Born: 423, France
Died: 502
Country most active: France
Also known as: NA
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Saint Genevieve (420-519), according to popular tradition, was the daughter of peasants, Severus and Gerontia, who lived in Nanterre, near Paris. She was early remarkable for her piety and modesty, and soon devoted herself to a life of holiness and purity. On the death of her parents she removed to Paris, where her active charity, and the extraordinary reputation for sanctity which she acquired, won for her the admiring veneration, not alone of her own people, but even of the heathen and half converted. In 451 Attila and his Huns were sweeping over Gaul, and the inhabitants of Pans prepared to flee. Genevieve encouraged them to trust in God, and urged them to do works of penance, and added that if they did so the town would be spared. Her exhortations prevailed, the citizens recovered their calm, and Attila’s hordes turned off towards Orleans, leaving Paris untouched. Later, when Clovis besieged the city, Genevieve, with her sisters in religion, set out on an expedition for the relief of the starving people and successfully conveyed to Paris a supply of provisions. After Clovis’s conversion the city opened its gates to him by her advice. In 511 she formed the plan of erecting a church in Paris in honor of Saints Peter and Paul. Genevieve died the following year, and when the church was completed her body 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. An edifice built in her honor and upon the supposed site of her tomb, now called the Pantheon, contains the famous mural painting of the saint by Puvis de Chavannes. She is the patron saint of Paris, and the subject of many popular and poetical legends.
“From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Geneviéve has the honorable distinction of having saved the city of Paris. She was born at Nanterre, near Paris, or, according to another tradition, at Montriere.
The Huns were one of the strange and savage hordes which came from central Asia, unforeseen and unaccountable as a flight of locusts. Terror before them, and devastation behind them. They were of the Tartar race, small, dark-hued, and hideous. They rode small, nimble horses — in fact, they seemed to live on horseback.
At the time of Geneviéve, Attila was their leader. For some years they had been kept beyond the Danube, but at length they came down upon the Western world like a deluge of death. Attila was the most ferocious of slayers and plunderers. His track was marked everywhere by fire and blood. He made no pretension to building anything. He had no desire to set up a government of his own. He announced himself as the “Exterminator of Nations.” He fought for the mere lust of plunder.
When it was known that Attila and his murderous horde were approaching Paris, the people were panic-stricken, and as by a common impulse were about to flee from the city. But there was one, and that one a woman, who had no fear. She plead with the people as well as with God. Her faith and courage calmed them down. They stood by their city, and it was saved.
Her reputation for sanctity was so great, that other people of other lands inquired concerning of her of every one who came from Gaul.
Her death occurred in 502, or according to another account in 512. Clovis, 465 – 511 A.D., erected the church of St. Geneviéve in her memory. The famous Pantheon of Paris now contains her tomb.
It is related of her, that when, in her earlier years, Childeric, King of the Franks, besieged Paris, later she went boldly out at the head of a brave little band, to procure provisions, and brought back boats laden with corn for the starving citizens. Childeric, though a foe and a heathen, respected the pious and patriotic maiden.”