2024 promises to be a breathtaking year politically in Louisiana as Gov. Landry and the new Louisiana Legislature, BESE Board, etc., get to work implementing a conservative/revivalist agenda.  Because of that intensity, it is perhaps all the more essential that we take care not to overlook other important aspects of life in our State.

Before the political fireworks begin exploding in Baton Rouge on January 8^th, there is a feast day, January 3^rd, celebrating an exceptional French kinswoman of ours, St. Genevieve of Paris.  Here in short are the details of her life:

As a child St. Geneviève met St. Germanus of Auxerre (31st July) who foretold her future sanctity, and at the age of fifteen, she received monastic tonsure. St. Geneviève had the gift of clairvoyance, which at times led many around her to persecute her until the Bishop of Paris came to her defence. When Paris was under attack by the Franks and later by Attila and the Huns, St. Geneviève encouraged those defending the city, and organised groups to pray for God’s protection. St. Geneviève reposed in 500, and ever since has been considered the special protectress and patroness of Paris.

To understand St. Genevieve’s importance for Louisiana today, we must go deeper into her life and legacy:  specifically, to the miracles that she has worked for the people of Paris.

First are the miracles associated with water.  The author Moshe Sluhovsky relates some of them:

In the winter of 834, heavy rains deluged Paris; the city’s bishop encouraged the residents to fast and do penance. The only dry church where prayers could be conducted was Genevieve’s abbey, where the only dry area was floor found her deathbed, which was kept in the abbey. The waters of the Seine receded immediately. The miracle was compared to Moses’ parting of the Red Sea in the Bible and her reliquary was compared to the Ark of the Covenant, which, according to Sluhovsky, authenticated Genevieve’s power.^[54] In December 1206, Genevieve was called upon to protect the city from a flood; another procession was organised and her relics were, like in 1129-1130, paraded into Paris and relics from other churches were escorted with hers. Her body was brought from the abbey to Notre-Dame, a Mass was said, and then she was returned to the abbey. The Seine receded and even though the relics and the participants in the procession crossed the Petit Pont twice and the bridge’s foundations were weakened from the threatening flood waters, it did not collapse until the reliquary was returned and no one was injured.^[55] According to Sluhovsky, by the second half of the 1200s and continuing into the early 16th century, a tradition of invoking Genevieve to protect Paris from floods was established . . . .

The link to Louisiana isn’t difficult to discern, as she, like Paris, is surrounded and crisscrossed by numerous bodies of water, which often threaten and sometimes do overflow their boundaries and cause destruction.  Louisianans, like Parisians, ought not to be shy about asking for her intercession when floodwaters threaten.

Second are miracles associated with drought and farming.  Sluhovsky again:

During the 1560s and 1570 and throughout the latter half of the 16th century, Genevieve was invoked for assistance during famines and food shortages, both in Paris and its outlaying areas.^[90] Her invocations against water-based disasters, which influenced the country’s crop yields, began to include “all sorts of agricultural and meteorological exigencies”.^[91] As Sluhovsky stated, Genevieve “gradually became the patron saint of subsistence, the supplier of grain to the city”.^[91] Beginning in late 1500s, most of the processions with her reliquary occurred during the spring and early summer harvest months; in the previous centuries they occurred during the fall and winter, when the Seine was likely to flood.^[91] The response to all the major climate disasters of the 17th and 18th centuries were public invocations of Genevieve’s interventions.^[92]

. . . In 1694, for example, Paris was in the middle of a severe economic crisis, with poor harvests, bad weather, threats of starvation, and an ongoing war, so the residents of Paris and the Ile-de-France invoked Genevieve her intervention. Spontaneous processions and pilgrimages to St. Genevieve’s abbey started in early May, before an official proclamation allowed both clerics and lay people to participate. At first, invocations were made at the abbey, but it was not enough to improve the weather, so a public procession was called for on May 27.^[100] . . . Also according to Sluhovsky, “The procession led to the expected results”.^[102] Rain began immediately after the procession began, saving the country’s crops, and other miracles occurred, including a victory against Spain, healings from paralysis, and the decrease in the price of wheat. The government of Paris commissioned a painting commemorating the event by Nicolas de Largillière.^[102]

As a State with an economy that is more heavily agricultural than others, these works of St. Genevieve are also of great interest to us.  This past year, Louisiana experienced a severe drought and wildfires along with it, harming crops, livestock, and timber.  We deprived ourselves of a powerful helper in the midst of all that distress by ignoring St. Genevieve.

