might more easily trust that they would escape. The matrons, consenting to St. Genovefa's counsels and devoted to prayers, placed their hope in God's mercy and the aid of the Almighty; and they admonished their husbands in every way not to carry their goods away from Paris in despair, but rather to pray faithfully to the Lord, who could rescue them from the imminent danger. For those cities whose fortification they were striving to seek, she told them, would be *more violently shaken by the force of war; but Paris would remain unharmed by the enemy, with Christ's protection.

[10] And so the Parisians (as was their nature), dared to hold sacrilegious meetings against the holy and God-pleasing Virgin concerning the common good about which she never ceased to warn them and their wives, The citizens wish to kill her and united in a wicked conspiracy for the death of God's servant, they plotted with criminal thoughts to inflict upon that holy and religious Virgin the punishments which are justly owed to adulteresses and criminals for their frivolous presumption. When the deliberation was complete and there remained no disagreement about inflicting death, but only a dispute about the manner of death — whether she should be stoned or drowned — while this question briefly suspended the planned crime, the Archdeacon from the city of Auxerre happened to arrive in Paris. The Archdeacon of Auxerre restrains them. When he carefully inquired what was going on and learned what the citizens were deliberating, he immediately said to them: "Do not, O citizens, conceive so great a crime in your minds. This woman I frequently heard our Bishop St. Germanus praise with his venerable voice and extol the merits of her life. Behold, see what has been brought to her by the said Pontiff through me." The Archdeacon, by telling these and many other things, restrained the citizens' spirits — stirred against themselves rather than against the death of that blessed woman — with his salutary address.

[11] She is compared to SS. Martin and Anianus. St. Martin, worthy of praise for the admiration of his virtues, at the city of Worms, assigned to the custody of the military commander, about to be presented unarmed against the army the next day, obtained a treaty between both parties by the merit of his prayers. The most blessed Pontiff Anianus freed the city of Orleans, surrounded by the siege of the Huns and nearly collapsing under their assaults, from imminent danger by accelerating the Gothic aid through his prayers. But this woman not only resisted the army of the Huns coming from afar by her prayers, but even obtained from God through her prayers that they would not dare to approach Paris. Rightly, therefore, the same homage of veneration is paid to St. Genovefa as to the aforesaid bishops, for she is proven to have equal glory in the merits of her virtues.

Side Note* MSS.: "into their hands." Side Note* alt. "it is credible that the citizens..." Side Note* MS. Aud.: "of audacity."

CHAPTER IV.

She builds the basilica of St. Denis.

[12] From her fifteenth to her fiftieth year she broke her fast only twice a week with a small intake of food. Her abstinence. She took only barley bread and a porridge of beans; she never drank wine or anything that could intoxicate a person in all the time of her life. After her fiftieth year, at the urging of bishops, whose admonition it is sacrilege to contradict, she tasted fish and milk in rare and moderate amounts.

[13] She had these *spiritual virgin companions, called by these names: Faith, Abstinence, Magnanimity, Patience, Simplicity, Innocence, Her mystical companions. Concord, Prudence, Charity, Truth, and Discipline — all adhering to her for the whole time of her life.

[14] Her piety toward St. Denis. She loved the village of Catholicacum, in which St. Denis both suffered and was buried, with great love and veneration. This bishop ended his life by martyrdom at the sixth milestone from Paris. He was blessed into the priesthood by Bishop Clement, the disciple of St. Peter, St. Denis was sent to Gaul by St. Clement and is said to have been sent to these parts by the same Clement, who also described with admirable eloquence the contest of the aforesaid holy Apostle Peter with Simon the Magician at Caesarea and elsewhere.

[15] St. Genovefa proposes building him a basilica. St. Genovefa desired with the greatest ambition to build a basilica for this holy Martyr Denis in the aforesaid village, but she lacked the means to build because of her modest fortune. When the presbyters had gathered for their usual meeting, she began to discuss with them the construction of the basilica, so that each one might contribute to the work according to his ability out of devotion to the faith. When they complained especially that they did not have the resources to burn lime, Lime necessary for the work is miraculously found. St. Genovefa, trusting in the Lord's help that nothing would be lacking for this work, said to them: "Go out through the city and across the bridges and along the roads, and let each one search with attentive ears for whatever he might be able to hear." They promptly obeyed and, believing that something would be revealed to them about this matter, went out and stood in public. With silence imposed on their tongues, using only their ears, they waited for what each passerby might say; and they heard two herdsmen conversing with each other, one telling the other that while diligently tracking stray cattle separated for pasture, they had each seen two kilns full of lime of wondrous size in deserted and hidden places. The presbyters, hearing this and giving thanks to God with tearful gratitude for enriching his servant Genovefa with so special a gift of grace, immediately returned and reported what they had learned. The presbyter Genesius oversees the work. But she, going out from her house, with knees fixed on the ground and lying prostrate, prayed to the Lord to be a kind helper to her limited strength for preparing the work she had vowed. When the vigil broke into the light of dawn, she hastened to the presbyter Genesius and told him everything about the discovered kilns, just as it had happened. The presbyter, rushing into this work, promised that he would diligently carry out whatever she commanded. And so, with the citizens' help, She obtains drink for the workers from God. the basilica was built in honor of the holy Martyr Denis at her urging.

[16] I have also judged it fitting not to pass over in silence what miracle occurred while the work on the basilica was being done with great diligence. When the craftsmen who had the skill of cutting and joining timber had been gathered, and many had come together at her invitation to complete the aforesaid building out of devotion to the faith, it happened that the drink nearly ran out. Genesius therefore told her to encourage the *workers more earnestly while he ran to the city to bring back quickly what was lacking. When Genesius had gone out, St. Genovefa ordered the cask that had held the drink to be shown to her; making the sign of the cross over it, the exhausted capacity of that cask was filled with the same drink as it had previously contained, right up to its rim, as if nothing had been taken from it, so that it sufficed most abundantly for those gathered until the completion of the entire work, through a wondrous kind of infusion.

Side Note* MS. Aud.: "illustrious." Side Note (a) MS. S. Max.: "separated." MS. Aud.: "ungathered." Side Note (b) alt. "from its young." Side Note* alt. "the labor of the craftsmen."

CHAPTER V.

She heals a blind woman and a paralytic; she relights a candle by her prayers.

[17] She spends the night of the Sabbath awake in prayer. And since she also had this devotion in the observance of vigils — to spend the night of the Sabbath until the next morning, that is, the Lord's Day, in wakeful prayer — it happened one night, after the crowing of the domestic fowl had passed, in the course of the dead of night, that she hurried from her chamber to the basilica of the said Martyr with a lit candle going before her. The force of the gusts and the blast of excessive wind extinguished the office of light. And when the companions around her were made uncertain by the darkness of the gloomy night, deprived of the ministry of light, as to where they should go or where to place their steps, Genovefa immediately snatched the candle from the girl's hand, She relights an extinguished candle by her prayers: and the light received the same brightness of its lost radiance; and so she arrived at the basilica with her companions without any uncertainty of steps. And there the candle, she herself holding it fixed in place, was consumed by the same flame with which it had been kindled.

[18] Likewise on other occasions. They also say that while she lay in her cell clinging to the floor in prayer for a long time, and the faithful servant of God rose from the pavement when her prayer was completed, a candle was kindled there without any application of fire. Many are healed by that candle. From which many who faithfully sought are said to have obtained no small remedy for their various infirmities without any difficulty.

