Saint Germaine Cousin was born in 1579 of humble parents at Pibrac, a village about ten miles from Toulouse and died in her native place in 1601. From her birth she seemed marked out for suffering; she came into the world with a deformed hand and the disease of scrofula, and, while yet an infant, lost her mother. Her father soon married again, but his second wife treated Germaine with much cruelty.

Under pretense of saving the other children from the contagion of scrofula she persuaded the father to keep Germaine away from the homestead, and thus the child was employed almost from infancy as a shepherdess. When she returned at night, her bed was in the stable or on a litter of vine branches in a garret. In this hard school Germaine learned early to practice humility and patience. She was gifted with a marvelous sense of the presence of God and of spiritual things, so that her lonely life became to her a source of light and blessing. To poverty, bodily infirmity, the rigours of the seasons, the lack of affection from those in her own home, she added voluntary mortifications and austerities, making bread and water her daily food. Her love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and for His Virgin Mother presaged the saint. She assisted daily at the Holy Sacrifice; when the bell rang, she fixed her sheep-hook or distaff in the ground, and left her flocks to the care of Providence while she heard Mass. Although the pasture was on the border of a forest infested with wolves, no harm ever came to her flocks.

She is said to have practiced many austerities as a 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 Our Lady. The Rosary was her only book, and her devotion to the Angelus was so great that she used to fall on her knees at the first sound of the bell, even though she heard it when crossing a stream. Whenever she could do so, she assembled the children of the village around her and sought to instill into their minds the love of Jesus and Mary.

The villagers were 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. In repairing to the village church she had to cross a stream. 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. 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 the other children, but she begged to be allowed to remain in the humbler position. At this point, when men were beginning to realize the beauty of her life, God called her to Himself. One morning in the early summer of 1601, her father finding that she had not risen at the usual hour went to call her; he found her dead on her pallet of vine-twigs. She was then twenty-two years of age.

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, and miraculously raised almost to the level of the floor of the church. It was exposed for public view near the pulpit, until a noble lady, the wife of François de Beauregard, presented as a thanks-offering a casket of lead to hold the remains. She had been cured of a malignant and incurable ulcer in the breast, and her infant son whose life was despaired of was restored to health on her seeking the intercession of Germaine. This was the first of a long series of wonderful cures wrought at her relics.

The leaden casket was placed in the sacristy, and in 1661 and 1700 the remains were viewed and found fresh and intact by the vicars-general of Toulouse, who have left testamentary depositions of the fact. Expert medical evidence deposed that the body had not been embalmed, and experimental tests showed that the preservation was not due to any property inherent in the soil. In 1700 a movement was begun to procure the beatification of Germaine, but it fell through owing to accidental causes. In 1793 the casket was desecrated by a revolutionary tinsmith, named Toulza, who with three accomplices took out the remains and buried them in the sacristy, throwing quick-lime and water on them. After the Revolution, her body was found to be still intact save where the quick-lime had done its work.

The private veneration of Germaine had continued from the original finding of the body in 1644, supported and encouraged by numerous cures and miracles. The cause of beatification was resumed in 1850. The documents attested more than 400 miracles or extraordinary graces, and thirty postulatory letters from archbishops and bishops in France besought the beatification from the Holy See. The miracles attested were cures of every kind (of blindness, congenital and resulting from 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, Pius IX proclaimed her beatification, and on 29 June, 1867, placed her on the canon of virgin saints. Her feast is kept in the Diocese of Toulouse on 15 June. She is represented in art with a shepherd’s crook or with a distaff; with a watchdog, or a sheep; or with flowers in her apron.

Photo credit: Hyppolyte de Saint-Rambert via Wikimedia Commons
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35 COMMENTS

  1. This is inspiring. Sometimes when we see the distance that a loveless home can create, we can understand when one becomes wicked. But for one to turn the situation into heavenly advantage, it’s awe inspiring. Dear St. Germain Cousin, like all who venerate you, I do not know you prior to today. I have experienced some unloving situations in my life as well. Most especially, I have a condition that is worldwide acclaimed to be without help. Show me to God by your intercession that our good Lord will heal me permanently. Amen.
    I will testify to your intercession and promote your veneration as an act of love and thanksgiving for God’s love.

  2. I had never heard of this saint until today. What a lovely and inspiring life! How blessed we are to have uCatholic to assist us in our growth in faith. St. Germain Cousin pray for me and for all of us, that we may be able to find God in whatever difficult situation we find ourselves.

