Saint Genevieve and Sexism

In the midst of the Great Purge of December 2022, I happened across two books: both narratives of my patron saint, Saint Genevieve of Paris. I read about her for the first time in years and exploded in happiness.

!!!PROOF POSITIVE THAT CATHOLIC MEN ARE NOT SEXIST!!!

See, it all starts when she’s seven years old and the bishop says to her: HAVE FAITH, MY DAUGHTER, AND ACT MANFULLY.

He used the Latin word “viriliter” — manfully.

Her male biographer did not censor this detail of the exchange.

And thus began a life of extreme virtue and spiritual leadership.

She was destined to lead the city of Paris spiritually and politically for ninety-nine years.

Basically, she was an extremely holy, ascetic virgin who knew everything about politics and strategy and did miracles for her friends.

She was extremely wealthy, but lived a simple life and gave generously to the poor.

And when Attila the Hun was marching on his way and the citizens of Paris panicked, she calmly assessed the situation based on everything she knew of the terrain and incoming reports, and told the people not to leave — because all roads out of Paris were a trap, and if they went west, they would end up by the sea sitting ducks.

She knew it was highly likely Attila was headed toward Orleans instead of Paris.

So what did she do?

She calmly sat there in the town square like Buddha, crossed her legs, raised her hand to point to the sky like Jesus, and said:

You dumb f*cks, if you do not calm down you will all get slaughtered…

Oh.

Wait.

No.

She begged them with tears.

But all the Catholic men were like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR get away crazy woman, we will protect our womenfolk by running and started trying to stone her.

So she fled to the church and locked herself in.

Because back in the day, that’s what you do. If you’re in the church, people can’t kill you. You can’t spill blood in God’s holy place.

It’s not allowed.

Good strategy.

And then the leading women of Paris followed her and also locked themselves in to pray that God would deliver the city.

So then their menfolk couldn’t leave. They wouldn’t leave without their families.

Also great strategy.

And then Attila carried on his merry way and everyone in Paris was fine.

And that is just one of the insanely awesome things that Saint Genevieve did.

I hyper-analyzed both texts. You can get them both here and here for some fun Lenten reading.

Is it disgustingly egotistical if I also name my daughter Genevieve?