St. Genevieve

Feast Day: January 3rd

Genevieve's father's name was Severus, and her mother's name Gerontia; she was born about the year 422 in Nanterre, a small village four miles from Paris, near Mont. Valerien. When St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, went with St. Lupus into Britain to oppose the Pelagain heresy, he spent a night at Nanterre on his way. The inhabitants flocked about them to receive their blessing and St. Germanus gave an address, during which he took a particular notice of Genevieve, though she was only seven years of age. After his sermon he inquired for her parents and foretold their daughter's future sanctity. He then asked Genevieve whether it was not her desire to serve God only and to be nothing else but a spouse of Jesus Christ. She answered that this was what she'd desired, and begged that by his blessing she might be from that moment consecrated to God. The Holy Prelate went to the church followed by the people, and during the long singing of psalms and prayers, says Constantius, he laid his hand upon the maiden's head.

When she was about fifteen years of age, Genevieve was presented to the Bishop of Paris to receive the religious veil together with two other girls. From that time she frequently ate only twice in the week, on Sundays and Thursdays, and her food was barely bread with a few beans. After the death of her parents she left Nanterre, and settled with her godmother in Paris, but sometimes undertook journeys for motives of charity.

The Franks had at this time gained possession of the better part of Gaul, and Childeric, their king, took Paris. During the long blockade of that city, the citizens being reduced to extremities of famine, St. Genevieve, as the author of her life relates, went out at the head of the company who were sent to procure provisions, and brought back from Arcis-sur-Aube and Troyes several boats laden with corn. Childeric, when he had made himself master of Paris, though always a pagan, respected St. Genevieve and upon her intercession spared the lives of many prisoners and did other generous acts. She also awakened the zeal of many persons to build a church in honor of St. Denis of Paris, which King Dagobert I afterwards rebuilt with a monastery in 629. St. Genevieve likewise undertook many pilgrimages, in the company with other  maidens, to the shrine of St. Martin a Tours, and the reputation of her holiness is said to have been so great that her fame even reached St. Simeon Stylites in Syria.

King Clovis, who embraced the faith in 496 often listened with deference to St. Genevieve and more than once granted liberty to captives at her request. Upon the report of the march Attila with his army of Huns, the Parisians were preparing to abandon their city, but St. Genevieve encouraged them to avert the scourge by fasting and prayer. Many women passed whole days with her in prayer in the baptistery; from whence the particular devotion to St. Genevieve, formerly practiced at S.-Jean-le-Rond, the ancient public baptistery of the church of Paris, seems to have taken rise. She assured the people of the protection of Heaven, and though she was treated by many as an imposter, the event verified the prediction, for the barbarous invader suddenly changed the course of his march. Attributed to St. Genevieve was the first suggestion of the church which Clovis began to build in honor of SS. Peter and Paul, in deference to the wishes of his wife St. Clotilda, in which church the body of St. Genevieve herself was enshrined after her death about the year 500.

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St. Stanislaus

Feast Day: April 11th

St. Stanislaus was born in Szczepanow in Poland about  the year 1030. He studied at the cathedral school. He was ordained in the year 1060 . Twelve years later, he was bishop of Krakow. He became known as a zealous shepherd but uncompromising. The conflict that broke out between the king Boleslaw and Bishop Stanislaus had a tragic finale. His reason for today is not entirely clear perhaps it was immoral life of the monarch or defense subjects from its severity. The bishop Stanislaus was killed by the royal team (or the king himself?) during Mass., which is celebrated on April 11th (or May 8) 1079 in the church name St. Michael on the Rock. The body of the Holy quartered. A few years later, they were transferred to the Cathedral, where it rests today. After the crime king had to flee the country, according to tradition was monk in the Benedictine monastery in Osjaku.

Bishop Stanislaus, as the first Pole declared a saint in Assisi. John Paul II called him “the patron saint of the Christian moral order.”

Over the centuries they evoked the legend of the knitting of the body of St. Stanislaus. The cult of the Holy played in the thirteenth and fourteenth century an important historical role as a factor in shaping the thinking of Polish union. It was believed that in the same way as the body of St. Stanislaus connect and unite divided the principality on the district Polish Kingdom.

In the iconography of St. Stanislaus is presented in the costume of the pontifical crosier.

His attributes are: a sword, a martyr’s palm, foot raised. Sometimes it is shown the highest Polish eagle emblem.