[19] A certain woman of the lowest rank presumed to steal her shoes by furtive theft. As soon as she returned to her house, She who stole her shoes goes blind: she incurred the punishment of blindness. And when she realized that for the wrong done to that blessed woman a penalty had been visited upon her by divine power, she was led by a guide directing her steps and, falling prostrate at Genovefa's feet, she begged that forgiveness be granted her and that sight, taken away by the blindness inflicted upon her, be restored — with the seat of her eyes closed, her tear-dry eyes capable only of wailing to express her weeping. But Genovefa, taking pity and raising her from the ground, smiling at the pettiness of the theft, She is healed by the sign of the cross confidently imprinted the sign of the Cross on her eyes and restored the health of her former sight.

[20] At *Lugdunum, what miracle the Lord worked through her we by no means allow to be passed over in silence. When the aforesaid woman arrived, the entire crowd of the populace hastened out from the city to meet her. Among the rest of the crowd were the parents of a girl who for nearly nine years had been so dominated by paralytic humors that she had absolutely no solidity of limb structure. She heals a paralytic. Genovefa was brought to her bed, prevailed upon by the parents' prayers. After praying and touching each of the girl's limbs with a visit of her hand, she ordered her to rise from the bed on which she lay, to put on shoes with her own hands, and to dress herself, and commanded her to go with her to the church in health. When the crowd of that city saw this, greatly astonished, they regarded her with particular veneration, giving praise to Almighty God who deigned to bestow such great grace upon those who love him.

Side Note* MS. Aud.: Leuduno. End Note (a) MS. S. Max.: vastata. End Note (b) MSS. Aud. and S. Max.: "so that she could not turn the structure of her limbs to absolutely any use."

CHAPTER VI.

Doors and hearts lie open to her. She puts demons to flight.

[21] King Childeric of the Franks, although he was not a Christian, *regarded her with great veneration. For on a certain occasion, having obstinately decreed to execute certain capital offenders, lest they be freed by St. Genovefa's prayers, he left the city and ordered the gates of the city to be locked with keys. King Childeric holds her in great esteem. But when it was reported to Genovefa that the King had gone out to execute them, she immediately hastened to plead with the King on their behalf. The city gates open of their own accord for Genovefa. To her as she approached, the gates which had been carefully locked were immediately opened — to the astonishment of the guards — as if by some commanding authority or by the obedience of submission. Thus reaching the King, she obtained that the prisoners should not be beheaded, and those about to perish were freed from the danger of imminent death.

[22] There was a certain holy man in the regions of the East, a despiser of the world, named Simeon, [St. Simeon Stylites (of whom we treat on January 5th) knows her through the spirit] established on a pillar not far from Antioch for nearly forty years. Through merchants who came to these parts frequently for the purpose of trade, he sent greetings to St. Genovefa with great veneration and earnestly prayed that she would beseech the Lord on his behalf. How greatly are the faithful servants of God enriched with grace, that those whom the positions of provinces and vast distances separate from mutual acquaintance, God's providence causes to know one another through a certain inner vision of the mind!

[23] A certain very noble young woman named Cilinia, promised to a young man by an engagement, asked St. Genovefa She protects a girl's virginity to change her garments for those of the religious habit, preferring the beauty of religion and the ornaments of virginity to the marriage bond and worldly pomp. When this reached the bridegroom's hearing through the winds of spreading rumor, he immediately came to Meaux, inflamed equally by fury and love, to be united with his bride. The inner sanctuaries of the temple open of their own accord for the virgins. When they learned of the young man's arrival, St. Genovefa together with Cilinia hurried quickly to the church. As they ran, the inner doors of the baptistery of the church opened of their own accord with their keys unlocked, to the wonderful amazement of all. And so the girl overcame the shipwrecks of this world by perseverance in virginity.

[24] On another occasion it happened that at Paris twelve souls who were gravely tormented by a demon were brought before her all at once. When she had implored the face of God that aid from heaven be granted her, She frees twelve demoniacs the demoniacs immediately leapt up to the ceiling, set ablaze by some latent fire within, so that in the fear of the onlookers, the weight of their bodies was held suspended in the empty air without bonds. Now they cried out, bent in a certain manner of chains; now they were bound and entangled like a kind of scroll; now again, thrown on their backs, they beat the air with the blows of their arms and their hair, and they lamented with prolonged wailing that they were being pressed by heavier torments. Thus as she prayed, they were tortured in various kinds of torment by an invisible inquisition through visible questioning. When Genovefa rose from the pavement after completing her prayer, she ordered them to hasten to the basilica of St. Denis the Martyr. When they said they could not go there because they were not released by the sign of the Cross to proceed, she immediately released them with the sign of the Cross, ordered them to go, and dismissed them to go only where they had been commanded, so that they could not destroy their bodies. Therefore, when they had arrived at the basilica, as St. Genovefa had commanded — unwilling as the authors of evil, *flying as demons — she followed them to the hall of the said Martyr, delayed by feminine dignity, after a space of several hours. When she had devoted herself long to prayer for them there, aided by the solace of the blessed Martyr, and had supplicated the Lord with faithful confidence, she restored the entire number of the sick from the possession of unclean spirits to their own health — so that the departure of the demons was attested not only by the complaint of the mouth but even by the foulness of the odor.

[25] She perceives hidden sins. She recognized many shameful deeds in certain persons who bore the outward appearance of a religious profession — in habit, not in conduct — which they thought hidden; and for the correction of their shamelessness she made them public. These I have judged ought to be consigned to silence out of regard for honorable listeners.

Side Note* MS. S. Max.: "loved." Side Note* alt. Licinia. Side Note* MS. Preudh.: "shipwreck ... perseverance." End Note* MS. D. Preudh.: "willing."

CHAPTER VII.

She restores sight, life, and strength to various people. She procures grain for the Parisians.

[26] There was with her a certain woman who had been cleansed by her from the pollution of an unclean spirit, who had a four-year-old son. She raises a boy from the dead. This little boy, while playing too heedlessly, fell headlong into the bottom of a well, and lay there battered and dead for a space of nearly three or four hours, and was buried beneath the rising water. At last he was pulled from the depths to be buried. His wretched mother, embracing him in her lap, laid him dead before the feet of the holy virgin — with torn hair and lacerated cheeks. But she, taking pity, covered the lifeless and rigid body with her cloak, and did not cease to pray with tears to the Lord Almighty until, conquering and triumphing by the power of her prayers, she burst open the gates of the underworld, returned the son alive to his mother, and despoiled death of its prey.

[27] She heals another's withered hand by touch. At the city of Meaux, when the report of this grace became known, a man met her with his hand disabled up to the elbow, the nerves rigid within, diminished in the function of his hand, asking that the damage of that illness be driven from him by the aid of her prayers. Signed by her in the ailing member... by the visitation of her hand, he immediately departed healed.

[28] From the day of Epiphany to Easter she hides in her cell. This servant of God, from the holy day of Epiphany until Easter — that is, the Lord's Supper — served God more secretly within the recesses of her cell, to whom she had vowed herself. A certain woman, curious rather than devout, when she wished to observe what Genovefa was doing, approaching her cell more closely, immediately her eyes — which had not been *innocent ministers of the deed — were deprived of light. She restores sight to a blind woman. When Genovefa emerged from her cell after completing her customary observance, she healed her by the intercession of her prayers with the restoration of her sight.

