Feast Day:	May 28
Born:	496 at Autun, France
Died:	576

St. Germanus, the glory of
the church of France in the sixth age, was born in the territory of Autun about
the year 469. He was brought up in piety and learning under the care of
Scapilion his cousin, a holy priest. In his youth no weather could divert him
from always going to Matins at midnight, though the church was above a mile from
the place of his abode. Being ordained priest by St. Agrippinus bishop of Autun,
he was made abbot of St. Symphorian’s in the suburbs of that city, a house since
converted into a priory of regular canons. Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers, who
was well acquainted with our saint, tells us that he was favored at that time
with the gifts of miracles and prophecy. It was his custom to watch great part
of the night in the church in prayer, while his monks slept. One night in a
dream he thought a venerable old man presented him with the keys of the city of
Paris and said to him, that God committed to his care the inhabitants of that
city, that he should save them from perishing. Four years after this divine
admonition, in 554, happening to be at Paris when that see became vacant, on the
demise of the bishop Eusebius, he was exalted to the episcopal chair, though he
endeavored by many tears to decline the charge. His promotion made no alteration
in his continual fasts and other austerities; and the same simplicity and
frugality appeared in his dress, table, and furniture. In the evening at nine
o’clock he went to the church, and staved there in prayer till after Matins,
that is, in summer till about break of day His house was perpetually crowded
with the poor and the afflicted. and he had always many beggars at his own
table, at which no dainty meats were ever served; he took care that the souls of
his guests should be refreshed at the same time with their bodies, by the
reading of some pious book. God gave to his sermons a wonderful influence over
the minds of ale ranks of people; so that the face of the whole city was in a
very short time quite changed. Vanities were abolished, dances and profane
amusements laid aside, enmities and discord extinguished, and sinners reclaimed.
King Childebert, who till then had been an ambitious worldly prince, by the
sweetness and the powerful discourses of the saint, was entirely converted to
piety, and by his advice reformed his whole court. And so desirous did that
prince become of exchanging the perishing goods of this world for eternal
treasures, that, not content with making many religious foundations, to be
nurseries of piety in all succeeding ages, and with sending incredible sums of
money to the good bishop, to be distributed among the indigent after his coffers
were drained he melted down his silver plate, and gave away the chains which he
wore about his neck, begging the bishop, whom he made the steward of his
charities, never to cease giving, assuring him that on his side he should never
be tired with supplying all things for the relief and comfort of the
distressed.

