ICONOGRAPHIE CHRÉTIENNE: Sainte GERMAINE COUSIN (de PIBRAC), vierge laïque

Santa Germana Cousin, basilica di Santa Germana di Pibrac

Statue en marbre de sainte-Germaine de Pibrac

par Alexandre Falguière. Initialement inaugurée en 1877, sur la place Saint-Georges, à Toulouse

et transféré au dessus du maître autel de l’église Sainte Germaine.

Sainte Germaine Cousin

Laïque (+ 1601)

Elle était née scrofuleuse, laide et difforme. Sa mère mourut quelque temps après sa naissance et son père n'avait qu'aversion pour elle. Il se remaria et la belle-mère la haïssait. Ils l'obligèrent à coucher sous l'escalier sur des sarments, lui donnant le minimum de nourriture et lui faisant défense d'adresser la parole aux enfants de sa belle-mère. Il en fut ainsi de l'âge de neuf ans jusqu'à celui de vingt-deux ans où elle mourut. Elle passait son temps avec les bêtes, aux champs. Ne sachant pas lire, elle récitait son chapelet. Mais tous les matins, elle entendait la sainte Messe laissant son troupeau qui jamais ne causa de dégâts chez les voisins, restant dans les limites qu'elle lui marquait avant de partir. Elle parlait avec Dieu et cela était pour elle toute joie. Un matin son père la trouva morte sous l'escalier et, à partir de ce moment, les miracles ne cessèrent d'authentifier sa sainteté. Elle fut canonisée en 1867.

A l'aube du grand siècle de Louis XIV, sainte Germaine Cousin meurt en 1601 à Pibrac, après avoir vécu dans la plus extrême pauvreté. (Diocèse d'Auch - Quelques saints gersois - L'Eglise du Gers et son histoire - texte en pdf)

Orpheline, malade, pauvre, maltraitée par ses proches, elle est la sainte de tous ceux qui souffrent et que la vie malmène d’une manière ou d’une autre... Sainte Germaine est très honorée dans le département du Lot. Rares sont les églises où on ne trouve pas un souvenir de notre bergère sous forme de vitrail, statue, reliquaire ou même cloche baptisée Germaine. (site dédié à Sainte Germaine réalisé grâce aux documents qui font partie du patrimoine de la Paroisse de Pibrac.)

Un internaute nous signale le travail de recherche qu'il a fait: 'Germaine Cousin, une petite bergère, une très grande sainte'

À Pibrac au diocèse de Toulouse, en 1601, sainte Germaine Cousin, vierge. Elle fut, dès son enfance, astreinte à une vie de servitude et frappée de maladies. Elle endura toutes sortes d’épreuves avec courage et un visage joyeux, et mourut pieusement à l’âge de vingt-deux ans.

Martyrologe romain

SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1324/Sainte-Germaine-Cousin.html

Santa Germana Cousin

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Sainte Germaine Cousin bergère de Pibrac, 1856

Montauban église Saint-Étienne de Sapiac

Sainte Germaine de Pibrac

Germaine Cousin naît à Pibrac (Haute-Garonne) en 1579, scrofuleuse, laide, un peu difforme, la main droite presque paralysée. Sa mère mourut peu après. Son père n'avait qu'aversion pour elle. Sa belle-mère la haïssait. Ils la traitèrent moins bien que leurs animaux domestiques, l'obligeant à coucher à l'étable ou sous l'escalier de la maison et ne lui donnant que du pain sec à manger, avec défense d'adresser la parole aux enfants de la belle-mère. De l'âge de neuf ans à celui de vingt-deux ans où elle mourut, Germaine garda les moutons de son père. Il semble bien qu'elle ne savait pas lire. Mais elle avait toujours son chapelet à la main et assistait chaque jour à la messe. Elle laissait alors ses moutons à la garde de Dieu; et ils étaient si bien gardés que jamais les loups ne lui en dérobèrent un seul. Jamais non plus les moutons n'en profitèrent pour aller brouter chez le voisin, évitant de franchir la limite qu'elle leur fixait avant de partir, en fichant sa houlette en terre. Le Christ qu'elle aimait et qui l'aimait lui parlait au cœur et lui donnait de grandes consolations. Il la tirait d'embarras quand il le fallait, en faisant les miracles qui s'imposaient. Il continua d'en accomplir tellement à sa prière, lorsqu'elle fut au ciel, que Pie IX béatifia (1854) puis canonisa (1867) presque coup sur coup cette humble fille tant méprisée de son vivant. Son père l'ayant trouvée morte un matin de juin 1601 sous l'escalier, elle fut enterrée dans l'église de Pibrac où ses restes sont toujours honorés.

SOURCE : http://www.paroisse-saint-aygulf.fr/index.php/prieres-et-liturgie/saints-par-mois/icalrepeat.detail/2015/06/15/351/-/sainte-germaine-de-pibrac

Santa Germana Cousin

Statue Sainte Germaine de Pibrac dans la cathédrale, Auch (Gers)

Sainte Germaine Cousin

Germaine signifie en latin du même sang (germen).

Deux saintes illustrent ce prénom. Germaine Cousin naquit à Pibrac, près de Toulouse, en 1579. Fille de modestes paysans, de complexion chétive, elle souffrit beaucoup de son entourage, surtout de sa marâtre. Dès l'âge de neuf ans, la petite Germaine doit, par tous les temps, garder les troupeaux. A la maison, elle se contente d'un réduit obscur. Germaine est très pieuse… on la traite de bigote. A ses railleurs, elle répond par des actes de charité, partageant le peu qu'elle possède avec les plus malheureux. Deux miracles font taire les médisants. Un jour, on constate qu'elle traverse le ruisseau sans se mouiller. Une autre fois, soupçonnée de voler le pain de sa famille pour le distribuer, elle ouvre son tablier d'où tombent des fleurs. Germaine, la pauvre de Dieu, est trouvée morte sous un escalier le 15 juin 1601. Elle fut inhumée dans l'église de Pibrac, son pays natal, en Haute-Garonne. Henri Ghéon, auteur d'œuvres consacrées aux saints, a produit en l'honneur de la sainte de Pibrac : "La bergère au pays des loups".

Germaine de Pibrac était née laide, handicapée, la main droite presque paralysée. Elle était la mal-aimée, traitée moins bien qu'un chien. Germaine, vaillante et partageuse, était consolée par l'intimité du Christ vivant en son coeur. Même après sa mort, elle était tombée dans l'oubli malgré ses miracles. Mais "Dieu a choisi ce qui est faible pour confondre les forts et les puissants". Deux siècles et demi après la mort de l'humble bonne à rien et à tout faire, le Pape Pie XI la proclamait sainte et la Jeunesse Agricole Chrétienne Féminine, la J.A.C.F., la prit comme sainte patronne lors de sa fondation. Sainte Germaine de Pibrac trouva toujours sa paix et son réconfort dans la prière. Elle ne se séparait jamais de son chapelet, demeurant dans la compagnie de la Vierge Marie : "Le Seigneur a porté son regard sur sa petite servante... Lui qui élève les humbles".

Rédacteur: Frère Bernard Pineau, OP

SOURCE : http://www.lejourduseigneur.com/Web-TV/Saints/Germaine-de-Pibrac

Santa Germana Cousin

SAINTE GERMAINE COUSIN

Vierge, Bergère

(1579-1601)

Germaine Cousin naquit à Pribrac, non loin de Toulouse. Sa courte vie de vingt-deux ans est une merveille de la grâce. Fille d'un pauvre laboureur, percluse de la main droite, scrofuleuse, elle fut, pour comble de malheur, privée de sa mère, à peine sortie du berceau. La petite orpheline devint l'objet de la haine et du mépris d'une belle-mère acariâtre et sans coeur; la douleur, née avec elle, devait être sa compagne jusqu'à la mort. Cette pauvre ignorante fut instruite par Dieu même dans la science de la prière.

Bergère des troupeaux de la famille, elle passait son temps en conversations avec le Ciel; le chapelet était son seul livre; la Sainte Vierge était sa Mère, les Anges ses amis, l'Eucharistie sa vie. Souvent on la vit agenouillée dans la neige, traversant à pied sec le ruisseau voisin sans se mouiller, pour se rendre à l'église, où elle assistait chaque jour au Saint Sacrifice et communiait souvent, pendant que ses brebis paissaient tranquilles autour de sa quenouille plantée en terre. Charitable pour les pauvres, elle leur donnait son pauvre pain noir, ne vivant guère que de l'amour de Dieu; et, un jour, le Ciel renouvela pour elle le miracle des roses devant les yeux de son impitoyable marâtre.

A sa mort, les Anges et les Vierges célestes chantèrent au-dessus de sa maison. Quarante ans plus tard, on trouva, comme par hasard, mais providentiellement, son corps intact avec un bouquet de fleurs fraîches, sous les dalles de l'église de sa paroisse. Elle est devenue une des grandes Thaumaturges et une des Saintes les plus populaires de la France.

Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.

SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/sainte_germaine_cousin.html

Santa Germana Cousin

Cycle de sainte Germaine, Passage du ruisseau à pied sec, Jean Ningres, église Sainte-Germaine (Toulouse)

Santa Germana Cousin

Cycle de sainte Germaine, Instruction des enfants, Jean Ningres, église Sainte-Germaine (Toulouse)

Santa Germana Cousin

Cycle de sainte Germaine, Miracle des roses, Jean Ningres, église Sainte-Germaine (Toulouse)

Santa Germana Cousin

Cycle de sainte Germaine, Mort de sainte Germaine, Jean Ningres, église Sainte-Germaine (Toulouse)

Sainte Germaine Cousin, la maltraitée de Pibrac

La famille Cousin dont le père s’appelait Laurent et la mère Marie Laroche vivait à Pibrac, vers l’an 1579, dans un petit village à quelques kilomètres de Toulouse.

Quand Germaine naquit, la pauvre petite avait des scrofules et, comme on dirait aujourd’hui, elle était handicapée de sa main droite qui était atrophiée. De plus, elle était à peine née que sa mère mourut. Ça commence bien !

Peu de temps après, son père se remaria et eut des enfants de la seconde femme. Celle-ci n’eut, pour Germaine, que des regards de haine. Ainsi, Germaine, déjà orpheline fut placée sous le joug d’une cruelle marâtre.

Pour nous consoler, les Petits Bollandistes écrivent “Elle aima la douleur comme une soeur née avec elle, placée avec elle dans le berceau, et qui fut sa constante et unique compagne depuis son premier cri jusqu’à son dernier soupir.”

Sous prétexte que Germaine avait des scrofules et que c’était contagieux, la belle-mère ne voulait pas que Germaine vive avec ses propres filles.