[29] She aids the Parisians in time of famine. After the dreadful and prolonged devastation of the swelling war, the Frankish army left behind famine as the offspring of a destructive succession, exchanging one form of ruin for another without removing it. For the former fury had seized what was outside the city and left beyond it; but this one consumed whatever was shut within its recesses and clinging to its innermost parts. *Therefore Genovefa, moved by the disaster of the wretched, She frees sailors from the danger of shipwreck boarded a boat to procure food for the citizens. As she cut through the currents of the opposing river with poles pushing the keels through the furrows of the Seine, she came to a place where a tree had grown that, with its branches submerged below, plunged some ships into the whirlpool of destructive depths. Genovefa immediately commanded the sailors, her travel companions, to turn their prow to the bank as though about to land. Stepping out of the boat, while the sailors discussed among themselves how the tree could be cut down, she at once withdrew to the aid of prayer, so often proven effective in many situations. That tree, struck by no blow of axes, was uprooted by the power of her prayers from the place where it had clung, She puts to flight the demon who caused the shipwrecks so that no ship incurred any danger of shipwreck there thereafter. From the bosom of that tree two serpents are reported to have emerged — companions of crime — with multicolored scales, of most hideous odor and immense size.

[30] When the swift messenger of fame had preceded her arrival at the town of (a) Arcis, a certain Tribune named (b) Passivus came to meet her, whose wife had been deprived of the vigor of walking and the use of all her limbs by the force of paralytic humor for several years — dead in body, her soul alone lingering within as a guest, possessing nothing of the function of her limbs. She heals the Tribune's paralytic wife by her prayers. Genovefa was therefore brought to her bed, prevailed upon by the husband's prayers. When she had removed the crowds and devoted herself to prayer before her bed, watering the ground (c) with tears for a long time, she caused the woman to rise from her bed immediately with revived limbs and to go about in health.

[31] She heals many blind and sick people with the sign of the cross. Having thus miraculously performed these works of power with God's grace helping, she set out from the town of Arcis to the city of Troyes, and there healed blind people and a great many who were half-dead from the languors of various diseases and fevers by the merits of her powers and the imposition of the sign of the cross.

[32] (d) Having stayed again in the town of Arcis, she returned from there; and as she was returning to Paris with purchased grain and loaded ships, her ships were suddenly battered between rocks and trees by the force of a squall, so that the vessels, with their holds tilted sharply to one side, were nearly overwhelmed by the force of the waves and plunged into the deep abyss. She frees her ships from danger by her prayers. Genovefa, raising her hands to heaven, sought help from God when she was in danger; and immediately her ships, recalled to a favorable course by the help of God's mercy and the prayers of his servant, successfully completed the journey they had begun. (e) The presbyter Besustus and the rest of the sailors sang the canticle of the Song of Exodus as a rowing-song with great exultation, saying: "The Lord has become our helper and protector unto salvation" (Exod. 15). Thus they arrived at Paris on a favorable course to their own city, and she restored the citizens, (f) emaciated and discolored from hunger and illness, (g) to their accustomed fullness of body by zealous feeding.

End Note (a) MS. S. Max.: Achaicum. MS. Aud.: Arcindiacam. End Note (b) MS. Aud. and Surius: Passius. End Note (c) MS. Aud.: "had poured." End Note (d) alt.: "Having remained." End Note (e) MS. S. Max.: Besuustus. MS. Aud.: Bessustius, perhaps "Bessus then." End Note (f) MS. Aud.: exfessos. End Note (g) MS. Aud.: "to solid." Side Note* MS. Aud.: simplicis. Side Note* Corrupt passage.

CHAPTER VIII.

She heals various people with the sign of the cross and prayers.

[33] A certain Defensor from the city of Meaux, *Prominius, whose ear passages had been blocked for several years, could receive no entry of sounds. He came to Paris to be healed by her. She heals a deaf man with the sign of the cross. Signing his ears and touching them with her hands, she opened up for him the full hearing he had previously had.

[34] After some time, the aforesaid servant of God happened to come to Orleans while traveling to Tours. In that city the matron Fraterna was mourning her daughter Claudia with the lamentations of her whole household, She heals a dying girl by her prayers as the girl lay near death. When news of Genovefa's arrival reached her, she hastened to meet her and fell prostrate at her feet in the basilica of St. Anianus. When she begged her to restore her daughter to her, Genovefa consoled her with this encouragement: "Rise and cease weeping; for all the pestilent fever burning in your daughter has been extinguished by divine mercy." And when they both came from the basilica to Fraterna's house, Claudia came to meet them at the door, walking on her own feet, in full health.

[35] A man who refuses to forgive his servant is struck with fever: In the same city she is said to have pleaded with a certain master on behalf of his guilty servant. When he, hardened with stubborn madness, refused to forgive the servant at her supplication, she departed from him in sorrow. Immediately the master, when he returned home, fell ill with a deadly fever. When he was pressed more urgently by the *distress of the fevers, he was cast foaming and burning at St. Genovefa's feet. He is healed by Genovefa's prayers. She, gentle in spirit, by her prayers restored both the master to health from his pressing affliction and the servant from the bond of guilt.

Side Note* alt. Pronimius. Side Note* MS. Aud.: "were burning."

CHAPTER IX.

She drives demons from human bodies.

[36] A demon tries to impede her voyage. From the aforesaid city she set out for Tours. As the keels glided forward and the backs of the Loire were struck by the blows of the oars, the author of the most wicked work strove greatly to obstruct her journey through the waters of that river. But she who was protected by the shield of the Most High could in no way have her course disturbed by the ambush of the most wicked demon. When the current of the flowing river brought her ship to the shore of the city of Tours, that most wicked and most foul multitude of demons came to meet her as she disembarked, and running ahead of her as she went to the basilica, wailing from afar, they complained of being burned by a double fire, because she was entering the hall of the holy Bishop as a companion in their torment. She frees many demoniacs. There she restored many who had been filled with unclean spirits to health by the merits and powers of her prayers, while she paid the homage of veneration to the funeral rites of the holy Priest. She was also brought through the homes of some leading citizens' wives, prevailed upon by their husbands' prayers, who suffered from the same affliction of tribulation but whom marital concern did not allow to come out in public. As soon as she crossed the threshold of their dwelling, she gave her prayer, immediately put the demons to flight, and healed them, removing all future suspicion.

[37] She drives a demon from a flask. It happened that while standing in the doorway of her house she saw a certain person carrying a flask with a seasoning that he had purchased through the street. On the mouth of the flask she perceived that most wicked spirit, the adversary of the human race, sitting there. When she had obtained the flask from the man by the touch of her hand, and had signed it with the imposition of the cross, that ambusher was immediately ejected from the creature in which he had inserted himself, along with a fragment of the mouth of that flask. And although the cunning one had believed himself to be hidden within the enclosure of that flask by subtle tricks, he was nevertheless detected by the gaze of God's servant, and driven out so that he could do no harm, he vanished.

Side Note* MS. Aud.: "of the mouth."

CHAPTER X.

She drives away rain and diseases; she dies.

[38] She heals a blind, mute, deaf, and lame boy with blessed oil. A certain little boy named Maroveus — blind, mute, deaf, and lame — was brought by his parents to Paris for the blessed Virgin to receive his health. Anointed by her with the unction of blessed oil, he returned home with his parents, seeing, speaking, walking, and hearing, fully restored to health.

