St. Germaine Cousin

Germaine Cousin was born with scrofula and a deformed hand in a village near Toulouse, France in 1579. Her mother died while Germaine was a baby and her father remarried. Germaine's stepmother was repulsed by her deformities and treated her cruelly, physically abusing her at times, feeding her scraps, making her tend the sheep, and sleep in the barn. In her suffering, Germaine drew close to God. She was devoted to prayer and to the poor, with whom she shared her meager allowance of food. Neighbors noticed that miracles were worked in Germaine's favor. To attend morning mass, she left her flock every day near a wolf-infested forest, but none of the flock was ever harmed or roamed away. During heavy rains, people saw the waters of a stream open up so that Germaine could pass through to church on dry land. Her father eventually tried to make up for his neglect, wanting Germaine to live in the house, but she preferred to remain a humble shepherdess. One morning in 1601, her father found her dead on her rough bed in the barn; she was twenty-two. She was buried in the village church. In 1644, when the grave was opened to bury a relative, Germaine's body was found incorrupt. Germaine was canonized in 1867 after hundreds of miracles were attributed to her intercession. She is the patroness of abused children; her feast is June 15.