In the year 542, king Childebert, together with his brother
Clotaire, making war in Spain, besieged Saragossa. The inhabitants of that city
reposed a particular confidence in the patronage of St. Vincent, whose relics
they carried in procession within sight of the French camp. King Childebert was
moved with their devotion, and desiring to speak with the bishop of the city,
promised to withdraw his army, on condition he might obtain some portion of the
relics of St. Vincent. The bishop gave him the stole which that holy deacon wore
at the altar. Upon which the king raised the siege, and, at his return to Paris,
built a church in honor of St. Vincent, and of the Holy Cross; which is now
called St. Germain’s in the meadows, and stands in the suburbs of Paris.
Childebert falling sick at his palace at Celles, near Melun, at the confluence
of the Yon and Seine, St. Germanus paid him a visit; and when the physicians had
in vain tried every thing, all human means failing, the saint spent the whole
night in prayer for his recovery, and in the morning laid his hands on him; and
at the same moment the king found himself perfectly healed. The king relates
himself this miracle in his letters patent, in which, in gratitude to God for
this benefit, he gave to the church of Paris and the bishop Germanus, the land
of Celles, where he had received this favor. The good king did not long survive.
As the king had chosen the church of St. Vincent for the place of his burial,
the saint, assisted by six other bishops, performed the ceremony of the
dedication on the 23d of December, 558, the very day on which that prince died.
The king likewise had built a large monastery joining to this new church, which
he endowed most liberally with the fief of Issy and other lands, on part of
which a considerable suburb of Paris has been since built. This magnificent
edifice was called the Golden Church, the walls being covered on the outside
with plates of brass gilt, and within adorned with paintings on a rich gilt
ground.1 This church was plundered by the Normans, in 845, 857, 858, and set on
fire by them in 861 and 881; but rebuilt in 1014, and dedicated by pope
Alexander III. in 1163. The lower part of the great tower and its gate with the
statues of Clovis, Clodomir, Thierri, Childebert and his wife Ultrogotta,
Clotaire, and others, seem to be as old as the time of king Childebert. This
prince committed the monastery and church to the care of our saint, who placed
there monks under the holy abbot Droctoveus, whom he had invited from Autun,
where he had formed him to a religious life. Clotaire, who succeeded his brother
Childebert, was the last of the sons of the great Clovis; and united again the
four kingdoms of France into one monarchy. On his removing from Soissons to
Paris, he at first seemed to treat the holy bishop coldly; but falling ill soon
after of a violent fever, was put in mind by some that were about him to send
for St. Germanus. He did so, and full of confidence in the power of God and the
sanctity of his servant, took hold of his clothes and applied them to the parts
of his body where he felt pain, and recovered immediately. From that moment he
always treated the saint even with greater honor than Childebert had done. But
that prince dying shortly after, in 561, his four sons, Charibert, Gontran,
Sigebert, and Chilperic, divided the French monarchy into four kingdoms, in the
same manner as the sons of Clovis had done. That of Paris was given to Charibert
or Aribert, Gontran was king of Orleans and Burgundy, Sigebert of Austrasia, and
Chilperic of Soissons. Charibert sunk into a vicious indolence, yet was
obstinate and headstrong in his passions not being divested of all the
prejudices of paganism, he divorced his wife Ingoberga, and took to wife
Marcovesa her maid, who had worn a religious habit; and after her death, he
married her sister Merofleda, Ingoberga being still living. Our saint many ways
endeavored to make him sensible of the enormity of his crimes; but finding all
his remonstrances lost on him, he proceeded so far as to excommunicate him and
the accomplice of his sin, to hinder at least the dangerous influence of his
scandalous example. The sinners were hardened in their evil courses; but God
revenged the contempt of his laws and of the holy pastor as he has often done,
by visible judgments; for the criminal lady fell ill and died in a few days, and
the adulterous king did not long survive her, leaving by his lawful wife only
three daughters, two of whom became nuns, the third, called Bertha, was married
to Ethelbert, king of Kent.

Upon the death of Charibert in 570, his three
brothers divided his dominions; but not being able to agree who should be master
of Paris, the capital, came to an accommodation that they should hold it
jointly, on condition that none of them should go into the city without the
leave of the other two St. Germanus found his flock involved by this agreement
in great difficulties, and the city divided into three different parties, always
plotting and counterplotting against one another. He did all that the most
consummate charity, prudence, and vigilance could do, to preserve the public
peace; yet Sigebert and Chilperic appeared in arms, being fired by ambition, and
stirred up by their wicked queens Fredegonda, wife of the latter, and Brunehaut
of the former, burning with the most implacable jealousy against each other. The
saint prevailed with them to suspend their hostilities for some time. At length
Chilperic invaded the territories of Sigebert, but being worsted in battle, fled
to Tournay. This victory left Sigebert free liberty of going to Paris with his
wife Brunehaut and children, where he was received as conqueror. St. Germanus
wrote to the queen, conjuring her to employ her interest with her husband to
restore the peace of France, and to spare the life and fortune of a brother,
whose ruin and blood would cry to heaven for vengeance. But Brunehaut’s passion
rendered her deaf to all remonstrances, and Sigebert was determined by her
furious counsels to besiege Tournay. As he was setting out for this enterprise,
he was met by St. Germanus, who told him that if he forgave his brother, he
should return victorious; but if he was bent on his death, divine justice would
overtake him, and his own death should prevent the execution of his unnatural
design. Sigebert allowed this wholesome advice no weight; but the event showed
that God had put these words in the mouth of the good bishop; for queen
Fredegonda, enraged at the desperate posture of her husband’s.