Elle persuada son mari de lui faire garder les troupeaux. Comme ça, elle serait toujours dehors et loin de ses demi-soeurs. Quand elle était à la maison, elle devait manger dans l’étable ou par terre au fond du couloir.

Il lui était interdit d’avoir des contacts avec ses soeurs que pourtant, paraît-il, elle aimait tendrement. Elle n’avait aucune jalousie des préférences dont ses soeurs étaient l’objet. Mais que faisait donc son père ? Elle était donc toujours par monts et par vaux, gardant les moutons par tous les temps, supportant le froid comme la chaleur.

Tous les jours elle allait à la messe. Elle plantait sa quenouille en terre et la quenouille gardait les moutons. Les loups étaient nombreux dans la région mais jamais un loup ne lui enleva de mouton. Malgré cela, la marâtre n’arrêtait pas de lui reprocher sa négligence lorsqu’elle allait à l’église en laissant ses moutons.

Pour aller à l’église, elle devait passer un gros ruisseau. Mais rien ne l’arrêtait. Un jour que le ruisseau était extrêmement gonflé, des paysans qui la voyaient venir se demandaient, d’un ton railleur comment elle ferait pour passer. O surprise ! les eaux s’ouvrirent devant elle et elle traversa sans même mouiller sa robe.

Bien qu’elle n’avait pas beaucoup de nourriture, elle les partageait avec des pauvres. Sa marâtre l’accusa de voler le pain de la maison. Un jour de plein hiver, la marâtre croit s’apercevoir que Germaine avait emporté du pain dans son tablier. Elle courut après, en furie, avec un bâton. Des voisins la virent et devinèrent ses intentions. Ils s’empressèrent de la rattraper avant qu’elle puisse frapper Germaine. Ils la rejoignirent et il fallut qu’elle ouvre son tablier. Mais à la place de pain, apparut un joli bouquet de roses.

Les voisins allèrent raconter le fait au village. Depuis, son père interdit à sa femme de battre Germaine. Il lui proposa même de loger dans la maison mais elle refusa et continua à dormir dans son appentis, sous l’escalier. (Cf. Saint Alexis au 17 février)

Un matin que son père ne l’avait pas vu sortir comme d’habitude, il alla voir sous l’escalier et la trouva morte sur son lit de sarment. Elle avait 22 ans.

On raconte que la nuit même de sa mort, deux religieux qui allaient vers Pibrac, furent surpris par l’obscurité et s’arrêtèrent dans les ruines du château. Ils virent passer deux jeunes filles, vêtues de blanc, qui se dirigeaient vers la ferme Cousin. Quelques instants plus tard, les apparitions reprirent le chemin inverse mais à la place de deux, il y en avait trois dont l’une était couronnée de fleurs.

Elle fut enterrée dans l’église de Pibrac, en face de la chaire, sous les dalles du sol, sans aucune inscription. Peu à peu, on l’oublia ainsi que le lieu exact où elle avait été enterrée.

Vers l’an 1644, à l’occasion de funérailles, le sonneur se disposait à creuser une fosse dans l’église. A peine avait-il soulevé une première dalle qu’un corps enseveli se montra. Le sonneur effrayé se mit à crier. Cela attira quelques personnes qui constatèrent que l’endroit du visage qui avait été touché par la pioche offrait l’aspect de la chair vive. Le corps fut ensuite découvert complètement. Il était entier et préservé de la corruption. Les ongles des pieds étaient parfaitement adhérents. Même les fleurs qu’elle tenait dans sa main n’étaient que légèrement fanées. A la difformité d’une de ses mains et aux blessures du cou, on reconnut le corps de Germaine Cousin qui était là depuis 43 ans.

On plaça le cadavre - tellement frais - debout près de la chaire, devant le banc des notables, exposé à la vue de tout le monde.

Un an plus tard, une des notables, Marie de Clément Gras, épouse de noble François de Beauregard, se mit à rechigner parce que Germaine était placée juste à côté du banc qu’elle occupait à l’église. Sans doute pas trop loin du poële ! Elle ordonnât qu’on éloignât la Germaine.

Bien mal lui en prit. Elle attrapa un ulcère au sein et l’enfant qu’elle nourrissait devint malade et fut presque moribond. On fit venir des médecins de Toulouse. Rien à faire. Alors, son mari lui rappela le mépris qu’elle avait eu pour la pauvre Germaine et se demanda si Dieu n’avait pas été offensé et voulait la punir par le mal dont elle souffrait.

Marie Gras demanda alors pardon. Durant la nuit suivante, elle se réveilla et vit une grande clarté dans sa chambre. Elle crût voir Germaine qui lui prédit la guérison de son enfant. Elle regarda son sein. La plaie était presque fermée. Elle fit venir son enfant, il était guéri et téta abondamment le lait qu’il refusait depuis longtemps.

Le lendemain, elle offrit une caisse de plomb où l’on plaça le corps de Germaine. Il fut porté dans la sacristie. Et on l’oublia encore. Germaine était décidément faite pour être délaissée et oubliée.

Le 22 septembre 1661, le vicaire général de l’archevêque de Toulouse, Jean Dufour, vint à Pibrac. Il était entré dans la sacristie et fut étonné de voir un cercueil en pareil lieu. Il le fit ouvrir et l’on trouva Germaine aussi fraîche que 16 ans auparavant.

Alors on lui raconta tous les détails de sa vie et la manière dont elle avait été retrouvée. Il fit même creuser sous l’église, à l’endroit où Germaine avait été retrouvée. Il y avait d’autres corps à l’état de squelette. On ne pouvait donc plus douter du miracle.

De fil en aiguille, à la suite de nombreux miracles, on demanda la canonisation en 1700.

A la révolution, en 1793, un fabricant d’étain et quatre hommes enlevèrent le cercueil de Germaine pour en faire des balles. Ils retirèrent le corps qu’ils enfouirent dans la sacristie en jetant dessus de l’eau et de la chaux vive. Mais peu après, un des hommes fut paralysé d’un bras, l’autre devint difforme, son cou se raidit et sa tête se tourna vers l’une de ses épaules. Le troisième fut atteint d’un mal de reins qui l’obligea à se plier en deux et porter cette infirmité jusqu’à son tombeau. Les deux autres implorèrent Germaine pour obtenir son pardon, ce qu’elle fit.

Quelques temps après la révolution, le maire de Pibrac, Jean Cabriforce, à la demande de la population, fit ouvrir la fosse. On découvrit une fois de plus Germaine, mais cette fois les chairs avaient été fort atteintes par la chaux. On mit notre Germaine dans un beau nouveau suaire et on la replaça dans la sacristie.

Quelques années plus tard, un pèlerinage attira les foules. Après bien des aventures turbulentes où le corps de Germaine fut “transbahuté” à différents endroits, et où l’on put dresser une liste impressionnante de miracles, le procès en béatification reprit son cours et Germaine fut béatifiée par Pie IX le 7 mai 1854.

Il paraît qu’elle ne savait pas lire.

On la représente avec une houlette, un mouton, une quenouille et aussi avec un tablier sur lequel on peut voir un bouquet de roses.

Elle une des patronnes des bergers.

SOURCE : http://carmina-carmina.com/carmina/Mytholosaintes/germaine.htm

Santa Germana Cousin

Chapelle de Lothéa ː statue de sainte Germaine Cousin.

Sainte Germaine Cousin

Fille d'un modeste laboureur, Germaine naît à Frouzins petit village près de Toulouse, en 1579.

Atteinte de scrofules (adénopathie tuberculeuse), elle a aussi une main atrophiée. Sa mère meurt alors qu'elle était encore très jeune. Son père se remarie et dès lors, elle subira les humiliations de sa belle-mère, acariâtre, et sera reléguée dans un appentis, loin de la vie familiale.

Elle persuada son père de l'envoyer garder les troupeaux, où là, dans la nature, elle pouvait réciter son chapelet et trouver le réconfort dans la prière. Tous les jours elle allait à la messe.

Elle donnait le peu de pain qu'elle avait aux pauvres. Un jour de 1601, son père la trouva morte dans le réduit où on l'obligeait à dormir. Elle avait 22 ans. Elle fut enterrée dans l'église de Pibrac, et peu à peu tout le monde oublia l'existence de cette sépulture.

Les miracles de son vivant :

• Elle plantait sa quenouille en terre et la quenouille gardait les moutons ; jamais une brebis ne s'égara, et jamais non plus les loups, pourtant nombreux dans la région à cette époque, n'attaquèrent le troupeau.

• Pour aller à l’église, elle devait passer un gros ruisseau. Un jour que le ruisseau était en crue, des paysans qui la voyaient venir se demandaient, d’un ton railleur comment elle ferait pour passer. Les eaux s’ouvrirent devant elle et elle traversa sans même mouiller sa robe.

• Un jour, sa marâtre l'accusa de voler du pain. Elle la poursuivit afin de la frapper et de la confondre, malgré l'insistance de voisins qui voulaient la retenir. Quand celle-ci rattrapa Germaine et lui fit ouvrir son tablier, à la place du pain qu'elle pensait y trouver s'étalait une brassée de roses. Son père fut alors ébranlé, il interdit à sa femme de frapper Germaine et lui demanda de réintégrer la maison ailleurs que dans le grabat qu'elle occupait. Elle refusa.

• La nuit de sa mort, on raconte que deux religieux en route pour Pibrac à la nuit tombée, virent passer en direction de la maison de Laurent Cousin deux jeunes filles vêtues de blanc. Le lendemain matin, alors qu'ils reprenaient leur route, ils virent ressortir trois jeunes filles, dont l'une, encadrée par les deux autres, était couronnée de fleurs.

Les Miracles après sa mort :

En 1644, alors que le sacristain se préparait à organiser des funérailles en creusant une fosse, il tomba sur un corps enseveli dont la fraîcheur le stupéfia. Même les fleurs que la morte tenait étaient à peine fanées. A la difformité de sa main, aux cicatrices des ganglions de son cou, on reconnut Germaine Cousin. Toutefois, son corps fut déposé dans un cercueil de plomb, offert par une paroissienne guérie par l'intercession de la sainte, et déposé dans la sacristie où il demeura, à nouveau oublié, encore seize ans.

Le 22 septembre 1661, le vicaire général de l’archevêque de Toulouse, Jean Dufour, vint à Pibrac. Il s'étonna de voir ce cercueil resté dans la sacristie, le fit ouvrir, et découvrit que la sainte présentait toujours le même état de fraîcheur. Il fit creuser tout autour de là où le corps avait été trouvé, et tous les morts enterrés au même endroit n'étaient plus que des squelettes. Ébranlé par ce miracle, le vicaire général demanda la canonisation de Germaine en 1700.

Sa dépouille subit encore de nombreuses pérégrinations accompagnés de plusieurs miracles.

