St. Germaine of Pibrac: Patron of Abused Children, Please Intercede with Our Lord for our little ones!

“But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27)

On June 15^th, Roman Catholics celebrate the Feast day of St. Germaine Cousin, the Patroness of Abused Children. Born in Pibrac, a village in the south of France, little Germaine was challenged from birth with a paralyzed right hand. Shortly after Germaine’s birth, her mother passed away leaving her in the care of her young father, a man said to have been of weak character. Feeling burdened by his infant daughter, he most often neglected, and at times even ignored, her most basic needs.

While our little saint was still a toddler, her troubled father married a young widow who had children of her own. It was then that Germaine’s troubles increased in earnest, as her step mother, whose name was Hortense, took an immediate and unrestrained dislike of the child and so poured out her resentment upon the little girl in physical abuse and neglect. In addition, Hortense forced the child, in spite of her physical challenges, to serve as a “Cinderella” to her and her children and, in addition, to sleep in the barn among the animals that our little saint so lovingly tended.

Knowing their mother’s hatred for their little step-sister and following her malevolent example, Hortense’s own children made poor Germaine the object of their own brand of abuse. They excluded her from all their childhood activities and made her the butt of their piercingly barbed jokes. In the midst of performing the arduous chores associated with keeping a home and tending the animals, which had been so cruelly thrust upon her, little Germaine found comfort in maintaining a life of quiet devotion and prayer to the Mother of God. In the evenings, she would sit among her animals and reverently and lovingly pray her Rosary upon a knotted string, which she had devoutly and carefully fashioned from fragments of an old rope. As she grew in age, rising before dawn in spite of her crushing daily check-list, Germaine made her daily attendance at the first Mass of the morning her most important activity. On her way home from this holy and serenity filled beginning to her day, she could always be depended upon to share what little food had been begrudgingly provided to her by her Step-Mother, with the neediest of her neighbors. Unfortunately, as the young girl’s renown for holiness and generosity continued to grow, Hortense’s heart hardened against her in direct proportion.

Then, one frigid winter morning, as Hortense stood at the window watching the girl return from Mass, she observed something protruding from under the front of our young saint’s coat. Engulfed in rage, the venom filled Hortense suddenly flew out from the house and began beating the girl with a club, while accusing her of stealing from the Church! As she lay on the frozen ground, prayerfully and patiently enduring Hortense’s continuing assault, the poor girl’s coat opened, revealing, to her step mother’s amazement, a bouquet of the most beautiful flowers, which nature reserves only for the most color-filled days of Spring!

Beholding this miracle, Hortense drew back in astonishment. In disbelief, she stared stone faced, as Germaine quietly whispered to her that God had requested that she bring her this gift, as a sign of His Love and Forgiveness. It would be of great satisfaction to me, to be able to say that as a result of this deeply personal and individual communication of the Almighty’s Love for her, that Hortense had a complete change of heart, and that she experienced a “total conversion” or the like, but sadly that was not the case. However, her heart did soften just enough to invite Germaine to be, at last, “a member of the family” and to also invite her to sleep in the house. However, having become so attached to the time that she was able to spend alone with Our Blessed Lord and the Blessed Virgin in the evenings, praying her Rosary, Germaine, although grateful for her step-mother’s offer, chose to continue to spend her nights in the barn and sleep among her beloved animal friends.

Sadly, just a short time afterward, with her body having been significantly weakened from years of malnutrition, physical abuse and illnesses, Germaine was called home by Our Savior one summer night in 1601.  She was then, twenty-two years of age. Thousands of people, including those whom she had, for so many years, so generously shared her few morsels of food, attended her funeral and she was interred in the crypt of her parish church in Pibrac.

In 1644, when the crypt was opened, so to enable cemetery workers to bury one of her relatives, Germaine’s body, in spite of it being laid to rest without having been prepared for burial in any way, was found to be perfectly preserved and undecayed. In 1661, her still incorrupt remains were placed in a lead casket, which had been donated by a wealthy parishioner, a lady who had been cured of a malignant tumor in her breast, subsequent to her having sought Germaine’s intercession with God.

Our little Saint’s body was then placed on display beneath the pulpit of the church. Tragically, her tomb was desecrated by heretics during the French Revolution and they removed her body from its prominent resting place and re-buried her in a quick lime filled pit under the floor of the Sacristy. When the chaos and unrest of the French Revolution had, at last died away, Germaine’s body was, at last, located and recovered and found to be still well preserved and incorrupt.

Over the centuries since then, hundreds of cures have been documented, as having been the direct result of our young saint’s intercession with Our Lord. Germaine was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1854 and placed in the Canon of Virgin saints in 1867. As the hideous plague of child abuse, still rages out of control in our world today, through the intercession of our dear St. Germaine of Pibrac, Patroness of Abused Children; may Our Blessed Lord and His Most Holy Mother, hear and answer our prayers for a solution to the continuing abuse and mistreatment of innocent children. St Germaine of Pibrac Pray for us!