affairs,
hired two assassins, who dispatched him with poisoned daggers, while he made a
halt in his march at Vitri, in 575, after he had reigned fourteen years, with
some reputation of humanity, as Fortunatus tells us.
Chilperic, by his
tyranny and oppressions, deserved to be styled the French Nero, as St. Gregory
of Tours calls him. He sacrificed his own children by former wives to the fury
of Fredegonda, but having discovered her infidelity to him, he was, by her
contrivance, murdered by her gallant in 584. Fredegonda was regent of the
kingdoms of Soissons and Paris for her son Clotaire III., and continued her
practices and wars against Brunehaut and her son till she died, in 601.
Brunehaut governed the kingdom of Austrasia for her son Childebert II., and
after his death for her grandson Theodebert; but afterwards persuaded Theodoric,
her second grandson, who reigned at Challons, to destroy him and his whole
family in fill. The year following Theodoric died, and Clotaire II., surnamed
the Great, son of Fredegonda, inheriting both their estates, accused Brunehaut
before the states of putting to death ten kings and St. Desiderius, bishop of
Vienne, because he had reproved her for her public scandalous lusts, and many
other illustrious persons. She had at first appeared liberal, and built several
churches; but afterwards became infamous for her cruelty, avarice, restless
ambition, and insatiable lusts, to which she sacrificed all things, and employed
both the sword and poison in perpetrating her wicked designs. Being condemned by
the states, she was put to the rack during three days, and afterwards dragged to
death, being tied to the tail of a wild mare; or, according to others, drawn
betwixt four horses, in 613.

St. Germanus lived not to see the miserable
ends of these two firebrands of their country. In his old age he lost nothing of
that zeal and activity with which he had filled the great duties of his station
in the vigor of his life, nor did the weakness to which his corporal austerities
had reduced him, make him abate any thing in the mortifications of his
penitential life, in which he redoubled his fervor as he approached nearer to
the end of his course. By his zeal the remains of idolatry were extirpated in
France. In the third council of Paris, in 557, he had the principal share in
drawing up the canons. By his advice, king Childebert issued an edict commanding
all idols to be destroyed throughout his dominions, and forbidding all indecent
dances and diversions on Sundays and festivals. The saint continued his labors
for the conversion of sinners till he was called to receive the reward of them
on the 28th of May, 576, being eighty years old. King Chilperic composed his
epitaph, in which he extols his zeal for the salvation of his people, and their
affection and veneration for his person. He mentions the miracles which were
wrought at his tomb, and says that sight was restored to the blind and speech to
the dumb.2 He was, according to his own desire, buried in St. Symphorian’s
chapel, which he built at the bottom of the church of St. Vincent already
mentioned. Many miracles manifested his sanctity, of which Fortunatus, then a
priest, afterwards bishop of Poitiers, has left us a history, in which he gives
two on his own evidence. Also two anonymous monks compiled relations of several
miracles of St. Germanus, which Aimoinus, a monk of this monastery in 870, and a
careful writer, digested into two books.3 The relics of St. Germanus remained in
the aforesaid chapel till the year 754, when the abbot removed them into the
body of the church. The ceremony of this translation was performed with great
solemnity; and king Pepin thought himself honored by assisting at it.
Prince
Charles, known afterwards by the title of Charlemagne, who was then but seven
years old, attended his father on this occasion, and was so strongly affected
with the miracles performed at that time, that when he came to the crown, he
took a particular pleasure in relating them, with all their circumstances. The
greatest part of the relics of St. Germanus remain still in this church of St.
Vincent, commonly called St. Germain-des-Prez. This abbey is possessed of the
original privilege of its foundation and exemption, written on bark, and
subscribed by St. Germanus, St. Nicetius, and several other bishops. The most
valuable work of St. Germanus of Paris, is An Exposition of the Liturgy,
published from an ancient manuscript by Dom. Martenne.4 The characteristical
virtue of St. Germanus was his unbounded charity to the poor. Liberality in alms
moves God to be liberal to us in the dispensations of his spiritual graces; but
he who hardens his heart to the injuries and wants of others, shuts against
himself the treasury of heaven.