A Pibrac, une basilique a été élevée en son honneur. La maison natale de Germaine Cousin existe toujours. Elle est située à environ 2 kilomètres du village de Pibrac. Récemment restaurée, on peut la visiter.

SOURCE : http://angeliqueetnicolas.e-monsite.com/pages/le-mariage/l-eglise.html

Santa Germana Cousin

Vitrail représentant sainte Germaine, église de Saint-Priest-la-Plaine, Creuse, France.

Germaine Cousin, la sainte qu’il nous faut

Jean-Claude Jaffé | 14 juin 2019

Nous devons au pape Pie IX la béatification de Germaine Cousin en 1854. « C’est la sainte qu’il nous faut » aurait-il dit lors de sa béatification. Découvrez son étonnante histoire.

Pibrac, petite paroisse à l’ouest de Toulouse, 1579. Oh, la scrofuleuse ! Oh, la manchote ! Oh, la bigote ! On ne peut pas dire que les fées se soient penchées sur le berceau de la « pauvre » Germaine, dans tous les sens du terme. Elle souffre d’une adénopathie tuberculeuse, affection que l’on croyait contagieuse ; bonne occasion pour sa marâtre de l’isoler dans l’étable ; elle est difforme, laide, elle a une main atrophiée. De plus, elle va à la messe tous les jours, même si l’église est un peu éloignée. Sa piété est source de quolibets. La risée des jeunes filles de son âge ne l’épargne pas.

Esseulée, sans affection, elle ne se plaint jamais. Elle va garder son troupeau de moutons, dans les champs, en bordure de la forêt de Bouconne. Le temps s’écoule paisiblement en récitant le chapelet, douce prière qui efface les méchancetés environnantes. Sa vie se résume en ce dialogue permanent avec le Christ. Lui, qui a souffert, peut la comprendre, accueillir sa prière toute simple. Que dire de plus ?

Les paroissiens, génération après génération, – quelle constance ! -, organisent des pèlerinages et ne cessent de demander aux autorités ecclésiastiques de tout faire pour instruire un dossier de béatification. On consigne scrupuleusement toutes les guérisons qu’on lui attribue.

Il en faudra du temps et de la patience. La béatification sera proclamée le 7 mai 1854 et la canonisation le 29 juin 1867. Et pour honorer la « germaneta », on construira en 1901 une basilique, de style romano-byzantin, pour accueillir la foule des pèlerins venus de tous horizons.

« Elle mit de grandes intentions à faire de petites choses »

Quant à l’église paroissiale, elle accueille, dans une splendide châsse offerte par l’abbé Lamarque, les ossements de la sainte car 1793 a fait des ravages. Les révolutionnaires ne pouvaient plus supporter les dévotions que l’on continuait à manifester à Pibrac. Ils jetèrent le corps dans une fosse et la recouvrirent de chaux qui fit son œuvre mortifère. Préservée divinement, c’est par la folie humaine que Germaine est ainsi violentée.

Comment une si modeste personne a-t-elle pu, au cours des ans, susciter tant de ferveur ? Ce qui attire les foules, hier comme aujourd’hui, ce ne sont pas des prodiges mais la reconnaissance d’une grâce. Comme le dit si bien Mgr André Collini, ancien archevêque de Toulouse : « La grâce de savoir que les anonymes, les humbles de cœur, les meurtris de la vie, les méprisés, les exclus, le peuple immense de ceux qui n’ont ni le pouvoir, ni le savoir sont les premiers parmi les bien aimés du Père. » Le cardinal Saliège a fort bien résumé ce destin fulgurant : « Elle mit de grandes intentions à faire de petites choses ».

SOURCE : https://fr.aleteia.org/2019/06/14/germaine-cousin-la-sainte-quil-nous-faut/?utm_campaign=NL_fr&utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=NL_fr

Santa Germana Cousin

La châsse de Sainte Germaine; oeuvre de Mr Favier, orfèvre à Lyon 1854. Église Sainte-Marie Madeleine Pibrac Haute-Garonne France. Matériaux : Laiton dorée et cristal Taille :1,30m de long, 0,50m de large et 1 m de haut.

Neuvaine à sainte Germaine de Pibrac

À réciter pendant 9 jours devant une statue de sainte Germaine ou devant son image

Sainte Germaine, qui avez eu la douleur perdre votre mère bien-aimée à l’âge de cinq ans, laquelle fut remplacée par une marâtre qui vous prit en aversion, priez pour l’union harmonieuse de nos foyers.

Sainte Germaine, qui n’avez pas eu la joie de grandir dans une famille unie, priez pour l’union harmonieuse de nos foyers.

Sainte Germaine, qui avez trouvé le secret de votre paix et de votre force dans la pratique quotidienne du saint Sacrifice de la messe, de la visite au Saint-Sacrement et du Rosaire médité, priez pour l’union harmonieuse de nos foyers.

Sainte Germaine, qui avez souffert avec une admirable patience la maladie des écrouelles et la mise à l’écart, ainsi que l’isolement du cœur qui en découlait, priez pour l’union harmonieuse de nos foyers.

Sainte Germaine, qui avez souffert avec une admirable patience le traitement dur et injuste de votre marâtre, sans jamais vous plaindre, trouvant votre soutien seulement dans la méditation de la Passion du Sauveur, priez pour l’union harmonieuse de nos foyers.

Sainte Germaine, qui viviez dans une extrême pauvreté, vous nourrissant seulement de pain noir et dormant sur quelques fagots de sarments disposés sous un escalier, sans jamais vous plaindre, priez pour l’union harmonieuse de nos foyers.

Sainte Germaine, modèle d’obéissance prompte et de fidélité au devoir d’état, malgré vos infirmités, priez pour l’union harmonieuse de nos foyers.

Sainte Germaine, remplie d’une extrême charité pour les mendiants, charité que Dieu couronna par le miracle des fleurs dans votre tablier, priez pour l’union harmonieuse de nos foyers.

Sainte Germaine, qui êtes morte comme vous aviez vécu : dans la solitude, priez pour l’union harmonieuse de nos foyers.

Sainte Germaine, dont le corps virginal fut protégé par Dieu de la corruption naturelle et de la destruction par la malice des hommes, en 1793 et en 2000, préservez-nous de toute division familiale.

Prière

Ô sainte Germaine qui avez triomphé de la souffrance et de l’isolement du cœur par la patience et la charité, obtenez-nous des grâces abondantes d’esprit de sacrifice de soi et d’amour mutuel, pour réaliser des unions stables et harmonieuses dans nos foyers.

1 Notre Père, 3 Je Vous salue Marie, 1 Gloire au Père.

Souvenez-vous à Sainte Germaine

Souvenez-vous, ô très douce Germaine, de vos frères et de vos soeurs qui gémissent et qui souffrent dans cette vallée de larmes. Souvenez-vous qu'ils espèrent en vous, qu'ils attendent de vous secours dans leurs épreuves, consolation dans leurs douleurs. Souvenez-vous que vous aussi avez gémi, que vous aussi avez pleuré, que vous aussi avez connu la pauvreté, l'isolement, l'humiliation et la souffrance. Et maintenant, dans votre gloire, souvenez-vous de nos misères; dans votre puissance, souvenez-vous de notre infirmité; dans votre bonheur, souvenez-vous de nos larmes! Formez-nous à l'école de votre douceur, de votre patience, de votre foi, de votre charité. Puis, au sortir de ce monde, recevez-nous dans l'éternelle Patrie.

SOURCE : http://imagessaintes.canalblog.com/archives/2009/06/28/14233509.html

Santa Germana Cousin

Église Saint-Georges de Saint-Georges-de-Reintembault (35). Intérieur. Tableau. Sainte-Germaine-Cousin.

Saint Germaine Cousin

Also known as

Germaine of Pibrac

Germana…

Memorial

15 June

Profile

Daughter of Laurent Cousin, a farm worker, and Marie Laroche. Her mother died while Germaine was an infant. A sickly child, Germaine suffered from scrofula, and her right hand was deformed. Ignored by her father and abused by her step-family, she was often forced to sleep in the stable or in a cupboard under the stairs, was fed on scraps, beaten or scalded with hot water for misdeeds, real or imagined.

At age nine Germaine was put to work as a shepherdess, where she spent much time praying, sometimes using a rosary she made from a knotted string. She refused to miss Mass, and if she heard the bell announcing services, she set her crook and her distaff in the ground, declared her flock to be under the care of her guardian angel, and went to church; her sheep were unharmed during her absences. It is reported that once she crossed the raging Courbet River by walking over the waters so she could get to church.

Germaine was so poor it is hard to imagine she would be able to help others, but she was always ready to try, especially children whom she gathered in the fields to teach a simple catechism and share the little food she had. The locals laughed at her religious devotion, and called her ‘the little bigot’.

Once in winter, her stepmother, Hortense, accused her of stealing bread by hiding it in her apron, and threatened to beat her with a stick. Germaine opened her apron, and summer flowers tumbled out. Her parents and neighbors were awed by the obvious miracle, and began to treat her as a holy person. Her parents invited her to rejoin the household, but Germaine chose to live as she had.

In 1601 she was found dead on her straw pallet under the stairs, and she was buried in the Church of Pibrac opposite the pulpit. When accidentally exhumed in 1644 during a renovation, her body was found incorrupt. In 1793 the casket was desecrated by an anti-Catholic 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 French Revolution, her body was found to be still intact save where the quick-lime had done its work.

Documents attest to more than 400 miracles or extraordinary graces received through the intervention of Saint Germain. They include cures of every kind (of blindness, both congenital and resulting from disease, of hip and of spinal disease), and the multiplication of food for the distressed community of the Good Shepherd at Bourges, France in 1845.

Born

1579 at Pibrac, France

Died

15 June 1601 in her parents’ home in Pibrac, France, apparently of natural causes

relics interred in the church at Pibrac

Beatified

29 May 1854 by Pope Blessed Pius IX

Canonized

29 June 1867 by Pope Blessed Pius IX

against impoverishment

girls from rural areas

handicapped people

loss of parents

peasant girls

physically challenged people

victims of child abuse

in France

girl with a distaff

girl with a sheep

girl with a shepherd‘s crook

girl with a watchdog

girl with flowers in her apron

peasant girl dying alone in poverty

peasant girl tending sheep

peasant girl with flowers falling around her in winter

Storefront

hand painted medals

Additional Information

All the Year Round, by Sister Mary Emmanuel, O.S.B.

Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate

Catholic Encyclopedia

New Catholic Dictionary

Saints of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein

The Holy Shepherdess of Pibrac

books

Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

Saints and Their Attributes, by Helen Roeder

other sites in english

images

video

sitios en español

Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición

sites en français

Fête des prénoms

Wikipedia

fonti in italiano

Cathopedia

Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi

Santi e Beati

Wikipedia

Readings

Dear God, please don’t let me be too hungry or too thirsty. Help me to please my mother. And help me to please you. – prayer of Saint Germaine

MLA Citation

“Saint Germaine Cousin“. CatholicSaints.Info. 6 April 2024. Web. 15 December 2024. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-germaine-cousin/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-germaine-cousin/

Santa Germana Cousin

Statue de Sainte Germaine de Pibrac. Auvillar, Église Saint-Pierre

St. Germaine Cousin: Patron of People with Disabilities and Victims of Abuse

Today, June 15 is the feast day of St. Germaine Cousin, a simple and devout young girl who lived in Pibrac, France in the late 1500s. She was born in 1579 to a humble family. Her father was a farmer, and her mother died when she was still an infant. She was born with a deformed right arm and hand, as well as the disease of scrofula, a tubercular condition.

Her father remarried soon after the death of her mother, but his new wife was repulsed by Germaine's condition. She tormented and neglected Germaine, and taught her siblings to do so as well.

Starving and sick, Germaine was eventually kicked out of the house and forced to sleep under the stairway in the barn, on a pile of leaves and twigs, because of her stepmother’s dislike of her and disgust of her disability. Nevertheless, Germaine tended to the family's flock of sheep everyday.

Despite her suffering, she lived each day full of thanksgiving and joy, and spent much of her time praying the Rosary and teaching the village children about the love of God. She was barely fed and was very thin, yet despite this, she shared the little bread that she had with the poor of the village.

From her simple faith grew a deep holiness and profound trust in God. She went to Mass every day, leaving her sheep in the care of her guardian angel, who never failed her. Germaine’s deep piety was looked upon with ridicule by the villagers, but not by the children, who were drawn to her holiness.

God protected Germaine and showered his favor upon her. It was reported that on days when the river was high, the waters would part so that she could pass through them on her way to Mass. 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.

Eventually, the adults of the village began to realize the special holiness of this poor, crippled shepherdess. Germaine's parents eventually offered her a place back in their house, but she chose to remain in her humble place outside.

Just as the villagers were realizing the beauty of her life, God called her to Himself. Her father found her body on her bed of leaves one morning in her 22nd year of life.

Forty-three years later, when a relative of hers was being buried, Germaine’s casket was opened and her body was found incorrupt. People in the surrounding area began praying for her intercession and obtaining miraculous cures for illnesses. Documents attest to more than 400 miracles or extraordinary graces received through the intervention of Saint Germain. They include cures of every kind.

St. Germaine was canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867 and inscribed into the canon of virgins.

St. Germaine is the patron of: victims of abuse and child abuse, of abandoned people, people with disabilities, against poverty, illness and loss of parents. She is also the patron of girls from rural areas.

Prayers to St. Germaine

Saint Germaine, look down from Heaven and intercede for the many abused children in our world. Help them to sanctify their sufferings. Strengthen children who suffer the effects of living in broken families. Protect those children who have been abandoned by their parents and live in the streets. Beg God's mercy on anyone who abuses children. Intercede for handicapped children and their parents.

Saint Germaine, you who suffered neglect and abuse so patiently, pray for us.

Amen.

Remember us, blessed Germaine, your brothers and sisters who labor and suffer in this difficult world. Know that we place our hope in you, ask for your help in our need, and for consolation in our suffering. Hear us as we ask you to be with us in our time of trial. You experienced much pain, isolation, humiliation, and suffering. Now from your place of glory please look with kindness upon our sorrows. In your happiness, remember our tears.

Form us in the way of your humility, your patience, your faith, and your charity.

And then, at the hour of our death, welcome us to our eternal home.

Amen.

SOURCE : https://catholicfire.blogspot.com/2016/06/st-germaine-cousin-patron-of-people.html

Santa Germana Cousin

Vitrail de Louis-Victor Gesta représentant sainte Germaine, église de Salignac, Dordogne, France.

St. Germaine Cousin

Feastday: June 15

Patron: victims of child abuse

Birth: 1579

Death: 1601

When Hortense decided to marry Laurent Cousin in Pibrac, France, it was not out of love for his infant daughter. Germaine was everything Hortense despised. Weak and ill, the girl had also been born with a right hand that was deformed and paralyzed. Hortense replaced the love that Germaine has lost when her mother died with cruelty and abuse.

Laurent, who had a weak character, pretended not to notice that Germaine had been given so little food that she had learned to crawl in order to get to the dog's dish. He wasn't there to protect her when Hortense left Germaine in a drain while she cared for chickens -- and forgot her for three days. He didn't even interfere when Hortense poured boiling water on Germaine's legs.

With this kind of treatment, it's no surprise that Germaine became even more ill. She came down with a disease known as scrofula, a kind of tuberculosis that causes the neck glands to swell up. Sores began to appear on her neck and in her weakened condition to fell prey to every disease that came along. Instead of awakening Hortense's pity this only made her despise Germaine more for being even uglier in her eyes.

Germaine found no sympathy and love with her siblings. Watching their mother's treatment of their half-sister, they learned how to despise and torment her, putting ashes in her food and pitch in her clothes. Their mother found this very entertaining.

Hortense did finally get concerned about Germaine's sickness -- because she was afraid her own children would catch it. So she made Germaine sleep out in the barn. The only warmth Germaine had on frozen winter nights was the woolly sheep who slept there too. The only food she had were the scraps Hortense might remember to throw her way.

The abuse of Germaine tears at our hearts and causes us to cry for pity and justice. But it was Germaine's response to that abuse and her cruel life that wins our awe and veneration.

Germaine was soon entrusted with the sheep. No one expected her to have any use for education so she spent long days in the field tending the sheep. Instead of being lonely, she found a friend in God. She didn't know any theology and only the basics of the faith that she learned the catechism. But she had a rosary made of knots in string and her very simple prayers: "Dear God, please don't let me be too hungry or too thirsty. Help me to please my mother. And help me to please you." Out of that simple faith, grew a profound holiness and a deep trust of God.

And she had the most important prayer of all -- the Mass. Every day, without fail, she would leave her sheep in God's care and go to Mass. Villagers wondered that the sheep weren't attacked by the wolves in the woods when she left but God's protection never failed her. One day when the rains had swollen the river to flood stage, a villager saw the river part so that she could cross to get to the church in time for Mass.

No matter how little Germaine had, she shared it with others. Her scraps of food were given to beggars. Her life of prayer became stories of God that entranced the village children.

But most startling of all was the forgiveness to showed to the woman who deserved her hatred.

Hortense, furious at the stories about her daughter's holiness, waited only to catch her doing wrong. One cold winter day, after throwing out a beggar that Germaine had let sleep in the barn, Hortense caught Germaine carrying something bundled up in her apron. Certain that Germaine had stolen bread to feed the beggar, she began to chase and scream at the child. As she began to beat her, Germaine opened her apron. Out tumbled what she had been hiding in her apron -- bright beautiful flowers that no one had expected to see for months. Where had she found the vibrant blossoms in the middle of the ice and snow? There was only one answer and Germaine gave it herself, when she handed a flower to her mother and said, "Please accept this flower, Mother. God sends it to you in sign of his forgiveness."

As the whole village began to talk about this holy child, even Hortense began to soften her feelings toward her. She even invited Germaine back to the house but Germaine had become used to her straw bed and continued to sleep in it. There she was found dead at the age of 22, overcome by a life of suffering.

With all the evidence of her holiness, her life was too simple and hidden to mean much beyond her tiny village -- until God brought it too light again. When her body was exhumed forty years later, it was found to be undecayed, what is known as incorruptible. As is often the case with incorruptible bodies of saints, God chooses not the outwardly beautiful to preserve but those that others despised as ugly and weak. It's as if God is saying in this miracle that human ideas of beauty are not his. To him, no one was more beautiful than this humble lonely young woman.

After her body was found in this state, the villagers started to speak again of what she had been like and what she had done. Soon miracles were attributed to her intercession and the clamor for her canonization began.

In this way, the most unlikely of saints became recognized by the Church. She didn't found a religious order. She didn't reach a high Church post. She didn't write books or teach at universities. She didn't go to foreign lands as a missionary or convert thousands. What she did was live a life devoted to God and her neighbor no matter what happened to her. And that is all God asks.

In Her Footsteps:

Do you make excuses not to help others because you have so little yourself? Share something this week with those in need that may be painful for you to give up.

Prayer:

Saint Germaine, watch over those children who suffer abuse as you did. Help us to give them the love and protection you only got from God. Give us the courage to speak out against abuse when we know of it. Help us to forgive those who abuse the way you did, without sacrificing the lives of the children who need help. Amen

SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=52

Santa Germana Cousin

Statue dans l'église Saint-Georges, Entraygues-sur-Truyère, Aveyron, France

St. Germaine Cousin

Born in 1579 of humble parents at Pibrac, a village about ten miles from Toulouse; 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 pretence 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 practise humility and patience. She wasgifted with a marvellous 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 practised many austerities as a reparation for the sacrileges perpetrated by heretics in the neighbouring 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 herdevotion 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 favour 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, andmiraculously 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 andbishops 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 herbeatification, and on 29 June, 1867, placed her on the canon of virgin saints. Her feast is kept in the Diocese ofToulouse 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.

Sources

GUÉRIN in Petits Bollandistes, 15 June; VEUILLOT, Vie de la bienheureuse Germaine (2d ed., Paris, 1904).

Mulcahy, Cornelius. "St. Germaine Cousin." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909.1 Apr. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06474a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Elizabeth T. Knuth. Dedicated to Olivier Joseph.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06474a.htm

Santa Germana Cousin

Vitrail de l'église Saint-Marceau d'Orléans (Loiret, France) : Sainte Germaine

Stained-glass window of Saint Marceau church of Orléans (Loiret, France) : Sainte Germaine

St. Germaine Cousin,

Patroness of the Abandoned

A story for children about God's love for those who are mistreated.

St. Germaine Cousin was the daughter of Laurent and Marie. Laurent, a lowly farm worker, and his wife Marie lived in a little village name Pibrac near Toulouse, France. In the year 1579 St. Germaine was born. The times were very hard for people in the French countryside at that time. There were wars going on, people were very poor and there wasn't much food. There was even a plague. A plague is when a great many people get sick with the same disease and die. When St. Germaine was still very small, her mother died, probably because of the plague.

St. Germaine was certainly very lonely being without her mother, but there were even more things for her to deal with besides the loss of her mother. She was also very sick as a child. Not only this, but her right hand was deformed so that she couldn't use it and she had a disease known as "scrofula" which left a large, ugly lump on her neck. This disease is not common anymore, but at that time in France it was common. People were very ignorant about diseases back then and they called scrofula "the King's Evil". People were not very nice to St. Germaine because of the way she looked to them, with this lump on her neck. Although the lump itself was not painful, the way people treated her because of it must have been hard for St. Germaine to deal with.

