RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Geneva Genevieve
St. Genevieve, said to date in its earliest form from 520 states that her parents were the Christians Severus and Gerontia, and describes the extraordinary piety of her childhood, together with her powers of prophecy and her ability to work miracles. In 429 Bishop Germanus of Auxerre (q.v.) is said to have dedicated her to the Lord when he visited Nanterre on his way to England to combat Pelacianism. When about fifteen, after the death of her parents, St. Genevieve went to Paris, where she took the veil. During the invasion of the Huns in 451, she is said to have prophesied their speedy defeat and to have averted the famine in Paris and the surrounding cities by miraculous gifts of bread. After her death her relics brought the basilica of Peter and Paul such fame by their miraculous power that the name was changed to that of Ste. Genevieve. Before the destruction of this church in the Norman occupation of 857, her relics were taken to Athis, but, after their return to Paris, a stately church was erected to her by Abbot Stephen of Tournay (1177-80), where her magnificent reliquary of gold and jewels, borne by four gigantic female figures, was preserved until it was destroyed during the French Revolution. It is generally admitted that at least the kernel of the tradition concerning St. Genevieve is authentic, the arguments of Krusch, the chief opponent of the historicity of the account, being refuted by Duchesne, Narbey, and others.
2. Genevieve, Palgravine of Brabant: This saint is apparently the product of a legend of the late Middle Ages. According to tradition, she was the wife of the Rhenish Palgrave Siegfried, who was supposed to have flourished in the eighth century; after successfully resisting the advances of one Golo during her husband's absence, she is said to have been committed by her would-be seducer to the charge of a servant, together with her newborn child, to be drowned. The servant, however, merely conducted her to a lonely spot, where she was miraculously sustained and later discovered by her husband while hunting. This form of the legend, preserved in Eymich's account, was amplified by the Jesuit De Cerisiers, who also wrote a tragedy on the theme. The tradition originally centered about the chapel of Frauenkirche near Maria-Laach (20 m. w.n.w. of Coblenz), which was believed to have been founded by the palgrave and crusader Siegfried (d. 1113). His wife, originally Gertrude, a countess of Nordheim with estates in Brabant, was transformed by legend into a Genevieve, and, as a Brabantine counterpart to Ste. Genevieve of Paris, seems to have been approximated to her in time, so that she was supposed to have lived in the days of Charles Martel. Numerous attempts have been made to maintain the historicity of the tradition, either in part, as by Kupp and Sauerborn, or in whole, as by Brower, who identifies the mythical Bishop Hidulf mentioned in the legend with the historical Archbishop Hillin of Treves (1152-69), and thus places the beginning of the story in the twelfth century. On the other hand, Baronius and the ASB deny the existence of a Brabantine St. Genevieve, while Zacher has sought unsuccessfully to interpret the legend myth-
ologically by identifying Siegfried with Odin, Golo with Ullr, and the like. (O. ZocKXERt.)
Bibliography: 1. The literature, mostly devotional, is voluminous. A well-selected list is given in Potthast, Wegweiser, pp. 1331-32. The earliest (anonymous) Vita is best edited by B. Krusch in MGH, Script, rer. Merov., iii (1896), 204-238, cf. Krusch in NA, xviii (1893), 11- 50, xix (1894), 444-459. This Vita, with two others, also anonymous, and Miracula and Revelatio, is in ASB, Jan., i. 143-153. C. Kohler has edited a fourth in fitude critique sur le texte de la Vie latine de S. Genevieve, Paris, 1881, while the first is edited by C. Narbey, Quel est le texte authentique de la Vie de S. Genevieve, ib. 1884. Consult: L. S. Le Nain de Tillemont, Vie de S. Genevieve . . precedee d'une notice sur toutes les vies , Paris,
1825; M. B. Saintyves, Vie de S. Genevieve . . , ib. 1846; C. Lefeuve, Hist, de S. Genevieve, ib. 1861; Z. Be'douet, Le Pelerin de S. Genevieve, ib. 1868; P. Feret, L'Abbaye de S. Genevieve et la congregation de France, precedee de la vie . . ,2 vols., ib. 1883; Vidieu, Sainte Genevieve, ib. 1883; DCB, ii. 632-639.
2. The early life is by Rene' de Cerisiers, L'Innocence reconnue, on vie de S. Genevieve de Brabant, Paris, 1647. Consult: H. Sauerborn, Geschichte der Pfalzgrafin Genovefa, Regensburg, 1856; J. Zacher, Die Historie von der Pfalzgrafin Genovefa, Konigsberg, 1860; B. Seuffert, Die Legende von der Pfalzgrafin Genovefa, Wiirzburg, 1877; B. Golz, Pfalzgrafin Genovefa in der deutschen Dichtung, Leipsic, 1897; KL, v. 297-301.