[39] She turns away rain from her reapers by her prayers. It also happened that in the territory of Meaux, when she was cutting the stalks of her own crop with hired reapers, a sudden downpour threatened. The workers being disturbed, she entered the tent and prostrated herself on the ground in prayer as was her custom, and the rain poured over the fields of others placed all around, so that not a single drop of water or cloud fell within the bounds of her own field; and so the work that had been begun was completed by the workers without any disturbance from the storm, in wonderful amazement.

[40] A certain man who had a demon was brought to the aforesaid servant of God by his parents with weeping and groaning, for the sake of obtaining health. She obtains blessed oil from God by her prayers; she cures a demoniac with it. When she had ordered the flask in which she was accustomed to keep sanctified ointments to be brought to her, it happened by chance that she had no oil, and there was no Bishop present at the time to pour the grace of sanctification into the oil. As she hesitated, uncertain what to do, she immediately prostrated herself on the ground in prayer. And when she had faithfully fulfilled the office of supplication while clinging to the earth for a long time — as the sequel demonstrated — she saw the flask in her hands full of an infusion of oil. And so in the space of a single hour, with Christ rewarding her, she earned the grace of a double miracle: both the cleansing of the sick person and the bestowal of oil.

[41] She dies at more than eighty years of age. The Virgin of the Lord, Genovefa, having completed the span of her life, ended her life in peace with a praiseworthy conclusion, and was buried on the 3rd of the Nones of January; she who lived in this world as a stranger to the world, venerable to the people, and devoted to Christ for eighty years.

[42] Clovis begins a basilica in her honor. Around the tomb of this woman — at first humbly covered with a wooden structure placed above it — King Clovis of glorious memory, the standard of good men and a man rightly to be preferred to all princes in virtue, justice, and piety, founded a basilica with admirable design. Clotilde completes it. When Clovis was cut short by premature death, his most sublime wife Queen Clotilde completed it, adorned with porticoes, atria, and (a) entrances, and raised to its lofty roof. It shines in splendor, destined to provide forever an illustrious (b) monument of praise to the dignity of the Virgin before Christ, who lives and reigns with the eternal Father forever and ever. Amen.

Side Note (a) MS. Aud.: "and entrances." Perhaps "and inner sanctuaries"? Side Note (b) MS. S. Max.: "tribute."

MIRACLES OF ST. GENOVEFA AFTER DEATH,

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR,

A religious at St. Genovefa's in Paris.

Genovefa, Virgin at Paris in Gaul (St.) BHL Number: 3342

From MSS.

[1] A lamp at her tomb flows with healing oil. After the passing of the most blessed Virgin Genovefa, a lamp was assigned to serve at her tomb, which, like a bubbling spring, poured forth streams of oil. With an added miracle, the oil thus miraculously poured forth triumphed over a multitude of the sick, and nature was changed for the better: for the fire burned in the lamp after the oil was consumed, the lamp being changed into a fountain, the oil into medicine. And so by the miracle of the bodily lamp, miracles of bodies are worked on earth; but she poured forth more abundant streams into the hearts of souls from the good measure, pressed together and overflowing, in heaven.

[2] A blind and mute man is healed. A certain man, deprived of the function of tongue and eyes, had long petitioned before the tomb of the holy Virgin for the restoration of his senses. But at the hour of the sacred communion, while the Clergy were singing for the divine office, "Make your face to shine upon your servant" (Ps. 30:17 31:16), he saw and spoke. Thus the Virgin restored both light and voice to the suppliant at once, lest either the restored voice should lament the loss of his eyes, or the tongue, being absent, should fail to give thanks for the light restored.

[3] Another mute man is cured. Meanwhile it was revealed to a certain Fulconius, mute from birth, from the territory of Poissy, that he should come into the presence of the blessed virgin Genovefa and there receive the freedom of voice that nature had denied him. When on a certain Sunday he came to the place in the faith of the revelation, the Gospel was being read at Mass where it is said of the Lord: "He has done all things well; he has made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak" (Mark 7:37). He heard and believed, and immediately the bond of his tongue was loosed and he spoke, glorifying God. After Mass the Abbot of the monastery, *Optatus by name, asked him what he wished to do after the gift of speech was bestowed upon him. He answered that he did not wish to leave the place which the divine revelation had shown him, where he had also received the novelty of voice. He remains in the Virgin's service. For forgetting his own people, he does not know how to return home; he does not know how to live without the Virgin's presence all the days of his life. The Father joyfully embraced the man's vow and kindly provided him with the necessities of life.

[4] At the same time a certain woman, admonished in a vision, brought her son, blind from birth, to the place of the aforesaid Virgin. A blind man receives his sight. And when the Gospel reading on the day she arrived recounted the miracle of how the Lord Jesus Christ opened the eyes of the man born blind, immediately — as we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in his holy mountain — his eyes were opened. And smiling at the novelty of things, he fixed his amazed eyes on each object; and he also embraced the candle which his mother had lit as a thanksgiving, as was the custom in such cases, in the sight of many who stood by and marveled. Thus his natural blindness was attested by his inexperienced eyes, and the new light was demonstrated by the wonder of its novelty (John 9). The miracles of the holy Virgin are preceded by divine revelation, so that with the revelation preceding, the faithful effect of miracles cannot be lacking, because all things are possible to those who believe.

[5] A demoniac is freed. A certain man of Paris, driven by a demon, was taken to many shrines of the Saints, but was not cured. When hope of his recovery was abandoned, he was kept bound in chains. But one night, when sleep fell upon his weary guards, the demoniac escaped, and the Lord directed his steps to the threshold of the aforesaid church. But because the malignant one cannot dwell near her, the devil immediately left him, having suffered the power of the holy Virgin; and he who never prevailed against her in life does not prevail near her after death. A short time later the doors of the church were opened for the night office; and the man went joyfully to the Virgin's tomb, and offering the chain with which he had been bound, went to his house and told how great things God had done for him.

[6] Another is saved from a dangerous fall. Moreover, while workers were laboring on the roof of the monastery, one of them, falling from the top of the temple, caught his fingers in a hole of a carved ceiling panel, the rest of his body hanging in the precipice. While the brethren prayed for him, they ascended to the place where he hung and, tying a noose under his arms, they lifted him from the precipice. He himself, taken from danger, confessed that while in the precipice he had been unaware of the danger, and had rested as in the turning of sleep. Soon a miracle was added to confirm the miracle: for the panel, which could not be pulled by the weight of a human body, fell of its own accord with no force pushing it, and breaking into pieces served as testimony of the miracle.

[7] A woman who violates the feast of the Blessed Virgin and blasphemes is punished. It also happened on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin that a certain woman in the suburbs of Paris was carding wool, despising the sacred solemnity. When she was rebuked by a neighbor for her contempt of so great a solemnity, she added iniquity upon iniquity and said: "Was not Mary a woman who performed servile work?" But when she completed the malice of her wicked deed with wicked speech, the combs clung so inseparably to her unworthy hands that she was condemned to the burden of this load until the passing of the blessed virgin Genovefa — a fitting retribution, with the instrument passing into a punishment for the guilt she had committed afterward. But on the night of the aforesaid feast, she came to the church of the Blessed Virgin Genovefa, and at the first words of the matins office the burden fell from her hands. She is healed by the help of St. Genovefa. Whence it must be undoubtedly believed that her servants who stand by her and humbly seek relief from their human burden are daily freed by her merits and stripped of their biting sins — she who immediately dissolved and shook off the burden of the woman who came to her. The faith of this miracle is attested not only by human testimony but also by the combs that hang on display outside. We believe that through this virgin the Virgin is appeased, and the contempt of her feast is forgiven on this feast, so that all may clearly understand with what devotion and veneration the passing of the holy virgin ought to be celebrated. You have heard, brethren, the holy virgins triumph admirably over the evils and dangers of men; hear now her even more admirable power over the waters.

