By RAY CAVANAUGH
Life got off to an unfavorable start for Germaine Cousin. Her right hand was severely deformed. Her mother died soon after her birth. And not long after, she fell victim to a disfiguring disease. Her grim existence would barely reach adulthood, but the unbreakable decency of her spirit has managed to give centuries of inspiration. The patron saint of abandoned persons, St. Germaine Cousin’s feast day is June 15.
She was born in 1579 in a French village about 10 miles from Toulouse. Her family lived on a once-prosperous farm that had severely declined. As a young child, Germaine began to show signs of scrofula — a disease that, among other issues, causes the neck glands to swell and abscesses to appear. It also leaves the body more susceptible to other ailments.
Ostensibly seeking to protect the other children, Germaine’s stepmother banned her from setting foot in the family home. So, from an early age, she lived in a stable with sheep. She would never receive any formal education.
Despite her circumstances, she never expressed any resentment toward her stepmother, or to anyone else for that matter. As stated on a website of the St. Francis de Sales parish in Akron, Ohio, “Germaine had every excuse to become a person embittered by life.” It’s a testament to her fine nature that she did not.
The Catholic Encyclopedia credits Germaine with having a “marvelous sense of the presence of God.” To her already spartan life, she added further austerities, subsisting on bread and water. Also, she would often share her meager supply of bread with starving vagrants and others who had even less than what she did.
A 2009 U.S. Catholic magazine article notes that although Germaine “knew only the most basic elements of her faith, she developed a rich prayer life and personal friendship with God.”
Villagers often saw her in the field kneeling in front of a rudimentary shrine she built with two pieces of wood. Most of these villagers were somewhat dismissive toward her, at least during her lifetime. Some of her neighbors, however, noticed with curiosity that Germaine’s flock stayed obediently next to her shepherding staff while she attended daily Mass. And even though she lived right near a forest of wolves, she never seemed to lose any sheep to predators.
Eventually, Germaine’s father overruled the stepmother’s insistence that Germaine stay away from the family home. He invited his daughter to join the household with the rest of his children. But she refused. She had grown accustomed to her way of life, and had no wish to change.
One summer morning in 1601, the sheep were going neglected. This was highly unusual, so Germaine’s father went to investigate — and found her dead. At age 22, her life of physical ailments had come to an abrupt end. She was buried at the village church.
Life went on in the village, and Germaine faded further from everyone’s memory. Then one day, about four decades after her death, her grave was opened to receive the remains of a newly deceased relative.
Something remarkable had taken place: Germaine’s lifeless body had not degraded since the day of her burial. Prominent citizens of nearby Toulouse provided official statements that bore witness to this special phenomenon.
Ensuing years saw local miracles — such as the recovery of a woman with breast cancer and a gravely ill infant — that were attributed to Germaine. She later received credit for additional miracles involving sudden cures of conditions ranging from blindness to infirmities of the spine.
The year 1700, almost exactly one century after her death, brought the start of an organized effort to obtain beatification for Germaine.
In the aftermath of the French Revolution, amid a wave of anti-religious sentiment, Germaine’s remains were desecrated. Two of the perpetrators soon came down with disfiguring diseases. The other perpetrators quickly repented.
When post-Revolution France attained some degree of stability, the cause for Germaine’s beatification resumed. In the fullness of time, dozens of French bishops would write letters to the Vatican on behalf of the outcast shepherd girl.
Germaine was beatified on May 7, 1854, and then canonized on June 29, 1867.
There is something truly humble about her story. Many saints, even if they had a gentle nature, were people of prominence, or at least played a role in a prominent situation.
Not so for Germaine. She didn’t establish any religious order or hospital or charitable institution. She left behind no written work. She wasn’t a martyr or part of any huge historical event. Nor did she make any grand pilgrimage. She never even had the chance to wander far from her sheep.
Hers was a short, painful, and stunted life. But she responded to it with a kindness and devotion that still inspires.
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