Last are the miracles associated with protection from war.  Here are a couple.  This one occurred during her lifetime:

Years later, Saint Genevieve was told that Attila the Hun was approaching Paris, Genevieve and the other nuns prayed and fasted, entreating God to spare the city. Suddenly, the barbarians turned away from Paris and went off in another direction.

And Sluhovsky adds one from a few centuries later,

In 885, the residents of Paris invoked the intercession of Genevieve and other saints when Paris was besieged by the Normans; she was credited with the success of the Parisians in repelling them.^[52] Sluhovsky states that it “affirmed her role as a divine intercessor”.^[52] It was also the first time that she was invocated for the city as a whole, not just for individuals who visited her shrine, and established a tradition of public invocations of Genevieve.^[52]

With federal elections looming in 2024, and the turmoil that is likely to accompany them, not to mention the wars the insane Western Elite are trying to provoke with Russia and/or Iran, Louisiana would be well advised to remember how St. Genevieve delivered Paris from these kinds of disasters should our situation become truly dire.

But our links with St. Genevieve are more intimate than all this.  As it was with St. Martin of Tours, the French settlers of Nouvelle-France here in North America brought their veneration of St. Genevieve with them.  The famous colonial-era town of Ste. Genevieve in Missouri gives the South a clear connection.  But Louisiana herself also counts a town named after her, a church, and a school.

Most importantly, a small bone relic of St. Genevieve is in Louisiana at the St. John the Theologian Orthodox Church in New Roads.  This is very significant for us.  The relics of the saints are overflowing with the Grace of God; countless are the miracles that have occurred through them throughout the 2,000-year life of the Church (an extraordinary 20^th-century saint of Serbia, Justin Popovich, explains why this is).  It is a tremendous blessing to have a relic of St. Genevieve in New Roads, and St. Martin and others in St. Martinville (other saints’ relics, thankfully, are elsewhere in Louisiana, too).  Whenever disaster looms, or whenever we begin a new task, whether in our personal or communal lives, we have powerful helpers whom we can kneel before and ask to come to our aid, whatever the situation.  Jeff Landry has wisely decided to begin his inauguration day in the presence of those holy and august dignitaries (St. Martin and his fellow saints) at St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville, a decision all of Louisiana should rejoice in.

Human effort is certainly necessary to keep disasters at bay.  The efforts of Sec. Mike Strain to prepare for future forest fires are an example of praiseworthy foresight.  It is also necessary to keep the political process functioning in a healthy, beneficial way.  But we must never forget the spiritual dimension, that we are never too advanced or sophisticated to call upon the saints in heaven, who are still present to us here on earth through things like relics and icons, for help when we require it (and we probably will, at some point).  May Louisianans always remember St. Genevieve on her feast day of January 3^rd, and at any other time of need, lauding her with hymns who is a mother and patroness to us just as surely as she is for the Parisians:

Your abundant tears have watered and made fertile the desert of barren hearts, / your prayers and sighs have produced fruit a hundredfold. / Pray for your city, O Saint Geneviève, / and for those who lovingly venerate your holy memory.

O Shepherdess and guardian of the flock at Nanterre against the horde of wolves and the Scourge of God, / you are the protector of the city of Paris. / O Saint Geneviève, do not forget to preserve your spiritual flock even now, / from Heaven where you live after death.

And may 2024 be full of God’s blessings!

Lord God, the Creator and Vivifier of all visible and invisible creatures, Who hath fashioned times and years, do Thou Thyself bless the New Year that begins today, which we number from Thine incarnation for our salvation. May we spend this year, and many years to follow it, in peace and harmony with our neighbours. Strengthen and spread abroad the Holy Universal Church, which Thou Thyself didst found in Jerusalem and sanctify with the saving sacrifice of Thy Holy Body and Thy Most Pure Blood. Lift up, preserve and glorify our fatherland; grant us long life, health, abundance of earthly fruits and good air; save me, Thy sinful servant, together with all my relatives and neighbours and all faithful Christians; and as our true Supreme Shepherd, protect and establish me on the path of salvation, so that all we, following it, may after a long and prosperous life in this world reach Thy Heavenly Kingdom and be found worthy of eternal bliss with Thy saints. Amen!