St. Germaine's father got married again after his wife died, but the new family was very mean to her, especially the step-mother. St. Germaine's father allowed them to be mean to her. They even made her sleep in the barn under a stairway and she was not allowed to eat with the others in the family. She was fed only scraps of food that were left over from what the others had eaten. The step-mother was not only unkind to St. Germaine. She would beat her, too, and leave bruises on her.

When she was only nine years old, St. Germaine was put to work watching the family's flock of sheep. In order to get to the fields where the sheep were, she had to walk through the Bouconne Forest. This was very dangerous because there were wolves in the forest, so St. Germaine had to put her trust in God for protection every time she went to and from the fields. She also had to spin wool while watching the sheep. She was told how much work to do and if she didn't finish it all, she was punished severely. St. Germaine prayed a lot while she was watching the sheep and she made her own Rosary out of a piece of string by tying knots in it.

St. Germaine never wanted to miss Mass even though she was in charge of the flock. When the bell rang for Mass at the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, she would pray and ask her guardian angel to look after the sheep while she was at Mass. The sheep never got hurt while she was at Mass even though there were wolves about. Through the Church, St. Germaine learned all about the love of God. One of the important things she learned was that sufferings bring grace. All of the sufferings we must go through in life have meaning to God because of His great love for us. Those who suffer in innocence will surely be rewarded with a shining crown in heaven thanks to what Jesus has done on the Cross for us all. Perhaps it is because everyone else was so mean to her that St. Germaine was able to see how very much God loves her and it was through the Church that she learned about this great love. For this reason, St. Germaine never ever wanted to miss going to Mass to learn more about God and to receive Him in the Eucharist.

St. Germaine had very little to share except her love of God, so she taught the catechism to the children she would meet in the fields. She would teach them about the goodness of God by sharing with them the little food that she had. People laughed at her as she did this but St. Germaine did not show anger toward them. She remained silent. She was able to do this because she knew how very much God loved her even if no one else seemed to.

St. Germaine performed many miracles even during her lifetime. Once, there had been a heavy rain and the river which she had to cross to go to Mass was swollen and running swiftly. She should not have been able to cross it and some who knew she would try to cross it to get to Mass came to laugh at her. St. Germaine was very brave and faithful, though, and stepped into the river to go to Mass. Those who had come to laugh at her later said that the waters had parted in front of St. Germaine to allow her to cross.

St. Germaine's stepmother accused her once of stealing food, and when St. Germaine opened her apron, many flowers fell out of it. Since this was in the wintertime, everyone was amazed by it and people began to believe that she must be a very holy young woman. Even her parents started to believe it and offered to treat her more kindly and let her live in the house with them, but St. Germaine chose to live as she had always lived before, sleeping under the stairs. This is where she died, on a bed of straw. She was only 22 years old.

After St. Germaine died, people began to realize more and more how special she had been. They believed she must be a saint and began to ask for her help. When we ask for the help of a saint, the saint's help is called "intercession". Over 400 miracles are believed to have happened because of the intercession of St. Germaine.

During a time when money and fame were the kinds of glory people wanted -- much like today, right? -- St. Germaine was the opposite of that. She was very poor, not educated except in the teachings of the Faith, very sick and crippled and she was hated even by her own family. She seemed to have no one who cared, but she knew that no matter how horrible things were for her, God loved her and He was there for her. She loved Him so much in return that she did just as Jesus asked by treating people kindly, no matter how badly they treated her. For this, St. Germaine received real glory that comes from God -- a place in heaven with all the saints -- and she will never be lonely or sick or abused again but have a crown of glory with Jesus.

The Lesson of St. Germaine -- Do not fear loneliness or mistreatment of any kind because God has created you to receive His love. God's love is enough for us, so do not fear when you do not receive it from others. Remember, too, to be very grateful if you have a family who treats you well and not like St. Germaine's family treated her. Seek God's love always and pass God's love on to others. God has promised to reward those in heaven who follow Him on earth as St. Germaine did.

SOURCE : http://parentsduty.com/StGermaine.php

Santa Germana Cousin

Statue de Sainte Germaine, sur le tympan du porche de l'église d'Artigat

St. Germaine Cousin

Under pretence 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 practise humility and patience. She was gifted with a marvellous 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.

The villagers were inclined at first to treat her piety with mild derision, until certain signs of God’s signal favour 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.

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.

SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/stgermaine-cousin/

Santa Germana Cousin

Stained-glass window in the Saints Peter and Paul church in Promilhanes, Lot, France

Germaine Cousin V (RM)

(also known as Germana of Pibrac)

Born at Pibrac (near Toulouse), France, in 1579; died 1601; beatified on May 7, 1854; canonized on June 29, 1867 by Pope Pius IX. Saint Germaine was the daughter of Laurent Cousin, a farm worker, and his wife, Marie Laroche. Her mother died while she was still an infant. A sickly child, she suffered scrofula among other conditions, and her right hand was deformed. Her father and his second wife (or her half-brother's wife) treated her badly. After her stepmother's children were born, Germaine was kept isolated from her siblings. She slept in the stable or in a cupboard under the stairs and was poorly fed on scraps. At the age of nine, Germaine was put to work as a shepherdess, which is not a terrible business for one who liked to pray.

Germaine was very devout, however, and refused to miss Mass. If she heard the bell calling the faithful to Mass while she was tending the sheep, she set her crook and her distaff in the earth, declared her flock to be under the care of her guardian angel, and went to church. Her sheep never came to any harm during her absences, even though ravening wolves inhabited the nearby forest of Boucône. It is reported that once she crossed the raging Courbet River by walking over the waters so that she could get to church.

Germaine was so poor that it is hard to imagine she would have the resources to exercise the corporal works of mercy. Yet love can always find a way. She was always ready to lend a hand to anyone needing it, especially the children whom she would gather in the fields to teach a simple catechism. She shared what little food she received with those poorer than herself.

The neighbors laughed at her religious devotion and called her 'the little bigot'; Germaine took it all in good humor. Once in the winter her stepmother accused her of stealing bread and pursued her threateningly with a stick. When Germaine opened her apron, summer flowers tumbled out. The neighbors and her parents were awed and began to treat her as a holy person. Her parents invited her to rejoin the household, but Germaine chose to continue living as before.

At 22, she was found dead on her straw pallet under the stairs. Her body was buried in the Church of Pibrac opposite the pulpit. When it was accidentally exhumed in 1644 by workmen renovating the church and identified by the withered hand, it was found incorrupt. After being exposed for one year for veneration, her relics were transferred to a leaden coffin and placed in the sacristy. Sixteen years later, her body was found to be still well preserved, and miracles were attributed to her. Her relics remain in the church at Pibrac, and an annual pilgrimage is made there. The process of canonization, begun in 1700, was delayed for Germaine because of the intervening French Revolution and similar problems. She was, however, successfully invoked by Popes Pius VII in 1813 and Pius IX in 1849 (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Walsh, White).

In art, Saint Germaine is depicted as a peasant girl with flowers falling around her in winter. She might also be portrayed tending sheep or dying alone in poverty (Roeder). She is venerated in Pibrac, Toulouse, France (Roeder). Germaine is the patroness of young country girls (Encyclopedia).

SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0615.shtml

Santa Germana Cousin

La châsse de Sainte Germaine; oeuvre de Mr Favier, orfèvre à Lyon 1854. Église Sainte-Marie Raoul Du faure de Pibrac. « La mort de sainte Germaine », 1910, huile sur toile, Église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Pibrac

St. Germaine Cousin

June 15 is the feast day of St. Germaine Cousin, a simple and pious young girl who lived in Pibrac, France in the late 1500s. Germaine was born in 1579 to poor parents. Her father was a farmer, and her mother died when she was still an infant. She was born with a deformed right arm and hand, as well as the disease of scrofula, a tubercular condition.

Her father remarried soon after the death of her mother, but his new wife was filled with disgust by Germaine's condition. She tormented and neglected Germaine, and taught her siblings to do so as well.

Starving and sick, Germaine was eventually kicked out of the house and forced to sleep under the stairway in the barn, on a pile of leaves and twigs, because of her stepmother’s dislike of her and disgust of her condition. She tended to the family's flock of sheep everyday.

Despite her hardships, she lived each day full of thanksgiving and joy, and spent much of her time praying the Rosary and teaching the village children about the love of God. She was barely fed and had an emaciated figure, yet despite this she shared the little bread that she had with the poor of the village.

From her simple faith grew a deep holiness and profound trust in God. She went to Mass everyday, leaving her sheep in the care of her guardian angel, who never failed her. Germaine’s deep piety was looked upon with ridicule by the villagers, but not by the children, who were drawn to her holiness.

God protected Germaine and showered his favor upon her. It was reported that on days when the river was high, the waters would part so that she could pass through them on her way to Mass. 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.

Eventually, the adults of the village began to realize the special holiness of this poor, crippled shepherdess. Germaine's parents eventually offered her a place back in their house, but she chose to remain in her humble place outside.

Just as the villagers were realizing the beauty of her life, God called her to Himself. Her father found her body on her bed of leaves one morning in her 22nd year of life.

Forty-three years later, when a relative of hers was being buried, Germaine’s casket was opened and her body was found incorrupt. People in the surrounding area began praying for her intercession and obtaining miraculous cures for illnesses.

St. Germaine was canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867 and inscribed into the canon of virgins.

SOURCE : http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=497

Santa Germana Cousin

The Holy Shepherdess of Pibrac

In the latter part of the sixteenth century, beneath the walls of Toulouse, bloomed, almost unseen and unknown, a little flower of the fields, whose delicate chalice emitted a perfume scarcely perceptible to mortal sense. It passed away, and seemed forgotten; but its odor still lingered where it had blossomed; and after a few years had gone, its dust was gathered into the sanctuary, that the holy place might be filled with the celestial fragrance.

Germaine Cousin was born at Pibrac, a village of nearly two hundred families in the environs of Toulouse, about the year 1579. The parish church was dependent on the great Priory of the Knights of Malta in that city. The chateau belonged to the Du Faur, Lords of Pibrac. The actual proprietor was Guy, famous at once as an orator, a poet, and a successful courtier. Once the proudest remembrance of the place was the visit of Catharine de Medicis and her daughter, Margaret of Navarre, who were magnificently entertained by the Lord of Pibrac. But now the visit of the two queens, and the fame and opulence of the great orator, are nearly forgotten; while the memory of our holy shepherdess has lived for nearly three centuries in the hearts of all the inhabitants of Pibrac. The chateau is a forsaken ruin; but the church has become a place of pilgrimage, because Germaine prayed beneath its arches, and there found a tomb.

