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Today, January 3 on the 1,510th anniversary of the death of Sainte Genevieve we begin a special two part episode of the life of the Patron Saint of Paris. 

She stands on the banks of the Seine guarding the edge of Paris. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, was born in the year 434 in Nanterre, west of Paris. At the age of 7 she was blessed by St Germain, bishop of Auxerre, and from then on she dedicated her life to God Following the death of her parents a young Geneviève  moved to Paris to live with her godmother, Lutetia.  

As a child she was visited in visions by angels and saints and her family and village thought she was crazy. Saint Germain l’Auxerrois was always a supporter spreading the word that she was a child of God to be listened to.  Marcellus, Bishop of Paris appointed her to care and look after the welfare of virgins, but it would be her future deed that gives her place as the patron saint of Paris .  In 451, Atilla the Hun and his army were on their way to Paris to take the city. 

The young Geneviève gathered the frightened Parisians together to pray. Atilla's Huns changed their plans and headed to Orleans, saving Paris. In 464 she would do it again, this time during Childeric’s siege of Paris. She took a boat to Brie and Troyes numerous times, buying grain and returning to Paris and through his blockade to feed the starving people.  

Genevive died on  January 3, 512 and was buried alongside King Clovis and his wife Queen Clotilde.

More info and photos: https://www.claudinehemingway.com/paris-history-avec-a-hemingway-podcast-1
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