[8] At a certain winter time the River Seine, swollen by continuous rains and the waters of much snow, overflowed its proper bounds with such unusual and unprecedented flooding that it inundated the whole city of Paris, driving both citizens and clergy from their homes and churches. When the flooding occurred, the eminent Pontiff *Richaldus of that city, fearing lest the city be imperiled because of his own sins or those of the people, exhorted the people to fast to appease God, and ordered the presbyters and other ministers of the Church to try whether they could celebrate divine offices in the individual basilicas, at least by boat, with sacred books and vestments. One of them, named Richard, boarded a boat and proceeded to the convent of nuns located near the house of St. John the Baptist, built on the estate and with the resources of Blessed Genovefa. The bed of St. Genovefa is unharmed by the flooding of the Seine. There was still preserved in that convent the bed where the same virgin had departed to the Lord — surrounded by waters but not flooded, for the waters had risen to the middle of the windows. Then the man who had been sent to test the power of that bed approached more closely, and with careful eyes observed the truth of the miracle and reported it to the Bishop, who immediately came with the clergy and a multitude of people to the place. Seeing the miracle he had heard about, he gave thanks to God and the Virgin. From that day the swelling Seine was forced back to its proper channel — which it had previously overflowed only so that there might be this miracle among the miracles of St. Genovefa. The ancient story is restored to you, but with the addition of a new miracle. Moses once divided the Red Sea for Israel to cross, which afterwards returned to its former place; the holy virgin Genovefa does not deprive, by the power of her presence, the bed from which she departed — for though absent in body but present in power, she restrained the rushing waters and held them up like a wall. Rightly was the Virgin's bed preserved from the waters after her death, where she had crucified her members with their vices and concupiscences, and through many nights had sought with dry feet what her soul loved and thirsted for, like earth without water, until she drank from the fountain of which whoever drinks will never thirst again.

[9] At the same time a certain thief was being kept in prison for punishment along with other criminals. But one evening, deceiving the prison guards, he pretended he was going to relieve himself, and by this trick fled to the church of Blessed Genovefa. But because the monastery gate facing the city was closed for the night by custom, having searched the monastery... he came to the other gate where the church of St. Michael is. And already the... the Prefect of the city was following close behind him. One of the Prefect's soldiers, named Ratomus, despised the power of the Virgin more boldly than the others and rushed upon the thief with no reverence for the holy place. As both approached the monastery, the thief was supplicating the Virgin, and the soldier — soon to perish — was insulting the thief as if already captured. A blasphemer is punished with sudden death. And when he had blasphemed the holy Virgin for her powerlessness — that she could not free a thief so near to her — he immediately suffered the Virgin's power, fell, and died. Therefore, when the holy Virgin was terribly magnified, the rest showed reverence and honor to God and the Virgin, carried away their dead man, and buried him without honor outside the city. Wherefore "terrible is this place" — terrible also is the Virgin who presides over the place — because the zeal for her house, like an army drawn up in battle array, struck down the soldier's blasphemy and saved the thief who supplicated her. By the death of the soldier she saved the life of the thief, and established both her terror in the soldier and her clemency in the thief.

Side Note* He is absent from the catalogue of Abbots in Cl. Robert. Side Note* He is absent in Cl. Robert.

FIRST INCURSION OF THE NORMANS.

Miracles during the flight, return, and afterwards.

[10] The monastery of St. Genovefa is burned by the Normans. The miracles thus far recorded occurred before the monastery of Blessed Genovefa was consumed by the fire of the Normans. Now I shall relate a few of the innumerable miracles by which she shone afterwards. The brothers of the aforesaid monastery, fleeing the tyranny of the Normans with a great crowd of people, brought their Lady to Athies, her own estate. Her body is carried elsewhere. The candle that was borne before her was illuminated by accompanying miracles, lest she should walk in darkness who had never had any fellowship with darkness. Meanwhile, the divine power preceded the holy Virgin with miracles at the place to which she herself was about to come, so that the wonderful God in his Saints might make the Virgin's presence marvelous and present the absent one. The altar moves of its own accord; it rests when the relics are placed upon it. For the altar of the church where she was to be placed, with its cross and relics beneath it, was moving — shaken simultaneously and attesting to the Virgin's approach with rapid motion. But at the entrance of the holy body, everything that had been moving was made firm and rested, as if the expected celebration of the Virgin was completed. For there was no longer reason for them to tremble, since they possessed the very cause of their trembling. O admirable and praiseworthy Virgin, whom even insensible things perceive and adore at her coming, at whose... immovable things move and exult, and men marvel and tremble. For the motion in the immovable things was thought to be an earthquake. But when the Virgin followed, and tranquility followed the Virgin, it became known whose power it was.

[11] From Athies, having crossed the Seine, the holy Virgin was brought to Draveil. While she was continuously redeeming the ailments of many there with miracles, there came to her the Abbot of our congregation, Herbert, to adore her presence more devoutly [Abbot Herbert, who steals a tooth of St. Genovefa, is punished with visions and pains] and to be more secure under her protection. And indeed, with the knowledge of a few, he separated from the holy body one tooth, having zeal for piety but not according to knowledge. Terrified by various visions and brought to his last illness by still heavier afflictions, he confessed that he had sinned, but had been ignorant of the sin at the time. And when he had repented according to the multitude of his griefs, He restores it splendidly adorned he enclosed the precious tooth in crystal of great size, crowned it with the purest gold, and restored it to the monastery of the holy Virgin.

[12] Meanwhile the Normans, having made a treaty with our citizens, returned to their own land. Thus, with the Parisians freed from the care of war, we brought our Lady back to her holy place, with crowds of people rejoicing and coming to meet us. The relics of St. Genovefa are brought back to Paris. When we had crossed the stream, the candle that was carried before her was extinguished; A candle is rekindled by the merits of St. Genovefa but soon, at the prayers of the brothers, it was relit. Therefore, bringing the holy Virgin into her church with the unspeakable praise of the people, we placed her not in the crypt from which she had been taken before, but upon the altar of the Apostles.

[13] At that time a woman came to the presence of the blessed virgin Genovefa, detained by great fevers, from the village of Limay, an estate of St. Denis. There in one night... she received full... A woman is freed from fevers and so returned to her own home. After a week she returned to fulfill the vows she had made for her begun recovery, and after one night of vigil she was restored to full health. Another woman committed adultery in the district of Poissy, at the estate called Val-d'Or, from which both her husband was slain and she herself lost her speech through subsequent divine judgments. An adulteress is struck mute: Fleeing therefore to the aid of Blessed Genovefa, she afflicted herself with bodily prostrations and groans at the tomb for a whole week. She receives her voice through St. Genovefa: On the following Sunday night, when she rose from the prayer to which she had devoted herself, she vomited blood and at the first sound of the bells received the gift of speech. But after spending another week in thanksgiving, on the following Sunday she was returning home without hearing Mass and without permission. Leaving without hearing Mass, she is punished: But before she had left the bounds of the blessed Virgin's territory, she fell, her legs and shins contracted. And so, carried back to the holy place and sustained for a long time by the kindness of good people, She is healed again she was at last restored to health.

