Saint Germaine Cousin

Feast day : 15 June

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Germaine Cousin, a young saint who lived during the period AD 1579 to 1601. She lived a short life of 22 years which was full of suffering and neglect but it was her virtues and graces that stood out for all to witness. She was canonized on 29 June 1867 by Pope Pius IX. She is the patron saint for abandoned people, abuse victims, poor, sick and disabled people.

Early life:
Germaine was born into the Cousin family in a small village in Pibrac, near Toulouse in France in the year 1579. Her life was marked with great sufferings which began with her mother’s death shortly after her birth. Her father Laurent Cousin soon remarried a lady named Hortense who became a cruel stepmother to young Germaine. She was a weak child from birth and had a withered right hand. Her scrofulous neck with its discharging sores made her greatly despised by her step mother. Her father too never objected or prevented the harsh treatments that Hortense would extend to her. When they had children they too ill treated poor Germaine and in the pretext of fearing that her children would be infected with the sores, Hortense made her sleep in the barn with animals. There she slept on a heap of twigs beneath the stairs and was fed on scraps that her step mother would throw her way. Often she was hungry and would eat the leftover food of their pigs and dogs. On cold winters, her sheep kept her warm as she was clothed only in rags all her life. Her feet bled often as she had no shoes to wear. She was denied an education and was given only a basic lesson in faith. At a young age she was asked to shepherd the sheep and spent all her time in open fields tending the sheep. Her weak constitution made her an easy target for many diseases and she was often ill. However, in her loneliness and all the sufferings, she found refuge in God. She never complained of her sufferings, rather she prayed for more grace to endure them. She prayed the Rosary and the Angelus. Her greatest joy was to attend the Holy Mass in the village Church. Often when she was tending the sheep, she would hear the Church bell ringing for Holy Mass. She never liked missing Holy Mass and so she would stick her staff into the ground and order her sheep to graze only around her staff till she got back from Church. Amazingly, the sheep obeyed her and never strayed away! Though there were wolves in the forest nearby where she took the sheep to graze, they were never ever attacked by wolves. Soon her sanctity and virtues began being noticed by villagers. There were several miraculous events that happened during her lifetime.

Miraculous events:
Once when she was tending the sheep during winter, the Church bell rang for Holy Mass. As usual she ordered the sheep around her distaff and hurried to Church. This time she had to cross the river which was overflowing and had a strong current. Her friend warned her of the strong current but Germaine was not concerned. As soon as she put her feet in the water, the stream parted and made way for her to walk through to the other side and attend the Holy Mass! When her step mother got to know this she abused her and beat her for leaving the sheep to attend Holy Mass. Germaine endured all the suffering quietly and prayed for her step mother. In another incident her step mother accused her of stealing bread and hiding it in her apron. She chased her with a club and neighbours gathered to enquire. Before all, her stepmother ordered her to open her apron and there fell a bunch of flowers that were impossible to find in that place at that time of the year!! The villagers were astonished and knew they had witnessed a miracle. They told each other ‘Germaine is a saint”. But this did not change her step mother who harassed her even more.

Death:
Germaine's health deteriorated and she was never given nourishment or medical care. One night in the year 1601, she died unattended on her bed of twigs where her father and step mother found her the next day when she did not come to attend to her regular work. During the night she died, two monks from Toulouse were sleeping in the ruins of a nearby castle when they were awakened by angelic melodies. They saw a great beam of light rising from a distant building and extending into the skies. Heavenly figures were seen descending into the building and later ascending with another figure. The next morning they came enquiring if anyone had died in the village and were told of the death of Germaine. Her body was laid to rest in the grounds of the village Church of Pibrac and villagers soon forgot about her.

After death:
In the year 1644, 43 years after her death, another distant relative of the Cousin family died. As the church workers were preparing the grave reserved for the Cousin family, they were astonished to find the body of a young beautiful girl lying in perfect state of preservation!! The dress and the wreath of flowers on her head were still fragrant and as new as on the day of her burial! The older villagers identified her by the withered arm and marks of wounds on her body and neck. People again remembered her virtues and miraculous events during her lifetime. The small village had a Saint of its own!! Her holy body was then removed from the grave and exposed in the Church for people to pray and seek her intercession in their needs.

However not all were of the same mind. Maria Clement, a noble lady who lived in Pibrac objected to her body being exposed in the Church and asked for it to be removed. The next day her child fell severely sick and no medical treatment was of help. Soon her child was approaching death and her husband implored her to seek the intercession of Germaine and ask pardon. They together prayed to Germaine that night and sought pardon for their pride and asked her to intercede for their child’s health. Germaine appeared to them that night and said ‘As you requested it has happened’ and the child was healed that very night!! The couple narrated the incident in public and as a token of gratitude they presented a lead casket to keep the holy body of Germaine. Her incorrupt body was preserved in this casket till the French revolution. Many miracles were witnessed when people prayed to Saint Germaine and soon devotion to her spread across all France. In 1661, the body was examined by the Vicar General of Toulouse Archdiocese and he studied all the miracles that were happening in the village. Soon the process for her canonization began. However the detailed report for her canonisation was misplaced and the French Revolution further delayed the process.

The body remained incorrupt for more than 200 years in the lead casket till it was partially destroyed during the French Revolution when angry revolutionaries dug a pit and put her holy body into it and covered it with quicklime mortar to ensure it decayed. Those who perpetuated this heinous act were punished by God with diseases and disabilities. After the French Revolution, the pit was opened in the year 1815 and her body was again found to be largely intact except for few areas where the quicklime had destroyed. Again her cause for canonization was opened in the year 1850. The documents attested more than 400 miracles or extraordinary graces, and thirty postulatory letters from Archbishops and Bishops in France seeking the beatification of this holy soul. The miracles attested were cures of every kind (of blindness, congenital and resulting disease, of hip and spinal disease), besides the multiplication of food for the distressed community of the Good Shepherd at Bourges in 1845.

On 7 May 1854, she was beatified by Pius IX , and three years later canonized on 29 June 1867. Her feast is kept in the Diocese of Toulouse on 15 June. This holy life, when on earth was despised by family and fellow villagers but was always so greatly loved by God and today is a refuge of many pilgrims who seek her intercession in their needs.