MEMORIAL OF SAINT GERMAINE COUSIN, VIRGIN AND SAINTS VITUS, MODESTUS AND CRESCENTIA, MARTYRS ~ FEAST DAY: JUNE 15TH: On this day, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Germaine Cousin, Virgin and Saints Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia, Martyrs. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for victims of abuse, the poor and the needy. We also pray for the sick and dying, particularly those who are sick with terminal diseases and dying, those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases, we pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. And we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, with special intention for all Priests as we begin this Novena, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world.🙏🏽
SAINT GERMAINE COUSIN, VIRGIN: Today, the Church celebrates a hidden saint: Saint Germaine Cousin, Virgin. St. Germaine Cousin (1579–1601) was born in 1579 in Pibrac France, a remote French village to a peasant farmer. She was born with a deformed right arm and a disease that causes abscesses in her neck. Her mother died when she was an infant, and her father remarried. Due to St. Germaine’s deformities, her stepmother was thoroughly disgusted with her. She grew acquainted with suffering from an early age, she endured many labors with much patience until her death at the age of twenty-two. She was abused as a child and spent her short life as a shepherdess and lived her life in humility and poverty. Pope Pius IX enrolled her among the virgin saints and she became well-known for many miracles. To read the story of her life rends the heart. From her birth in 1579 until her death in 1601, the short life of this remarkable servant of God was filled with sickness and suffering. St. Germaine after losing her birth mother as an infant, she grew up with a deformed hand and contracted scrofula at an early age. Scrofula causes swelling and lesions to grow on the skin around lymph nodes, especially around the neck. Because of this disease, her step-mother and father had her live in the barn away from the home while growing up. And, they made her a shepherdess that guarded the family flock in order to keep her isolated and away from the family. She faced abuse as a child, abandonment by those called to care for her, and was falsely accused of stealing from the house. She never knew affection from her father, was subjected to constant mistreatment by her stepmother, and was denied a real place of her own in the family home. She was relegated to tending sheep around the surrounding area of Toulouse, France, and practically forbidden to come into contact with her stepbrothers and stepsisters. St. Germaine had every excuse to become a person embittered by life. And, yet, the youth in the area began flocking to her for prayers and guidance. St. Germaine’s burning love for God spilled over into love for her neighbors. She often gathered the local children about her and taught them the rudiments of the faith, and she fed the poor with crusts of dry bread that were doled out to her. Once her stepmother angrily accused the Saint of stealing bread and hiding it in her apron; but when the apron was opened it exposed a bunch of beautiful summer flowers.
Her demeanor evinced peace, humility, and a quiet joy. Like the Suffering Servant, Jesus, she bore these diseases and mistreatments while at the same time helping the poor, the hungry, and the outcast in the area. The greatest joy in Germaine’s life became the relationship she fostered with Jesus and Mary. Her love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and for His Virgin Mother helped the saint. She assisted daily at the Holy Mass. When the bell rang, she will fixed her sheep-hook or distaff in the ground, and leave her flocks to the care of Providence while she heard Mass. Although the pasture was on the border of a forest infested with wolves, no harm ever came to her flocks. She practised many austerities as reparation for the sacrileges perpetrated by heretics in the neighbouring churches. She frequented the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and it was observed that her piety increased every time on the approach of any feast of Our Lady. The Rosary was her only companion, and her devotion to the Angelus was so great that she used to fall on her knees at the first sound of the bell, even though she heard it when crossing a stream. During her short life, her prayers began to heal people in the area. Her closeness to Jesus began inspiring others to love Jesus more. When her family saw this they began to change, and finally came to believe it, they invited her to live in the house with them. But, Germaine insisted that she remain in the barn. St. Germaine died at the age of twenty-two in 1601, succumbing to her poor living conditions. About half a century after her death, her body was found to be incorrupt, and when exposed for a year it became the object of veneration and the source of miracles. Villagers began praying for her intercession and receiving miraculous cures, resulting in her canonization in 1867 by Pope Pius IX. She’s the Patron Saint of victims of abuse and child abuse; of abandoned people; of people with disabilities; against poverty; girls from rural areas; illness; impoverishment; loss of parents; shepherdesses; sick people; unkind people; unattractive people, peasant girls, handicapped people; abandoned people; physical therapists.
