Patron Saint of Unattractive People

Andre McCarvile writes:

Hey guys, I was reading Dad's blog and in it he asked if anyone knew if there was a patron saint of pirates. I went looking and didn't find any, but I found that unattractive people have two patron saints. As I read about this one, I noticed some interesting similarities between St. Germaine and a certain star of a popular book series.

Germaine, 15 June, is also known as Germana Cousin; Germaine of Pibrac; Germana Memorial.

She was the daughter of Laurent Cousin, a farm worker, and Marie Laroche. Her mother died while Germaine was an infant. A sickly child, she 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, 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 help anyone, 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, and threatened to beat her with a stick. Germaine opened her apron, and summer flower stumbled out. 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 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. In1793 the casket was desecrated by an anti-Catholic tinsmith named Toulza, who with three accomplices tookout the remains and buried them in the sacristy, throwing quick-lime and water on them. After theFrench 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 through the intervention of Saint Germain. They include cures of every kind (of blindness, both congenital and resulting from disease, of hip and spinal disease), and the multiplication of food for the distressed community of the Good Shepherd at Bourges in 1845.