Her father was a poor husbandman, to whom tradition gives the name of Lawrence. Her mother’s name was Marie Laroche. From the first moment of her existence, she seemed destined to suffering and affliction. She was infirm from her birth, being unable to use her right hand, and afflicted with scrofula. While yet a child, she became motherless; and, as if these were not trials enough to accumulate at once upon the head of one so frail, her father did not long delay to fill the vacant place on his hearth. Absorbed in her own children, this second wife, instead of pitying the hapless orphan whom Providence had confided to her care, conceived an aversion for her. But the trials to which Germaine was subjected were proofs of the divine favor. To them she was indebted for the brilliancy of her virtues, especially humility and patience.

As soon as she was old enough, her step-mother, who could not endure her presence at home, sent her forth to guard the flocks. This was her occupation the remainder of her life. But even in the depths of her lonely life, our shepherdess created for herself a more profound solitude. She was never seen in the company of the young shepherds; their sports never attracted her; their jeers never disturbed her thoughtful serenity; she only spoke sometimes to girls of her own age, sweetly exhorting them to be mindful of God!

We know not from whom Germaine received her first religious instructions — what hand, friendly to misfortune, revealed to her the great truths of salvation. Doubtless, it was the curd of the parish; for holy church despises not the meanest of 754 The Holy Shepherdess of Pibrac. her children; and her sagacious eye is quick to discover the chosen of God. But, whoever it was, he did but little, and there was little to be done. God himself perfected the religious training of his handmaiden. She early learned what must for ever remain unknown to those who do not recognize in him the fountain of all wisdom. Living amid the wonders of creation, she contemplated them with the intelligent eye of innocence. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God – see him in the brilliant stars, the burning sun, the unfathomable heavens, and the changing clouds – see him in the flowers and plants that cover the surface of the earth! Germaine learned from the open book of nature a wondrous lore; and her attuned ear caught and comprehended that mysterious, anthem of praise, which, floating through creation, is unheard by more sinful man. Her pure soul united in the eternal song: Benedicite omnia opera Domini Domino: laudate et superexaltate cum in saecula!

Although Germaine was a poor infirm orphan, subjected to the heavy yoke of a severe step-mother, and exposed by her occupation to the inclemency of the weather, she bore all her trials with cheerfulness, never brooding over her sorrows. One of the characteristics of the saints which particularly distinguishes them from ordinary Christians, is, the use made of the common occurrences of life. They share in common with other men, and often in a greater degree, the trials common to humanity; but they are chastened, purified by them, and they look upon the afflictions of this life as a means of assimilating them to Him who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Even in the manifest ill treatment and injustice of the malignant and wicked, they disregard the channel, but accept the suffering, as a means of perfection.

The extent to which this principle is carried, is peculiarly Catholic; and, in reading the lives of our saints, we cannot but be struck by it. They never struggled against their trials, and therefore were cheerful under them; for the greater part of our wretchedness proceeds from struggling against the current of life. This is the key to the saying of Fénélon: Non-resistance is a remedy for every ill.

The paternal roof was not for Germaine, as for most – even the most wretched – a refuge and a place of repose. And yet neither her poverty, nor sorrows, nor infirmities, could have rendered her insensible to that which surpasses all the other pleasures of life – the happiness of being loved. By a divine foresight, God has placed in the hearts of parents, by the side of that fount of love for their offspring, a well of singular tenderness for the unfortunate child, the black lamb of the flock. This peculiar love Germaine had not. She had not even the legitimate share of her father’s heart. She was denied a place at the fireside; she was hardly allowed shelter in the house. Her step-mother, irritable and imperious, would send her away to some obscure corner. She was not permitted to approach the other children — those brothers and sisters whom she loved so tenderly, and whom she was always ready to serve without manifesting any envy on account of the preferences of which they were the object, and she the victim. The inflexible harshness of her step-mother obliged the infirm girl to seek a place of repose in the stable, or upon a heap of vine branches in an out-house.

But Germaine knew too well the value of sufferings not to accept with joy these humiliations and this injustice. And, as if her cross were yet too light, she imposed upon herself additional austerities. During the greater part of her life, she denied herself all nourishment but bread and water.

So great a conformity to her poor, suffering, and persecuted Saviour, kindled in the heart of Germaine an ardent love for his adorable humanity. Notwithstanding her feebleness and other obstacles, she assisted every day at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Even the obligations of her calling could not keep her from church at that hour. Confiding in God, she left her flock in the pasture, and hastened to the foot of the altar. It is a misguided piety which induces us to neglect the duties of our state of life in order to satisfy our devotion; but with Germaine this was the result of prompt obedience to a special inspiration. She knew who would guard her sheep; while she, poor lamb of Christ’s flock! went to refresh herself at the fountain of living water.

Even when her sheep were feeding close by the wood of Boucone, which skirted the fields of Pibrac, and abounded with wolves, at the sound of the church bell she would plant her crook or her distaff in the ground, and hasten to the feet of the divine Shepherd, At her return, she always found her sheep unharmed. Not one was ever devoured by the wolves, nor did they ever stray into the neighboring fields.

Long after Saint Germaine’s death, the peasants of the hamlet remembered the unearthly brightness of her face as, week after week, she approached the holy sacraments.

“A celestial brightness, a more ethereal beauty,

Shone on her face and endrcled her form when, after confession,

Homeward serenely she walked with God’s benediction upon her.”

In the Holy Eucharist she found a compensation for every grief. That divine Spouse to whom she was pledged placed himself as a seal upon her heart, thereby strengthening it to endure the trials of life, and enriching it with such abundant grace that, while dwelling at large in the great temple of nature, her life gleamed before him, brightly, and purely, and constantly, like the undying lamp of the sanctuary!

Like all the saints, Germaine had a singular devotion to Mary – that devotion so dear to the Catholic heart, and which is considered by the fathers as a mark of predestination. The world does not realize how much it has owed to Mary during these eighteen hundred years; yet some, some of us know how dark and almost unbearable it would be with its sorrows, and cares, and privations, if over all were not diffused the beauty and softness, the sweet charm of virginity and love, from the divine face of Mary!

To Germaine, the Ave Maria was another salutation of the angel preluding the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost; and she murmured the sacred words with infinite tenderness, above all, at the hour when they are on every lip. As soon as she heard the Angelus bell, which has three times a day, for six centuries, intoned the Ave Maria between heaven and earth, it was remarked that, wherever she might be, she immediately fell upon her knees as if insensible to the incommodiousness of the place.

The Rosary was her only book; and to her this devotion was no vain repetition. “Love,” says Lacordaire, “has but one word, and, in saying that for ever, it is never repeated.”

“Ever transformed to meet our needs.

Oft as Devotion counts her beads,

As if those beads had caught the light

In her celestial girdle bright,

But each with its own colors dight.

Thus, whensoe’er that prayer is heard,

Fresh thoughts are in each solemn word:

An orb of light comes from the skies

To kindle holy liturgies;

It gathers and gives back their rays.

Now turned to prayer, and now to praise.”

The love of God insensibly leads to the love of one’s neighbor. Germaine, when she could, used to draw around her the little children of the village, and endeavor to explain to them the truths of religion, and sweetly persuade them to love Jesus and Mary. This little school, held in the shade of a thicket of the lone fields, was a spectacle worthy of the admiration of angels, and is a proof of the unselfishness of real piety, even in the most lowly.

Although the piety of Germaine produced a profound impression in the village, yet the world is the same everywhere, and always conceives a secret aversion to piety. It cannot avoid censuring it in some way, however unobtrusive a piety it may be. Religion imposes esteem upon the world, and the world avenges itself by raillery. So the wits of Pibrac persecuted Germaine with mockery; they laughed at her simplicity, and called her a bigot.

But if God permits, for the perfection of the saints, that their virtue be turned into ridicule, he knows, when it pleaseth him, how to render them glorious in the eyes of the world.

In order to reach the village church, Germaine was obliged to pass the Courbet, a stream she generally crossed without difficulty in ordinary weather; but after heavy rains, it was too wide and deep to be passed on foot. One morning, as she was going to church, according to her custom, some peasants who saw her afar off stopped at a distance, and asked one another in a tone of mockery how she would pass the stream, now so swollen by the rain that the most vigorous man could hardly have stemmed the torrent. Dreaming of no obstacle, and perhaps not seeing any, Germaine approached as if none existed. . . O wonder of divine power and goodness! As of old the waters of the Red Sea opened for the passage of the children of Israel, so those of the Courbet divided before the humble daughter of Lawrence Cousin, and she passed through without wetting even the edge of her garments. At the sight of this miracle, afterward often repeated, the peasants looked at one another with fear; and from that time the boldest began to respect the simple maiden whom they had hitherto scoffed at.

After having thus glorified the faith of Germaine by dissipating the material obstacles to the performance of her duty, God wished also to glorify her charity to the poor.

If any one could believe himself exempted from the obhgation of charity and alms-giving, it was certainly our shepherdess. She had no superfluities; she lacked even the necessaries of life. What was there, then, to retrench, in her life of extreme privation and severe penance? How economize the retvard of her labor, which consisted only of a little bread and water? But charity is ingenious; and, seeing only our suffering Lord in the person of the poor, Germaine often deprived herself of a part of the bread which was allowed for her nourishment, doubly glad to give it to the hungry, and increase the treasure of her privations. Such are the deeds of the saints which will one day reproach us with terrible power! What will the rich man say when he beholds, rising up to confront his hardness of heart, the alms of Lazarus!

The pious liberality of Germaine made her an object of suspicion to her step-mother, who, not divining her resources, accused her of stealing bread from the house. One day she learned that Germaine, who had just gone with the flock, carried in her apron some pieces of bread. Furious, and armed with a cudgel, she immediately ran after her. Some of the other inhabitants of Pibrac happened to be on their way at this very moment to the house of Lawrence Cousin. Seeing this woman almost beside herself with passion, they divined her intentions, and hastened to protect Germaine from the ill treatment with which she was menaced. Overtaking the stepmother, they learned the cause of her anger. Finding Germaine, she seized her apron, and instead of bread, it was filled with bouquets of roses, although it was a season when those flowers were not in bloom. Thus God confounded the malice of her implacable enemy by renewing a miracle, likewise wrought in favor of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and other saints.

From this time, Germaine was regarded as a saint. Lawrence Cousin, conceiving more tender sentiments toward this pious child whom he had so little known, forbade his wife’s annoying her any more, and wished to give her a place in his house with the other children. But Germaine, accustomed to suffering and loving privation, besought him to leave her in the obscure place which her step-mother had assigned her.