[14] Two blind people are cured by the oil of her lamp. A woman of the city of Paris also, while lamenting the loss of her eyes, learned by a nocturnal revelation that the oil of the Virgin's lamp would restore her sight if Martin the church custodian would anoint her eyes with the sacred unction. In the faith of this revelation she came to the presence of the holy Virgin and explained the revelation divinely made to her. Martin the custodian accordingly applied the requested unction to her eyes, and the unction drove away the blindness. After a week that woman, a witness to the miracles, brought a certain blind man to the Virgin, whose power she had experienced; and the anointing of the sacred lamp also... his eyes... The Virgin's... precedes not only the missions of Angels but even the praises of men: she is revealed from heaven, she is proclaimed on earth. A multitude of the sick is brought to her; she heals with continuous miracles whatever is presented to her.

[15] It also happened at that time that a venerable man named Magnardus, while guarding the bees of a certain brother by night, was weighed down by oncoming sleep and was deprived of his sight in that very sleep. A blind man receives his sight. When, waking from heavy sleep, he suffered the loss of his sight, he prepared two candles made to his own measurement and placed them before the tomb of the holy Virgin, and there for a week he applied himself for the restoration of the aforesaid sense. And when he had persevered in his supplication until Sunday night, he felt as it were the trace of someone passing by, who in the manner of a close passage touched his eyes with a cloth and so passed on. He thought that one of the brothers had passed by, not understanding the power of the one who passed by doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38). But soon, through the benefit of the miracle that followed, the power of the one who had passed by became known. For at the first strokes of the morning office, the blind man saw and gave thanks for the restoration of his sight.

[16] Likewise a blind woman. At the same time a certain servant of the holy Virgin was brought by her husband to the Virgin's presence, to pray for the restoration of her sight. After completing her prayer she asked for and received oil from the Virgin's lamp, and a devout confession of sins also hastened the miracle, lest the guilt of sin delay the speed of the miracle. And so, after the sacred anointing and pious confession, adorned with her former light, she saw Another contracted person is healed and gave thanks. When, out of fear of the pagans, the holy Virgin was again brought back to Draveil, a boy of that same village, suffering from the affliction of contraction, lay beneath the sacred body and immediately in that moment the dead flesh revived.

Side Note* Corrupt passage.

SECOND INCURSION OF THE NORMANS.

Miracles during the flight and return.

[17] Second incursion of the Normans. During the second persecution of the Normans coming against the city of Paris, the blessed Virgin was brought to a Parisian estate which a most noble man named Helmegaudis had long ago given by charter to the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and to the blessed virgin Genovefa, for the commemoration of his anniversary each year. In this journey she shone with many miracles, but the anxiety of fleeing then prevented the writing down of them; and indeed the Virgin was not diminished by the silence concerning present miracles, because of the undoubted abundance of future ones. A contracted man is healed by St. Genovefa. At the aforesaid estate, Fulchericus suffered such severe contraction that his feet, twisted back to his buttocks, could not be straightened by any art. When he was brought into the Virgin's presence by the help of his hands, immediately the feet that had been rigid were restored to walking. And so by the Virgin's help he leapt up, praising the Lord.

[18] A man who works on Sunday is punished with blindness. A certain man of Rebais, when he had presumed to grind grain on Sunday night, a grain of corn from the millstone struck his eye and deprived him of light. A more severe ailment followed the loss of his eye. For he soon began to beat his chest and belly with his hands and to vomit blood with constant pounding. He sought a remedy for this affliction for a whole year in many holy places, He is healed by St. Genovefa but finally found it through the clemency of the blessed Virgin. Coming to the place where the holy Virgin was making it illustrious with miracles, he devoted himself to prayer, and while the brothers prayed for him at the same time, he withdrew his hands from his chest and raised them to heaven with a voice of exultation and salvation. All who were present marveled and glorified God, and the church resounded with their voices.

[19] A paralytic woman, half-dead, is fully cured. Meanwhile a woman named Fulchora, half of whose body had withered from the disease of paralysis, was brought to the holy Virgin. Placed there, in the manner of a true resurrection, after two days she was revived; and when on the third day she came into the presence of the holy Virgin with her body fully restored, she gave glory to God and the Virgin, and so returned home.

[20] A demoniac woman is freed. Again, another woman from Marisiacum, long possessed by a demon, was dragged with bound hands by force to the most holy body and thrown down before her presence. While she writhed foaming for a long time before the holy Virgin from the agitation of the demon, she was finally freed from her torment by vomiting blood.

[21] A man's rigid arms are cured. A young man whose arms had gone rigid was also brought from the village of Caniacum to the aforesaid place. When he had supplicated the Virgin for two days for his restoration, on the third day his arms were made so flexible for every use that they had never been readier for any work.

[22] At the same time a certain servant of hers came from the estate of Arcis to the holy Virgin, Fever and leprosy are driven away by the oil of St. Genovefa seized by fever and struck with leprosy. When his whole body had been carefully anointed with the oil of the holy Virgin, the leprosy perished and the fever escaped its danger: outwardly it wiped away the spots of leprosy, inwardly it extinguished the burning of the fever — seeking medicine wisely from the Virgin.

[23] A woman regains her eye. In like manner a girl who had lost one eye was supplicating the Virgin for its restoration. When she rose from prayer, she lit a candle in the manner of suppliants; and she herself was simultaneously illuminated and received her sight with its full integrity, to the amazement of those who were present. She gave thanks to the Father of lights for the restoration of her light, and persevering in praise of the Virgin, returned home.

[24] Another woman is healed of her infirmity. Likewise a woman named Avuldis from the village of Caniacum was carried to the holy Virgin and for a long time awaited the Virgin's clemency before the basilica in which she rested. When the time of showing mercy to her had come, she was carried inside the church into the presence of the sacred body and immediately received full health of her whole body; and she who was previously being carried rose without anyone's help, fully healed. When the woman and all who were present had extolled the Virgin's miracle with due praises, the woman proclaimed that she had received full health and that nothing of her former illness remained in her.

[25] Not far from Marisiacum is the monastery of St. Germanus the Confessor, which the holy virgin Genovefa once honored with the presence of her body and with subsequent signs. A contracted woman is healed. For a certain contracted woman, carried there by others' hands, filled the place with great cries so that the Virgin's help might be hastened. When the woman's great cry ascended to the ears of the Virgin, the great mercy of the Virgin descended upon the woman. And so she was restored to health, that she might return home fully healed and suffer nothing thereafter of her former illness. A man also tormented by a demon A demoniac is freed came to the holy Virgin's presence. But because there is no fellowship of light with darkness, the adversary was driven out from the possessed man and fled, and the man, freed from the demon, gave thanks. After his thanksgiving he returned home, everywhere secure under the protection of the Apostolic Virgin — to whom even demons are subject, and who worthily shares in the power of the Apostles, in whose fellowship she rejoices both in heaven and on earth.

[26] Likewise another. Again, another demoniac came, and at a certain man's gesture offered a coin at the Virgin's altar. But soon, agitated by the demon, he demanded from Martin the monastery custodian either the offering or death. And when those standing by tried to seize him, he fled from their midst. But he was soon caught and bound and brought back to the Virgin's shrine. The following day, brought to the church, he became quiet from the demon's agitation and returned home in peace.