PRAYER: Lord God, You showered heavenly gifts on St. Germaine the Virgin. Help us to imitate her virtues during our earthly life and enjoy eternal happiness with her in heaven. May Saint Germaine, watch over those children who suffer abuse as she did. May she help us to give them the love and protection she only got from God. Give us the courage to speak out against abuse when we know of it. Help us to forgive those who abuse the way she did, without sacrificing the lives of the children who need help… Amen🙏🏽
SAINTS VITUS, MODESTUS AND CRESCENTIA, MARTYRS: In Rome, The Holy Martyrs Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia suffered for Christ and were martyred during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian (284-305). During the Middle Ages, St. Vitus was one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. He was born around c.290 in Sicily. His intercession was invoked for epilepsy and similar conditions. Saint Vitus, sometimes called Guy, was a child nobly born, who had the happiness to be instructed in the Faith under the tutelage of his Christian nurse, Crescentia, and Modestus, his preceptor. His father was not aware of his baptism. The boy received the gift of miracles. Before he reached the age of twelve, Valerian came to Sicily representing Diocletian, less to be governor of that island than persecutor of Christians. Vitus was denounced to him as one of them, and Valerian sent for his father, telling him to use his paternal authority to bring his son into line, and have him practice the religion of the empire. Hylas promised to do so. Finding St. Vitus unmoved by his tears and embraces, his warnings of what he would lose if he did not acquiesce to the emperor’s wishes, and every persuasion based on the grief his son would cause him by continuing to adore a man who died on an ignominious cross, Hylas delivered Vitus up to Valerian. The governor in turn could not change this child’s mind; when Valerian asked him why he resisted his father’s will and did not submit to the emperor’s laws, Vitus answered, I only disobey the emperors and my father to obey God, my sovereign Lord and first Father. He did not fear chastisement, he said, or death, and would gladly endure all things rather than adore demons, the sworn enemies of men.
Valerian ordered that he be scourged; but the arms of the executioners grew limp, and even the hand of Valerian, which he had raised to give the command, withered. They accused him of being a magician, but Saint Vitus cured them, to show them that the spirit of Jesus Christ is one of gentleness, and that His true disciples have only love for all their enemies. Hylas, his father, furious at his son’s refusal to comply with all efforts to change him, resolved to put him to death. But Modestus, his tutor, was told by an Angel to flee with him and his nurse, Crescentia, to Italy. There all three would win the crown of martyrdom. Diocletian himself, hearing of the miracles of Saint Vitus, sent for him but then imprisoned him, after Vitus had delivered the emperor’s son from a demon, but had refused to deny Jesus Christ. A furious lion would not harm the young Christian, but lay down at his feet and licked them. When he and his two Christian preceptors were attached to racks and tortured, their protecting Angel released them, but not until after lightning had struck the idol temples and caused them to fall, amidst a terrible storm. Many idolater among the spectators were converted on this occasion. They were set free after this incident, but Saint Vitus prayed that their souls might finally be released also, and his prayer was answered. Died boiled in oil in c. 303 (age 12–13); Lucania, modern-day Basilicata, Italy. They were buried at the place to which they had first come in Italy, in the kingdom of Naples. The relics of St. Vitus (also known as St. Guy) were transferred to various places — an arm is in St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague. Vitus is one of the “Fourteen Holy Helpers” (he is invoked against epilepsy and St. Vitus’ dance). He’s the Patron Saint of actors; against animal attacks; against dog bites; against lightning; against oversleeping; against storms; against wild beasts; comedians; Czechoslovakia; dancers; dog bites; dogs; epilepsy; Forio, Italy; lightning; Prague, Czech Republic; rheumatic chorea; Saint Vitus Dance; snake bites; storms.
PRAYER: We beseech Thee, O Lord, to graciously grant us through the intercession of Thy blessed Martyrs Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia, that we may not proudly exalt ourselves, but serve Thee in humility and simplicity, so as to avoid evil and to do right for Thy sake. Through Christ our Lord. Amen🙏🏽
PRAYER IN HONOR OF ST. VITUS: Grant us, O God, through the intercession of St. Vitus, a due estimation of the value of our soul and of its redemption by the precious blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ; so that, for its salvation, we bear all trials with fortitude. Give this Thy youthful servant and heroic martyr as a guide and protector to Christian youths, that following his example they may after a victorious combat receive the crown of justice in Heaven. Through Christ our Lord. Amen🙏🏽