It was now that Germaine attained and proved the perfection of her humility. We must not consider it a trifling honor to have been esteemed at Pibrac; nor a small reward to have had a place at the fireside of Lawrence Cousin. Human nature is the same everywhere. There is no theatre too small for ambition. We know there are as many cabals for the first place in a village as for the chief place in an empire.

Perhaps it may not be entirely useless to speak of the exterior of the blessed Germaine. The manners and customs of the remote provinces of France retain so much of primitive simplicity, they change so little year after year, and the people in these localities have such a marked appearance, that we may form a reasonable idea of her person and habits.

She is represented in paintings and engravings as we see scores of shepherdesses in the south of France at this day – seated on a hillock in the fields, and surrounded by her flock. With a spindle in her hand, and under her arm the distaff” laden with flax, she is spinning, after the primitive manner of that country. She is rather below the medium size, and is slight in form. She has the long head of the Toulousains, and their dark, Spanish complexion and eyes. The face, half hidden by the picturesque scarlet capuchon, is expressive of silence, interior silence; and forcibly speaks of the deep, deep calm within. A pleasing sadness, or rather a subdued joy, veils her face. There is an introspective look about the eyes which shows that her spirit has passed the bounds of sense, and is concentrated in one mysterious thought – some dream of a heavenly world. Sitting alone, away from her kind, her thoughts were pure and holy and bright, like the fragrant flowers of her own green meadows. She must have seemed to the other peasants like some phantom of unearthly love, as she sat there enveloped in a divine ethereal atmosphere. In the distance rise the towers of the church, and the antique chateau of the Lords of Pibrac, and between murmurs the Courbet. Over all, is the sunlight of her own bright clime.

Perhaps the miracle of the roses is the most popular representation of Saint Germaine, as something not quite so unearthly. There is no mystery about the look of the fierce stepmother, as with one hand she raises the cudgel over the head of the resigned-looking girl, and with the other grasps the apron from which tumble out the bright and fragrant flowers. The face of Germaine is somewhat sad, and her eyes are cast down in fear to the earth. Tremulous and mute she stands before her step-mother, for she is humble and sore afraid. There is a reflective charm about her of which she is wholly unconscious, for it emanates from that spiritual beauty visible only to the intelligences and bright ardors around the throne.

Saint Getmaine died soon after the miracle of the roses. Almighty God, having sanctified her by humiliations and sufferings, withdrew her from this world when men, becoming more just, began to render her the honor her virtue merited. She terminated her obscure and hidden life by a similar death, but according to appearance this terrible moment, which confounds human arrogance, gave her no terror or pain.

One morning, Lawrence Cousin, not seeing her come out as usual, went to call her where she slept — under the stairs. She made no reply. He entered and found her upon her bed of vine-branches. She had fallen asleep while at prayer. God had called her to enjoy the reward of eternal life. She had ceased to suffer.

It was about the commencement of the summer of the year 1601 that Saint Germaine entered into the joy of her Lord. She was twenty-two years of age.

That same night two pious men were overtaken near Pibrac by the darkness of night, and obliged to await the return of day in a neighboring forest. All at once, in the middle of the night, the woods were flooded with a light more brilliant than the dawn, and a company of virgins, clothed in white garments and surrounded by a dazzling light, floated by on the darkness toward the house of Lawrence Cousin. Soon after they returned, but there was another in their midst—more radiant still – who had on her head a chaplet of fresh flowers. . . .

People came in crowds to her funeral, wishing to honor her whom they had too long despised, whom too late they had known. This was the first testimony of public veneration. Her body was buried in the church in front of the pulpit. Forty-three years after, it was found entire and preserved from corruption. It had been embalmed with her virginal purity. In her hands were a taper and a garland of pinks and heads of grain.

The flowers had scarcely faded. The grain was fresh as at the time of harvest. The holy body was removed and finally placed in the sacristy, where people of all ranks, incited by the wonders wrought at her tomb, came to offer their homage.

In 1843, more than four hundred legally attested miracles had been wrought at her shrine, and so excited the faith of the people in her power before God, that the Archbishop of Toulouse, and nearly all the other prelates of France, petitioned the Holy See for her beatification. It had been desired before the French Revolution, but it was not attempted till the time of Gregory XVI.

When the commissioners went to examine the condition of the remains of the venerable Germaine, a most extraordinary scene took place. The inhabitants of Pibrac, thinking that the beatification of their shepherdess might terminate in the loss of their holy treasure, came in a body to the door of the church. They received the commissioners with threats and even with stones, so it was only with difficulty an entrance could be effected into the church. The furious multitude followed, and the examination was made in the midst of a frightful tumult. “No! no!” was heard on all sides. “No beatification. Saint Germaine cures us when we are sick; that is enough. She belongs to us. We wish to keep her.”

The brief for the beatification of Germaine Cousin was issued by the order of his holiness Pius IX, on the 1st of July, 1853.

The Triduo which was held at Pibrac, in 1854, in honor of this event, manifested the joy and the faith of the people. Altars, lighted up by the bright sun of France, were erected in the fields once trod by the feet of Germaine, so that hundreds of Masses could be offered at once. The whole country around poured in. Toulouse seemed vacated. There were eighty thousand persons assembled around that shrine. On the first day there were fourteen thousand communicants. In the procession were eighteen hundred young ladies robed in white. They all held white lilies in one hand, and wax tapers in the other, and as they entered the church and passed the altar, they deposited their tapers on one side and their lilies on the other. Conspicuous in the procession were those who had been healed by the intervention of the holy shepherdess. Lights were in their hands, and they made an offering of gratitude at the altar.

The house in which the blessed Germaine had lived was endangered during those days of religious triumph. It was in a tolerable state of preservation, but every one seemed anxious to secure a portion of the walls that once sheltered her, and especially of the spot sanctified by the angel of death.

A resident in the south of France at the time of the beatification of Saint Germaine, as she was even then, with one accord, called in that country, I was forcibly impressed with the enthusiastic veneration and confidence with which she was regarded by all classes. Every week I heard of some new miracle at her tomb; so they soon ceased to excite wonder, and seemed to belong to the established order of events. There was scarcely an individual in my circle of acquaintance who had not been, at least once, to prostrate himself at her shrine, and there was a lively faith in her protection, which proved to me how strongly the spirit of the middle ages still animates the hearts of the faithful.

So popular a devotion was a novelty to me, an American, but I could not long remain insensible to its influence. One misty October day found me likewise an humble pilgrim at the shrine of the holy shepherdess of Pibrac.

The very air of that antique chapel inspires devotion. A supernatural influence seemed to impregnate everything around me. I saw, too, that I was not the only one who felt this subtle influence penetrating to the very heart; for the faces of all the pilgrims, priests, religious, and laymen of every rank who are constantly arriving and departing, were indicative of a holy awe. Though I got there at a late hour, and it was raining, Masses were still being celebrated, and the church was full. It was no festival. It was so every day. Masses were said at every altar from early dawn till the latest canonical hour. Prostrate groups from different parishes were always there, clustered in the nave, or gathered about the shrine; and here and there were lone pilgrims who, like me, had been brought from the ends of the earth. And around and over all were constellations of brightly burning tapers, emblematic of the prayer of faith, left there by the pilgrim as loth he slowly left the hallowed sanctuary.

The tomb of Saint Germaine is in a side chapel, protected by a grate. Her relics are covered with gold and silver and precious stones, ex votes, which gleam in the light of the votive candles around. Involuntarily there comes to the heart in this fitting place, and to the lips, the strain, Exaltavit humiles!

“Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick!” is the cry of every weary, sin-laden heart; above all here, where thou dost love to display thy goodness and thy power. The sacred heart of thy humanity, ever touched with feeling for our infirmities, is not hardened. It is still as tender and as compassionate as when thou didst weep over the grave at Bethany, and thy hand is as powerful. I believe that thou, who art honored in thy saints, dost heal here both soul and body of those who approach thee with faith and with love, especially with love. “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much,” was uttered centuries ago, but has been repeated times without number since, over penitent, loving souls. O power of love over the divine heart! It is only the cold, the feeble in faith, who have no power to draw from this inexhaustible well of compassion. If every Catholic heart were, as it should be, a chapelleardente, all aflame with the love of God, how soon would the spiritual infirmities of entire humanity be healed, and the wounds of Christ’s bleeding body be bound up!

Reader! let the aspiration of divine love, indulgenced by our sovereign pontiff on the 7th of May, 1854, in honor of the beatification of Germaine Cousin, be often on our lips and in our hearts: “Jesu, Deus meus, amo te super omnia!” Jesus, my God, I love thee above all things!

– from Catholic World magazine

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-holy-shepherdess-of-pibrac/

Santa Germana Cousin

Statue de sainte Germaine Cousin au calvaire de Louisfert (Loire-Atlantique)

Santa Germana Cousin Vergine

15 giugno

Pibrac, Francia, 1570 circa - 15 giugno 1601

Nata nel 1570 in un piccolo villaggio a pochi chilometri da Tolosa da modestissimi operai, restò per tutta la vita una povera pastorella. Con una malformazione congenita all'arto superiore destro e una costituzione gracile, si ammalò ben presto di scrofolosi che portò con sé quale cronica sofferenza per tutti i suoi anni. Perse la madre poco tempo dopo la nascita, il padre si risposò e in casa fu isolata. Fu mandata a pascolare le greggi e quasi sempre doveva dormire nella stalla. Tutto questo veniva però accettato con estrema umiltà e non le impediva di esercitare tanta carità nei confronti dei compagni, per lo più giovani pastori e pastorelle. Grande era la sua fede costruita intorno a quel poco che su Dio e sulla Madonna aveva appreso in parrocchia. Ogni giorno andava a Messa, ogni giorno recitava il Rosario e l'Angelus. Gli abitanti di Pibrac, il villaggio natale, la chiamavano perciò «la bigotta» e la dileggiavano. Ma Germana sopportava tutto con umiltà. Una mattina il gregge non uscì dall'ovile; Germana non andò in Chiesa. Era morta silenziosamente quasi addormentandosi nella pace eterna il 15 giugno 1601. Dopo la morte, per sua intercessione si verificarono numerosissimi miracoli. Tutta Pibrac e in seguito tutta la Francia le portarono grande devozione. (Avvenire)

Etimologia: Germana = fratello/sorella, dal latino

Martirologio Romano: A Pibrac nel territorio di Tolosa in Francia, santa Germana, vergine, che, nata da genitori sconosciuti, condusse fin dalla fanciullezza una vita di servitù e infermità, patendo con animo forte e spirito gioioso ogni genere di tribolazioni, finché a soli ventidue anni riposò in pace.