[27] Another demoniac also. There was in the same village of Marisiacum a certain servant named Flodegisus, so tormented by the infestation of demons that he constantly gnashed his teeth, bit his tongue, vomited blood, and could not redeem his continuous suffering by any use of reason. When he was brought by the force of those dragging him to the holy Virgin's body and violently thrown to the ground, he lay there as if dead for a long time, and after a long time rose without anyone's help. And so, freed from the devil's power, he paid his vows to the Virgin, and was restored to his own household with the integrity of his former senses.

[28] Likewise another. It is also worthy to insert into the reading that in the presence of the holy Virgin no demoniacs could hide. For a demoniac named Archamfedus had concealed his affliction with such dissimulation that he was believed to be free and untroubled by demonic torment. And so, concealing his calamity, he came to the oratory of the holy Virgin with other faithful and devoted himself to prayer there. But in the presence of the sacred Virgin the demoniac could not hide, lest the Virgin's power be concealed in his cure. For he began to cry out terribly with demonic voices, to tear his hands with his teeth and his clothes with his hands. Those present wanted to seize and bind him, but he slipped from their hands and began to flee. His mother followed him, wanting to bring back the fugitive. But he turned on his mother, tried to stone her, and throwing stones after the fleeing woman, pursued her all the way to the shrine of the virgin Genovefa. The master priests blessed a vessel of water and plunged him, bound with great force, into the water. After the immersion in water, he was brought to the presence of the sacred body and, signed with the sign of the Cross, was restored to complete health.

[29] A mute woman regains her voice. At that time a woman came to the most holy Virgin who had long lost her speech. When she had devoted herself to prayer and truly cried out to her Lord like Moses, she rose from prayer and spoke correctly. And so with thanksgiving and the frequent giving of due praise she was returned to her household.

[30] A contracted man is healed. In those days there was a certain contracted man named Genebaldus, whose feet were so folded back against his buttocks that they could not be unfolded by any skill. When he was presented to the sacred Virgin by the hands of his bearers, after a short time he rose with his feet extended, so that nothing remained of his former ailment and no trace appeared of the monstrous contortion.

[31] Many also came to the holy Virgin suffering from various fevers, Many are freed from fevers whose recovery we do not record individually because we cannot know the number of such a multitude. This, however, we affirm without doubt concerning all of them, with the author of miracles as witness: that all returned to their homes.

[32] The body of St. Genovefa is carried back toward Paris. And so the most blessed virgin Genovefa remained outside her own see for the course of five years, with the Normans ravaging the entire region adjoining the Seine. When they returned to their own land, we brought our Lady back to her holy place. Moving from Marisiacum, the first stop was Marogilus, her own estate. In the same estate there was a fetter — or, as it is commonly called, a stock — where a woman and her daughter were being held because of the debt of her husband, who had borrowed money from a creditor and fled. When we approached the place where this was happening, the holy Virgin, Certain captive women are freed by St. Genovefa as though having authority, broke human powers, and with all chains shattered, ten women came to meet us. Coming forward, they adored the holy Virgin, who loosed the shackled with such authority and power. Having celebrated so unusual and unprecedented a miracle, we rested and spent the night in that same place. From there we came to the church of St. Martin the Confessor, which the holy Virgin had honored with two miracles.

33-37 The body of St. Genovefa continues its journey back to Paris with miracles at each stop. A deaf woman receives her hearing at the entrance of the holy body. A contracted girl is healed at Liciacum at the church of St. Medard. A weaver with contracted hands is restored. At the estate of Traiectum a contracted woman is healed and follows the Virgin, taking up the task of sweeping the Virgin's house. Finally the body arrives at Paris with exulting crowds of clergy, monks, and people, with hymns and canticles.

ON THE EXCELLENCE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN GENOVEFA (BHL 3344). A.D. 1129, November 26th.

38-42 In the reign of King Louis the Fat, son of Philip, when France enjoyed peace but fell into vice, God punished the kingdom with the sacred fire (ignis sacer). Bishop Stephen I of Paris instituted processions and fasts. When these failed, he recalled how Genovefa had saved Paris from the Huns and restrained the Seine. He arranged for her body to be carried solemnly to the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When the holy Virgin entered the church, the Lord was roused as from sleep and commanded the disease; all but three of the sick were cured -- one hundred in number -- by the mere touch of the bier. Pope Innocent II the following year ordered this miracle to be commemorated with an annual celebration. A man named Simon Capisterius who later diminished the annual celebration was punished with sudden death.

REVELATION OF THE RELICS OF ST. GENOVEFA (BHL 3346). A.D. 1162, January 10th.

[1-5] In 1161, during a royal council at Paris, false accusations arose that the head of St. Genovefa was not preserved in her church. King Louis ordered an investigation. The Bishops of Sens and Auxerre opened the casket and found the body complete with its head and all members. The Bishop of Orleans, Manasses, tried to spread lies to the contrary, but was refuted by letters from the Bishops of Sens and Auxerre to the King confirming the truth. The King was satisfied and continued to protect the church.

[43] St. Genovefa is compared with St. Mary Magdalene. Let us compare, if you will, our virgin with that holy sinner to whom many sins were forgiven because she loved much. The holy sinner of whom we speak prostrated herself at the Lord's feet, bathed them with tears, and wiped them with her hair, humbled by him who humbles sinners even to the ground; and indeed she looked to her own interests, she provided for herself. If therefore her humility is praised as worthy, who shall be found a worthy and sufficient praiser of one who bathed the diseased feet of sinners with heavenly ointment? And she indeed healed them — she did not come to be healed; she gave, she did not receive — since, by the testimony of Truth, it is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20:35. The Magdalene brought spices purchased with earthly means to the Lord's sepulchre; this one received freely and gave freely. The former instructed us with her spices; this one healed us and gladdened the city of God with the oil of exultation and salvation. But lest we rush into reckless comparisons, let us return to our narrative; for it is more perilous to weigh the merits of the Saints against each other than to narrate them.

[44] All give thanks to God for the miracle. Therefore, when the miracle was seen, the Bishop and Clergy tried to exalt the praises of the holy virgin according to ecclesiastical custom, but the clamor of the people and the amazement at the miracle did not permit it; for they could not match the voices of the populace. And so they cried out with the people and acknowledged the miracle of the virgin with shouts and tears, because thanksgivings to God are compunction of heart and exultation of voice, as the Prophet testifies who says: "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him with trembling" Psalm 2:11. And another Scripture says: "You shall draw waters with joy from the springs of the Savior" Isaiah 12:3. And when a great time had passed in the voice of exultation and salvation, we heard impious voices crying out that Blessed Genovefa should not be returned to her place, but should protect the city with her presence. The body of St. Genovefa is returned to her church. Those voices frightened us, and avoiding the impious devotion of the people we hastened homeward, with our eyes and hands intent upon the sacred virgin. But so great a multitude of people came to meet us that the deep evening had already turned the day before the holy virgin could enter her own place.

[45] Innocent II orders this miracle commemorated with an annual celebration. The following year, Pope Innocent of happy memory came to these parts, and upon hearing of the miracle, he gave thanks to the Virgin and bestowed upon the miracle itself, as worthy of unfailing praise, an annual commemoration. Let none doubt what we write, for we narrate not what was heard but what was witnessed. Let all who rely on the intercession of Blessed Genovefa believe the miracle, lest they be counted among those crowds who saw and did not believe. Having set forth the miracle briefly and having appended the authority of this day, it seems appropriate to add how in the course of time it was consecrated by divine signs.

