Born at Nanterre, about five miles from Paris, in the year 423, about the time of Pharamond, the first king of France. St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre, observing in her, when yet very young, a particular disposition to sanctity, advised her to take a vow of perpetual virginity, which she accordingly did in the presence of the bishop of Paris. After the death of her parents, she went to Paris. The city was about to be deserted, when Attila, with his Huns, broke into France; but Genevieve assured the inhabitants of complete security, if they would seek it by fervent prayers. Attila took his course from Champaigne to Orleans, returned thence into Champaigne, without touching Paris, and was defeated in 451. By this event, Genevieve's reputation was established. In a time of famine, she went along the River Seine, from city to city, and soon returned with twelve large vessels loaded with grain, which she distributed gratuitously among the sufferers. This increased her authority, and she was highly honored by MerovÆus and Chilperic. Nothing, however, contributed more to her reputation for sanctity, than the circumstance, that, from her fifteenth to her fiftieth year, she ate nothing but barley-bread, except that she took some beans every two or three weeks, and, after her fiftieth year, some fish and milk. In 460, she built a church over the graves of St. Dionysius Rusticus and Eleutherius, near the village of Chasteville, where Dagobert afterwards founded the abbey of St. Denys. She died in 499 or 501, and her [pg 429] body was placed in the subterraneous chapel which St. Denys had consecrated to the apostles Paul and Peter. Clovis, by her request, built a church over it, which was afterwards called by her name, as was also the abbey that was founded there. Another church, consecrated to this saint, was built adjoining to the church of Notre Dame. Her relics are preserved in the former. The church celebrates the third of January, the day on which she died, in honor of her.