Germanus of Auxerre's prophecy about Saint Genevieve's future mission, and protection of the young woman

Summary:

On his way to Great Britain, Bishop Germanus of Auxerre stopped off at Nanterre and had a revelation about the future holiness of his hosts' daughter. Despite her young age, she was willing to consecrate her virginity to God, and Germanus performed the rite the next day, perhaps giving her the status of deaconess, a female ministry that was specific to the early Church but later disappeared.

After the death of her parents, Genevieve moved to Paristo live with her grandmother. Having inherited her father's position as decurion - the equivalent of a deputy mayor - as the office was hereditary and not elective, she took a seat on the city council, which annoyed many people. In addition, she taught catechism to women and, in possession of the family fortune, distributed it widely in alms. She gathered around her young girls who shared her commitment to the consecrated life. When she fell very ill, she apparently had a near-death experience and visited the afterlife. When she recovered, she dared to report what she had seen, preaching in public and alienating the civil and religious authorities, who reproached her for not keeping to the place reserved for women. In this she was following Germanus's injunction to "Act like a man" ("Age viriliter").

A campaign of slander ensued, but Germanus's unexpected arrival in Paris put a stop to it, as he came to her defence and revealed her sanctity, fasts and penances and announced that the day would come when the city would owe its survival to her. This was the last time that the bishop and Genevieve saw each other in this world, as Germanus died in 448 while travelling to Ravenna, the imperial capital at the time.

On his deathbed, he instructed a priest from his entourage, when he returned to Gaul, to bring Genevieve eulogies, i.e. little gifts he had blessed, to be remembered by. We don't know why the messenger didn't carry out his task until May 451, when Attila's hordes, having pillaged and burnt Metz, laid siege to Orléans and intended to lay siege to Paris, whose inhabitants planned to flee. Genevieve exhorted the population to stay, and instead to fast and pray to the Lord, assuring them that God would protect them, that the Huns would spare the city, and that the fate of Gaul and the West depended on their resistance, as she would give Flavius Aetius time to gather troops and come to their aid. The men refused to believe the woman they called "the Barbarian" - because of her father's origins - and prepared to kill her for trying to convince the women to stay. Just then, Germanus's messenger arrived in Paris and reminded the city leaders of his bishop's prophecy about Genevieve, whom he had said was destined to one day save Paris. The young woman was spared and Attila, who didn't want to waste time besieging such a small town, took another route, proving Genevieve's predictions right. From then on, Genevieve was to exert a decisive influence on the political and strategic choices made by the Parisians.

Beyond reasons to believe:

Even though the path to the priesthood was imposed on him rather than a personal choice, Germanus strove to honor God and to become a pious bishop, renouncing his former life and pleasures in order to become holy, to the point where he was credited with several miracles and gifts of prophecy, which he displayed in particular during his meetings with Genevieve.

Going further:

Life of Saint Germanus of Auxerre by Constantius of Lyons (ca 480 AD)

More information:

• Mgr Louis Prunel, Saint Germain d'Auxerre, Lecoffre, 1929.
• Jean-Pierre Soisson, Saint Germain d'Auxerre, Éditions du Rocher, 2011.
• Anonymous, Vie de sainte Geneviève, 6th century.
• Emmanuel Bourassin, Sainte Geneviève, Éditions du Rocher, 1997.
• Joël Schmidt, Sainte Geneviève et la fin de la Gaule romaine, Perrin, 1987.
• The Diocese of Paris video series on the life of Saint Geneviève, in particular " La vocation de Geneviève ".