[46] One who diminishes the celebration of this day is punished by sudden death. For when this day was recalled each year in solemn commemoration, it happened that once it was celebrated without solemn ornaments due to the absence of Simon Capisterius, whose office it was to provide the ornaments and furnish the lights at his own expense; for he wished to avoid the expense of his property by showing contempt for the feast. On the following day, when the solemnity had been celebrated, as he was ascending to the sanctuary and was just about to step from the topmost stairs into the holy place, he suffered divine power and fell back slightly upon the stairs. Struck a second time, he fell onto the pavement and expired remarkably without a word and without any movement of his senses. May the gracious Jesus remember all who recall this miracle, and may their memory not be blotted from the tree of life, forever and ever. Amen.

THE REVELATION OF THE RELICS OF ST. GENOVEFA,

From the same Brussels MS.

Genovefa, Virgin at Paris in Gaul (St.) BHL Number: 3346

From MSS.

Year 1162. 10 January.

[1] In the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 1161, in the reign of the most pious King Louis, son of the illustrious Louis King of the Franks, a royal edict went out through all the realm that all the Prelates of the Churches, together with all the Nobles, should assemble at the city of Paris to hold a council concerning the welfare of the kingdom. On the appointed day, all who had been summoned gathered

Page 153 at the city and began to deliberate more privately on the honorable welfare of the kingdom. And since the malicious are always provoked by their zeal for greater malice, to the increase of their own damnation, certain persons, enemies of religion and honor, burst into the assembly and armed their tongues like a sharp sword against the Saints of God. What more? It is investigated whether the head of St. Genovefa is preserved with the body. A false accusation reached the royal ears — namely, that the head of the most blessed virgin Genovefa was not in our church. The King's mind, tainted by these rumors, was greatly disturbed, and his countenance was clouded. Both Clergy and people were consulted, and after taking counsel with them, they came to our church without delay. And lest another head be placed in the chest in which the venerable virginal body rested during the night, the same chest was secured with the royal seal. On the following day, at the beginning of the first hour, by the King's command our venerable Lords were sent to our church — namely, the Bishops of Sens and Auxerre. The Bishop of Orléans, named Manasses, also came — worthy of oblivion rather than remembrance, an enemy of truth and a most eager persecutor of religion and honor — and with him a great multitude of people. * At length discussion arose among them about opening the chest, and the aforesaid most cunning author of crimes, to cloak the iniquity conceived in his heart with the image of virtue, being flooded with copious tears, was the first to begin singing an antiphon about the most holy virgin. Without delay, our Lady was taken down from her holy place, and with the mark of royal dignity removed, the chest was opened, and the body of the most holy virgin, with the linen wrappings removed, was displayed before our eyes. Therefore, examining the entire virginal body more carefully with our eyes, we burst forth in praise of God with healing exultation, The head is found with the body. chanting the Te Deum laudamus. The people's tears flowed more abundantly — those who had previously been awaiting our verdict, but who now rejoiced with us as we exulted.

[2] And since "there is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord," whence the just exults and praises, the sinner is confounded and blasphemes Isaiah 48:22. For it is written: "When the wicked man comes into the depths of evils, he scorns" Proverbs 18:3. Therefore the Bishop of Orléans, raging with the full spirit of his malice, lied that the head of the venerable virgin had been removed The contrary is urged upon the King and that through the deceit of some wretched old woman another head had been substituted. Unable to conceal the iniquity he had conceived in his heart, wholly given over to fraud, he went to the King — leaving behind the aforesaid Bishops — prattling with a defiant mouth, and began to repeat the same story as before, lying that the aforesaid Bishops, who had not found the head of the said virgin, had departed in anger. However, the truth did not admit what iniquity had fabricated in the manner of a lie.

[3] The venerable Bishop of Sens came forth to the people as a witness of the truth, Hugo the Archbishop confirms the truth in a sermon to the people. explaining how the question had arisen among some whether the head of the most holy virgin was in her church, and then carefully setting forth how the body had been found intact with all its members: "We glory," he said, "in having found the head of this most holy virgin, who is the glory of all Gaul, together with the integrity of her body. And lest this ever become a matter of doubt for you or for posterity, we have considered it fitting to preach this to you." The aforesaid Bishop had proclaimed these and many other things in the hearing of the people — things which could have restrained the excessive and shameless audacity of our enemy, had it been granted from above. But since it was then the hour and the power of darkness, so that his iniquity might be found odious, he strove by every means he could to turn the King's mind against us for evil. And since neither reason nor counsel was any longer needed — for the royal Majesty had already been stirred up against us — it came to mind to send after the aforementioned Bishops, so that their testimony might afterwards make the truth shine in the King's eyes. And so some of the brethren were sent with great haste to Melun. They set forth before the venerable Fathers the detestable perversity of the Bishop of Orléans and earnestly begged them not to refuse to make the truth of the matter known to the royal Clemency through their letters. Therefore, as men of peace and lovers of truth, moved by the prayers of our brethren and kindly granting their assent to their just supplications, they wrote back to the royal Majesty, reporting the truth of the matter in this manner:

[4] Letter of the Bishops of Sens and Auxerre to the King on this matter. "By the command of the royal Serenity we came to the church of the holy virgin Genovefa, and we had the chest in which the same virgin rests opened in our presence; and examining its contents more carefully with our eyes and hands, we found the most holy body with its head and all its members intact and ... beyond doubt. Having found this, we burst forth in praise of God with great exultation, and took care immediately to proclaim it to the people standing about. This, and nothing else, we report to our Lord. Behold, by letter we inform you a second time, so that the truth may not be obscured by the detraction of malicious men whose pursuit it is to corrupt what is good ... Farewell, in the Lord."

[5] The most gentle mind of the King, soothed by the testimony of such men, drove far from himself all shadows of the aforesaid doubt, and he both loved and protected our church as before — indeed more earnestly than before. And so, after the truth came to light, impiety grieves that it has been deceived. From that time forward the Bishop of Orléans, from a lion became a dragon, no longer spewing the poison of his wickedness openly but in secret. And since when the head is crushed the remaining members have no strength, when the Lord turned the jaws of the lions in their own mouths, his accomplices — ministers of confusion, sons of perdition, our enemies — were confounded, because God despised them. We therefore, because we have been rescued from power and from the snare of the hunters, let us all say, let each of us sing: "The snare is broken and we are delivered."

[6] [This revelation of the head, or opening of the chest, was made on January 10, 1161.] Our Lady was revealed in the year of the Incarnate Word one thousand one hundred and sixty-one, in the month of January, on the tenth of the month, during the Octave of the same most holy virgin, and was joyfully celebrated before God by the brethren. On the following day, the third, she was elevated with hymns and spiritual canticles to her holy place from which she had been taken down. That day is henceforth solemnly celebrated. We, in memory of such great joy for the grief previously endured, by the common counsel and shared judgment of our brethren, have appointed that same day to be celebrated solemnly by us and by our successors, so that the devotion and every observance shown on the feast day of her nativity shall no less be maintained by this solemnity also. And we have taken care to provide that the text of this account shall be read on the same day each year, so that the just may have cause for rejoicing and the conscience of the sinner may find something by which to be pricked; that for the well-disposed there may be the grace of blessing, but for the ill-disposed and those who hate peace, a stone of stumbling and a rock of scandal.

On the Octave of John the Evangelist is the solemn feast of Genovefa; on the day after Simon and Jude is the Translation; on the day after Catherine is the Excellency, which is called the Feast of her Miracles.

Side Note* The writer's bitterness toward the Bishop is excessive.