Dalla vita non ha ricevuto granchè, anzi la si può considerare una somma di dolori ed incomprensioni tali da mandare in depressione chiunque: una malformazione congenita le blocca un braccio; la scrofolosi le deturpa il viso con piaghe e gonfiori; a pochi giorni dalla nascita le muore la mamma e si ritrova con un papà che non la ama e una matrigna che la odia , trattandola come un’appestata. Per una bambina così sfortunata non si prospetta alcun avvenire e neppure si prende in considerazione l’ipotesi del matrimonio per cui, oltre a non mandarla a scuola, non le vengono insegnati neppure i lavori domestici. Soltanto al pascolo può andare, anche perché così pochi la notano, quasi fosse una persona di cui ci si vergogna. Il gregge ed i pascoli diventano così tutto il suo mondo e la sua ragion d’essere. O forse no, perché a dispetto di ogni apparenza quella bambina è intelligente e anche di facile apprendimento. Si innamora di Dio e della Madonna “immagazzinando” le poche nozioni che riesce a rubare quando, abbandonando il gregge, riesce a scappare in chiesa per la messa o per il catechismo. Al suo ritorno, non solo le pecore non si sono disperse, ma le si raduna intorno un piccolo “gregge” di bimbi, analfabeti come lei, ai quali riesce a trasmettere quanto nel suo cuore ha messo radici. Forse è più un catechismo di “testimonianza” che di nozioni, ma per questo ancor più efficace, almeno a giudicare dai frutti che si registrano in quei bambini, altrimenti abbandonati a se stessi, sporchi, ignoranti, rissosi. E anche affamati, tanto che lei deve portarsi il pane da casa o toglierselo di bocca per aiutarli in qualche modo. E se papà, insospettito, vuol verificare se nel suo grembiule stracolmo c’è davvero pane, ha la sorpresa di trovarlo in pieno inverno stracolmo di profumatissimi fiori. Così come gli altri pastori possono verificare che quella loro singolare “collega” riesce come Mosè ad aprisi un varco in un torrente in piena o attraversare un fiume senza neppure bagnarsi “Miracoli” quotidiani, di una ferialità che si sposa perfettamente con il carattere umile e dimesso di quella ragazza rifiutata da tutti, e che tutti trattano da “bigotta” e che insultano pure, per quel suo vizio di frequentare troppo la chiesa. E lei, povera di tutto, è ricca soltanto di pazienza e di sopportazione, di umiltà e di fede vissute nel nascondimento nel silenzio. Tanto che nessuno si accorge quando muore, appena trentenne, il 15 giugno 1601: la trovano, ormai cadavere, nel suo solito giaciglio nella stalla, dato che non le hanno mai dato un letto come spetterebbe ad ogni cristiano. La seppelliscono in chiesa a furor di popolo e 40 anni dopo ne riesumano il corpo ancora intatto, mentre si fa fatica a tenere conto dei miracoli che si sono verificati su quella tomba. Pio IX la mette ufficialmente sugli altari nel 1867 ed oggi Santa Germana Cousin è patrona dei pastori, dei pellicciai e, più di recente, anche dei “giovani a rischio”. Che sono così numerosi da aver davvero bisogno di una protettrice in più.

Autore: Gianpiero Pettiti

Santa Germana Cousin

Vitraux de l'église Saint-Étienne du Val-d'Izé (35).1ère travée de nef. Costale droite. Sainte-Germaine-Cousin.

Questa è la storia dell’infanzia tristissima di una bambina maltrattata perché disabile. Germana Cousin nasce in Francia a Pibrac (Alta Garonna, Occitania) nel 1579. Il padre è un fattore che, rimasto vedovo, si risposa. Germana, nata dal primo matrimonio, non è come le altre bambine. Ha un braccio semiparalizzato e una malattia le deturpa il viso, rendendola sgradevole di aspetto. Fin dalla tenera età, viene maltrattata dalla matrigna e dai fratellastri che la odiano e non sopportano di vederla. La isolano costringendola a dormire nella stalla, la obbligano a portare al pascolo le pecore e le danno da mangiare gli avanzi. Il padre è un debole e non la difende mai. Germana, però, è una ragazzina solare, umile e generosa e per queste qualità amata dai suoi concittadini. Religiosa, recita il Rosario invocando il perdono per i suoi crudeli familiari e ha fede nella Madonna.

Il parroco ammira la dolcezza della povera bambina e le permette di fare la comunione. Si narra che ogni mattina Germana si rechi a Messa lasciando incustodite le sue pecore che però, miracolosamente, non vengono assalite dai lupi. Una volta, un branco di questi animali selvatici sta per aggredirla, quando con un segno di croce li fa scappare via. Un giorno, per partecipare alla Santa Messa la ragazza è obbligata a oltrepassare il torrente Courbet in piena. La giovane non vuole perdere la comunione e decide di affrontare il torrente facendosi il segno della croce. Mentre recita le preghiere per farsi coraggio, improvvisamente l’acqua, che scorre impetuosa, si divide in due per farla passare.

Germana non ha nulla ed è malnutrita, ma quando trova un pezzo di pane lo dona con gioia ai bambini più poveri di lei, ai quali parla del Vangelo, improvvisando semplici racconti. In un’occasione, la perfida matrigna l’accusa di aver portato via il pane per darlo a due affamati che lei aveva scacciato via, ma dal grembiule di Germana, invece del pane effettivamente prelevato, pur essendo pieno inverno, cadono profumati fiori. Il 15 giugno del 1601 viene trovata esanime nel suo misero giaciglio. Le sue spoglie sono accolte a furor di popolo nella Chiesa di Pibrac. Tanti sono i miracoli ottenuti per sua intercessione dopo la morte. È patrona dei “giovani a rischio” (che vivono situazioni di difficoltà), dei pastori e dei pellicciai.

Autore: Mariella Lentini

Santa Germana Cousin

Sainte Germaine, vitrail d'Henri Curcier du chœur de l'église Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens, Lalinde, Dordogne, France.

Vive e muore sempre da ultima. La sua biografia è un succedersi di disgrazie,a partire dalla nascita. Non fa in tempo a conoscere sua madre, che muore poco tempo dopo averla messa al mondo. È infelice pure il suo fisico, per una mano malformata e per un’infermità cronica legata alla malnutrizione: la scrofolosi, che deturpa il suo viso con piaghe e gonfiori. È ultima anche per i suoi di casa: se la prende con lei soprattutto una donna, indicata come la matrigna o una cognata.

La sua “stanza da letto” è la stalla durante l’inverno e un sottoscala nella buona stagione. Nessuno in famiglia sembra notare la sua intelligenza (anche se è analfabeta). Tanto, sposarsi non potrà mai, nelle sue condizioni: sicché non le si insegnano neppure i lavori domestici. Il suo compito – appena l’età lo consente – è portare le pecore al pascolo, così non si fa troppo vedere.

L’epoca, in Francia, è quella delle “guerre di religione” tra cattolici e calvinist i– gli “ugonotti” –, una tragica crisi che vede l’aristocrazia divisa in due partiti armati e contrapposti. Sui contadini dipendenti dagli uni o dagli altri ricade il flagello delle estorsioni padronali e dei saccheggi. Così Germana, in casa e fuori, si trova a essere «pastorella in mezzo ai lupi», come la definirà Henri Ghéon, uno dei suoi biografi. Ma lei non crolla, non si chiude. Frequentando assiduamente la chiesa parrocchiale di Pibrac, il suo villaggio nativo, giunge ad avere una buona istruzione religiosa.

E a questo punto si scopre pure amabile parlatrice con i suoi coetanei, che le si fanno amici senza badare al suo aspetto. Sono gli unici che l’accettano com’è e ascoltano volentierii suoi racconti evangelici, nella parlata dell’Alta Garonna. È una catechista spontanea dei contadinelli poveri, e a volte li sfama pure, col pane portato da casa. Le campagne, infatti, sono al disastro, perché, dopo le rapine e i saccheggi delle guerre di religione, arrivano gli agenti del fisco, mandati dal ministro delle Finanze Sully; e questi, se il contadino non paga, mettono in vendita anche porte, finestre e copertura della casa. (Secondo un osservatore inglese, questa fiscalità spietata tende anche a deprimere e scoraggiare il minuto popolo, «che altrimenti sarebbe disposto alla rivolta»).

Germana è rimproverata dai suoi perché riempie il grembiule di pane per i suoi amici: ma lei prontamente apre il grembiule e lo si ritrova pieno di fiori, in inverno. Anche i pochi miracoli che le si attribuiscono sono così; ordinari, minuscoli, da poveri. E poverissima è la sua morte. Germana si spegne nel suo eterno sottoscala e non se ne accorge nessuno. Quando la trovano, è già cadavere. A trent’anni circa.

Più di 40 anni dopo, la sorpresa: riesumato il suo corpo, lo si trova intatto. Si diffonde la venerazione per lei: incomincia un processo per la canonizzazione, mentre la gente continua a invocarla. A fine Settecento, con la Rivoluzione francese, anche i suoi resti vengono dispersi. Nel 1867 Pio IX la proclama santa. Nel villaggio di Pibrac c’è ora una basilica eretta in suo onore.

Autore: Domenico Agasso

SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/57350

Santa Germana Cousin

Statuette de Sainte Germaine

Germana Cousin

(1570-1601)

Beatificazione:

- 29 maggio 1854

- Papa Pio IX

Celebrazione

Canonizzazione:

- 29 giugno 1867

- Papa Pio IX

- Basilica Vaticana

Celebrazione

Ricorrenza:

- 15 giugno

Vergine, che, nata da genitori sconosciuti, condusse fin dalla fanciullezza una vita di servitù e infermità, patendo con animo forte e spirito gioioso ogni genere di tribolazioni

Patrona dei pastori e della gioventù "a rischio"

Germaine Cousin nasce a Pibrac, a pochi passi da Tolosa nel 1570 da una famiglia di modesta condizione.

Venuta al mondo con una malformazione, alla morte della madre, il padre, risposatosi, la rifiuta, negandole la possibilità di un'istruzione e di una vita dignitosa, mandandola a seguire il gregge e costringendola a restare a dormire nell'ovile.

Il suo destino è pascolare le pecore e, appena possibile, inizia a frequentare la chiesa del paese, diventando molto devota.

Nonostante lo scherno e la derisione subita da alcuni, a lei si rivolgono gli sbandati alla ricerca della Parola nella comune triste condizione.

Muore in solitudine, appena trentenne, il 15 giugno 1601.

Canonizzata da Pio IX nel 1867.

SOURCE : https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/germana-cousin.html

Voir aussi : https://www.saintegermainedepibrac.fr/

ICONOGRAPHIE CHRÉTIENNE

vendredi 15 juin 2012

Sainte GERMAINE COUSIN (de PIBRAC), vierge laïque

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