  3. I am awed by your humility inspite the rash conditions you were exposed to dear Saint Germaine Cousin. I confess that today happens to be my first time of reading about you. I seek your intercession in the tribulations I am encountering presently in terms of marriage and getting a lucrative job. I was a victim of auto accident on 9th June, 2011 but the FATHER spared my life. I crave your intercession on my life, my family, friends and my country. I will testify of your intercession and promote your veneration to the glory of GOD our FATHER

  4. A New and inspiring Saint I have not heard of before today.
    Simplicity we can only imagine the comfort she got from her way of life.
    Alms / Prayer and fasting that pleased her and something she could share
    with others.
    She had made her home in that small stable, sleeping on vines, eating just bread and water to drink.
    A quiet person who delighted in sharing the eucharist and mass with others
    but only a short life dying so young at 22yrs old.
    It was good to read about her life today.

  8. St Germaine
    I am afraid I have only just heard and read thus your life story,
    and your poor life was seen by God,
    may I ask you to help my Grandson Get a job he is looking for apprenticeship.
    thank you for your life and bless you.
    Beth xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  11. St. Germaine, please help us to realized to be contented for what we have and never long for something which we don’t really need. You had lived a very hard life since your infancy not even seen your own mother and were maltreated by your father’s new wife. God had seen your suffering enough that He took you to His Heavenly home to be with Him for all Eternity with Jesus, Mother mary and all the Saints.

    St. Germaine, please pray for us, Amen

  13. Glory to God , Amen pray for us and the hole world for Love Peace with Sharing and caring, Glory To God and Love of Jesus and the Holy blessed Mother Mary

  15. Dear St. Germaine, although just learning about you, I thank you for your humble and loving example of seeking God in the midst of cruelty, rejection, disease, and austerity. Thank you, Lord, for giving us St. Germaine Cousin, as a triumphant example of Your love for us, to seek, in the midst of such adversity. St. Germaine, I ask for your intercession in my life as a first time father. The mother got pregnant on purpose and has rejected me. She doesnt let me see my beautiful son very often. I want us to overcome whatever issues we might have that we can be a holy, happy, and loving family. I ask that I become able to impart a true love for God to my son and his mother. Help me to see or discern God’s will for myself, so I know what to do. Help me to turn to God with humility, trust, and love in the midst of this heartache and rejection that we can triumph over this. I ask that you heal her heart that she may see clearly. Thank you, St. Germaine for your intercession according to God’s will.

  17. Dear St. Germaine
    I have read about you before but today I weep as I read it again. SO many cruelties and yet you remained faithful! I am experiencing hardship in my marriage and family. Please intercede for me and my daughters before God the Father for my husband to put God first in his life and then his wife and children. WE are suffering due to his entanglement with other concerns and our home is falling down around us. We need right order and hearts filled with the love of GOD.

    AMEN

  19. Saint Germaine help me to be more humble in following Gods will. Give strength to my body, soul, heart, and mind that I may also love God as you did.

  20. St Germaine, this is also my first time reading about you today. What an exemplary life you led despite your circumstances. Please intercede with God for me and pray for my relationship and my job. May I always look to your life as an example of humility, trust, and obedience. Amen.

  21. St Germaine, this is also my first time reading about you today. What an exemplary life you led despite your circumstances. Please intercede with God for me and pray for my relationship and my job. May I always look to your life as an example of humility, trust, and obedience. Amen.

  25. St. Germaine, bring healing and consolation to those with scoliosis, quadriplegic and serious life-altering injuries from accidents or birth defects, chronic osteoarthritis rheumatoid arthritis, nerve damage or sciatica, colitis, Crohn’s disease, stomach ulcers, other debilitating diseases. Teach us how to humbly offer everything up for the glorification of God through acts of repentance, faith, hope, love. Amen.

    • Saint Germaine, pray for us. 2020-2021 is upside down with demonic mischief and folks need divine intervention and the intercession of all holy men and women, martyrs, saints and angels. Saints preserve us. Amen.

  28. This is the first time I have heard of you, St. Germain Cousin. Through your intercession to the Lord Jesus Christ, please help me to live a life appropriate for God and help my family in their predicament.

  29. Saint Germaine Cousin, pray with me, pray forth me, to truthfully surrender my life to Jesus as a living offering, like you, in the altar of the Trinity. Amen.

  31. Saint Germaine Cousin intercede for my Brother Willie Veni for he is in great pain and lying in bed for moths.. that he might be recover. Amen

  32. Beloved Saint Germaine, thank you beautiful shepherdess, please continue to intercede for me, to truthfully surrender my life to Jesus as a living offering, like you, in the infinite altar of the Most Holy Trinity that is all creation, everywhere, anywhere, may I honor the sacredness of God’s love in all things. Amen.

  33. We beg your prayers Saint Germaine please pray for us that God has mercy on us all in Jesus Christ name amen

  34. Beloved Saint Germaine, thank you beautiful shepherdess, please continue to intercede for me, to truthfully surrender my life to Jesus as a living offering, like you, in the infinite altar of the Most Holy Trinity that is all creation, everywhere, anywhere, may I honor the sacredness of God’s love in all things. Amen. 2024.

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