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 GENEVIEVE

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GENEVIEVE

instead of her pearls and golden ornaments. There seem to have been no convents near her village ; and Genevieve, like so many others who wished to practise religious virtue, remained at home, leading an inno- cent, prayerful life. It is uncertain when she formally received the religious veil. Some writers assert that it was on the occasion of St. Gregory's return from his mission to Britain; others say she received it about her sixteenth year, along with two companions, from the hands of the Bishop of Paris. On the death of her parents she went to Paris, and lived with her god- mother. She devoted herself to works of charity and practised severe corporal austerities, abstaining com- pletely from flesh meat and breakmg her fast only twice in the week. These mortifi- cations she continued fur over thirty years, till her ecclesias- tical superiors thought it tlieir duty to make her diminish her austerities.

Many of her neighbours, filled with jealousy antl envy, accused Genevieve of being an impostor and a h y p o c r i t e. Like Blessed Joan of Arc, in later times, she had frequent communion with the other world, but her visions and prophecies were treated as frauds and deceits. Her enemies conspired to drown her; but, through the interven- tion of Germain of Auxerre, their animosity was finally overcome. The bishop of the city appointed her to look after the welfare of the virgins dedicated to God, and by her instruction and example she led tliem to a high degree of sanctity. In 451 Attila and his Huns were sweeping over Gaul; and the inhabitants of Paris prepared to flee. Gene- vieve encouraged them to hope and trust in God; she urged them to do works of penance, and added that if they did so the town would be .spared. Her exhortations prevailed; the citizens recov- ered their calm, and Attila's hordes turned off towards Orleans, leaving Paris un- touched. Some years later Merowig (Merovif-e) took Paris; during the siege Gene- vieve distinguished herself by her charity and self- sacrifice. Through her influence Merowig and his suc- cessors, Childeric and Clovis, displayed unwonted clemency towards the citizens. It was she, too, who first formed the plan of erecting a church in Paris in honour of Saints Peter and Paul. It was begun by Clovis at Mont-les-Paris, shortly before his death in 5 II. Genevieve died the following year, and when the church was completed her liody was interred within it. This fact, and the numerous miracles wrought at her tomb, caused the name of Sainte-Genevieve to be given to it. Kings, princes, and people enriched it with their gifts. In 847 it was pUmdered by the Normans and was partially rebuilt, but was completed only in 1177. This clnircli having fallen into decay once more, Louis X\" began the conslruoticin of a new church in 17C4. The Revolution broke out before it was dedicated, and it was taken over in IT'.H, under the name of the Pan- thf'^on, by the Const,itucnt Assembly, to be a burial

to Catholic purposes in 1821 and 1852, having been secularized as a national mausoleum in 1831 and, finally, in 1885. St. Genevieve's relics were preserved in her church, with great devotion, for centuries, and Paris received striking proof of the efficacy of her intercession. She saved the city from complete inundation in 834. In 1129 a violent plague, known as the mal des ardents, carried off over 14,000 victims, but it ceased suddenly during a procession in her honour. Innocent II, who had come to Paris to im- plore the king's help against the Antipope Anacletus in 1130, examined personally into the miracle and was so convinced of its authenticity that he ordered a feast to be kept annually in honour of the event on 26 November. A small church, called Sainte- Genevieve des Ardents, com- memorated the miracle till 1747, when it was pulled down to make room for the Found- ling Hospital. The saint's relics were carried in proces- sion yearly to the cathedral, and Mme de S6vign<! gives a description of the pageant in one of her letters.

The revolutionaries of 1793 destroyed most of the relics preserved in St. Genevieve's church, and the rest were cast to the winds by the mob in 1S71. Fortunately, however, a large relic had been kept at \'erneuil, Oise, in the eigh- teenth century, and is still extant. The church built by Clovis was entrusted to the Benedictines. In the ninth century they were replaced by secular canons. In 1148, under Eugene III and Louis VII, canons from St. Victor's Abbey at Senlis were intro- duced. About 1019 Louis XIII named Cardinal Fran- cois de La Rochefoucauld Abbot of St. Genevieve's. The canons had been lax and the cardinal selected Charles Faure to reform them. This holy man was bom in 1594, and entered the canons regu- lar at Senlis. He was remark- able for his piety, and, when ordained, succeeded after a hard struggle in reforming the abbey. Many of the houses of the canons regu- lar adopted his reform. He and a dozen companions took charge of Sainte-Genevieve-du-Mont, at Paris, in 1634. This became the mother-house of a new congregation, the Canons Regular of St. Genevieve, which spread widely over France. Another in- stitute called after the saint was the Daughters of St. Genevieve, founded at Paris, in 1636, by Fran- cesca de Blossct, with the object of nursing the sick and teaching young girls. A somewhat similar in- stitute, popularly known as the Miramiones, had been founded under the invocation of the Holy Trinity, in 1611, by Marie Bonneau de Rubella Beauharnais de Miraniion. These two institutes were united in 1665, and the associates called the Canonesses of St. Gene- vieve. The members took no vows, but merely prom- ised obedience to the rules as long as they remained in the institute. Suppressed during the Uevolution, it was revived in 1806 by Jeanne-Claude .laeoulet imiler the name of the Sisters of the Holy Family. They

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place for distinguished i''renchmen. It was restored now have charge of over 150 schools and orphanages