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A reflection of the Eiffel Tower is seen in the Seine River in Paris July 25, 2024.
OSV News photo/Esa Alexander, Reuters
July 25, 2024
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Paris is not a city, it's a world, they say, and so is the rich Catholic culture visible in its people and places. We gathered nine names of Parisian saints to accompany Catholics in 2024 -- the year of the Olympics and reopening of iconic Notre Dame Cathedral.
In the mid-third century, St. Denis arrived in Paris as its first bishop -- one of seven others sent to evangelize present-day France. He subsequently was martyred, along with two companions, Eleutherius and Rusticus, by suffering decapitation, presumably a result of the persecution of the Emperor Decius. After his head was severed, according to legend, St. Denis carried it several miles, all the while preaching a message of repentance. A Parisian pilgrim's path was popularized in the Middle Ages, visiting various sites associated with St. Denis' arrest, trial, suffering and death. St. Genevieve later saw to the construction of a church on the site of St. Denis’ tomb, the site of the present-day cathedral bearing his name just north of Paris. And he's spotted on the facade of Notre Dame Cathedral, just near the main entrance. His feast is Oct. 9.
Even as a 7-year-old girl, St. Genevieve wanted to live a life consecrated to God alone. This desire was encouraged when she met St. Germain of Auxerre, a holy bishop. Having moved to the city from her peasant home in the countryside outside of Paris, Genevieve quickly became associated with the extraordinary and miraculous. Her intercession with God brought about healings and protection in life and death, and she was soon considered to be a visionary and a mystic. By the help of her prayers and with her ability to evangelize amid crises, St. Genevieve is credited with having saved Paris from invaders and destruction on multiple occasions. Around the turn of the sixth century, St. Genevieve was instrumental in the conversion of the first Catholic king of France, Clovis I. Through the centuries following her death around 500, Genevieve's relics were often venerated and processed publicly amid great trials facing Parisians. Her relics were subsequently destroyed during the French Revolution, although a few small remaining pieces survived and are preserved in Paris' parish church of St. Étienne-du-Mont. Her feast is Jan. 3.
The reign of St. Louis IX as king of France, in the middle half of the 13th century, was marked as a golden age of French culture and prominence on the global stage. A man of courage and action, he also supported the intellectual life of the church and supported the establishment of a theological school in Paris that would be later known as the Sorbonne. He even was joined once at court by the great St. Thomas Aquinas, a preeminent theologian and philosopher of the day. St. Louis' life's highest aim was to give his all for the glory of God and the good of his people. This was evident in leading two of the Crusades, at which time he took possession of a relic of Christ's crown of thorns. St. Louis built a magnificent chapel in Paris to house the relic. Known as Sainte Chappelle, it remains one of the most visited places in France. He died in 1270 in Tunisia after contracting dysentery en route to the Holy Land during the eighth Crusade. His feast is Aug. 25.
Ordained a priest in 1600, St. Vincent de Paul came to see clearly how holy priests were needed to reform the church besieged by clericalism and corruption. "There is nothing so grand as a good priest," he said. As he poured out his life in ministry for others, especially those on the margins, he desired to assist the church in renewing priestly life with a focus on personal sanctification and the needs of the poor. With that in mind, Vincent established the Congregation of the Mission -- a men's order also known as the Vincentians, directed toward those abandoned and forgotten -- in addition to working for seminary reform and founding the Daughters of Charity so that women could share in ministry to the sick and poor. Vincent de Paul died in Paris in 1660, heralded as having "changed the face of the Church." His feast is Sept. 27.
St. Louise de Marillac grew up in a home without stability -- she was born out of wedlock, was not afforded the rights of other siblings and was mistreated by her father’s wife. Still a member of an affluent family, Louise received an education at a convent school sponsored by royalty outside of Paris. Although drawn initially to religious life, Louise was denied entrance to a convent. At a loss for what to do, it was arranged for her to marry the queen’s secretary Antoine Le Gras in 1613. Looking to give more of her life to service to the poor and sickly, Louise was instrumental in forming the Ladies of Charity, an association of the wives of wealthy men. This eventually paved the way for the Daughters of Charity, which Louise helped establish with St. Vincent de Paul after she was widowed in 1625 and in which she professed religious vows. Considered a patron of the church’s charitable services, Louise died in 1660 and was canonized three centuries later. Her feast is March 15.
Born into an agrarian family, the ninth of 11 children, St. Catherine Laboure desired religious life from an early age. And despite her father’s resistance, she eventually joined the Daughters of Charity in Paris in 1830. Her desire to serve the needy led to decades of care for the poor, sick and elderly. During those decades she remained in hidden silence regarding what makes her most well-known today -- namely, supernatural visions she received from the Blessed Virgin Mary. These visions began just months after St. Catherine started her novitiate on Rue du Bac in Paris, and they have resulted in one of the most popular devotions and sacramentals for Catholics ever since: the Miraculous Medal. Two main visions in 1830 are what brought about the striking of the medal -- one on July 18 and another on Nov. 27. Our Lady’s request for a medal, and a subsequent apparition holding a globe covered with gems, all flowed particularly from Mary’s desire to dispense graces she obtains from her Son by the help of her prayers, as well as her help and protection in times of trial and difficulty. St. Catherine died in 1876. Her feast is Nov. 28.
In the wake of the French Revolution, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat dedicated her life to the restoration of religious life and the church’s educational apostolate. Well educated -- in the midst of the terror -- thanks to her brother, a seminarian, by age 15, she had received a thorough exposure to the Bible, the teachings of the fathers of the church and theology. Her dedication of a new religious congregation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was apropos, given the apostolic zeal that inflamed her work. Having spent most of her time traveling about France and abroad, Sister Madeleine Sophie had founded nearly 100 institutions in her congregation before her death in 1865. She notably established institutions in the United States, as well, which resulted in the arrival of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne in Missouri. Sister Madeleine Sophie was canonized in 1925. Her feast is May 25.
St. Marie-Eugenie Milleret was the oldest child born in a well-to-do family in 1817. Her family suffered great difficulty after her father’s financial ruin, including her parents’ separation in 1830. But Marie-Eugenie began to understand she had a calling from God for something more. She credits her first holy Communion at age 12 and an 1836 sermon by the famous Dominican Father Henri Dominique Lacordaire at the Notre Dame Cathedral as two life-changing events that helped move her along in her faith, Milleret's focus on religious life intensified, and it eventually resulted in the establishment of a congregation dedicated to the education of the poor and inspired by the Blessed Virgin. Although the Religious of the Assumption congregation was born, much suffering had to be overcome before the fledgling community eventually received the pope’s approval nearly 50 years later. Milleret died in 1898 and was canonized in 2007. Her feast is March 10.
About a month after the fall of the French monarchy in 1792, hundreds of Catholic clerics were arrested as a feverish anti-Catholicism swept across Paris. Some 3,000 people were killed that September, including 191 bishops, priests and other clerics, religious and laity who were beatified as martyrs in 1926. In 2016, one of that number was canonized: Brother Salomon Leclercq. Like thousands of others who remained firm in their faith amid persecutions, unwilling to submit to the new government’s requirement of an oath of loyalty, Brother Leclercq was forced to practice his ministry underground. His feast day is Sept. 2.
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