Saint Saint Germaine

Germaine Cousin, also Germana Cousin, Germaine of Pibrac, or Germana, (1579–1601) was a French saint. She was born in 1579 to humble parents at Pibrac, a village 15 km (9.3 mi) from Toulouse. Of her, the Catholic Encyclopedia writes: She is said to have practiced many austerities as reparation for the sacrileges perpetrated by heretics in the neighboring churches. She frequented the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and it was observed that her piety increased on the approach of every feast of the Virgin Mary. The villagers are said to have inclined at first to treat her piety with mild derision, until certain signs of God's signal favor made her an object of reverence and awe. The ford in winter, after heavy rains or the melting of snow, was at times impassable. On several occasions the swollen waters were seen to open and afford her a passage without wetting her garments. Notwithstanding her poverty, she found means to help the poor by sharing with them her allowance of bread. According to one story, one day in winter, when she was being chased by her stepmother who accused her of stealing bread, she opened her apron and fresh summer flowers fell out. She offered the flowers to her stepmother as a sign of forgiveness. Her father at last came to a sense of his duty, forbade her stepmother henceforth to treat her harshly, and wished to give her a place in the home with his other children, but Germaine begged to be allowed to remain in the humbler position. At this point, when men were beginning to realize the beauty of her life, she died. One morning in the early summer of 1601, her father found that she had not risen at the usual hour and went to call her, finding her dead on her pallet of vine-twigs. She was 22 years old at the time. Her remains were buried in the parish church of Pibrac in front of the pulpit. In 1644, when the grave was opened to receive one of her relatives, the body of Germaine was discovered fresh and perfectly preserved.