St. Germaine Cousin
A sickly shepherd girl despised by her own household, who slept under the stairs, prayed in the fields, and shared her scraps with beggars — and whom heaven, and eventually all of France, refused to overlook.
Timeline of St. Germaine Cousin
- 1579
Born at Pibrac
Born near Toulouse to the farm worker Laurent Cousin; her right hand was deformed from birth and she suffered from scrofula. Her mother died while she was an infant.
- c. 1588
Sent out with the sheep
Despised by her stepmother and kept apart from the household, she slept in the barn or under the stairs and was sent out daily to tend the flock.
- 1580s–1590s
Daily Mass from the fields
She planted her distaff in the ground, entrusted her sheep to her guardian angel, and went to Mass every day; the villagers said no wolf from the Bouconne forest ever took one.
- 1590s
Flowers in winter
Accused of stealing bread hidden in her apron, she opened it before her father — and, the story is told, fresh flowers fell out, though it was winter.
- June 15, 1601
Found dead under the stairs
Her father found her dead on her pallet beneath the stairs, aged twenty-two.
- 1644
The grave opened
When her grave in the church of Pibrac was opened by chance, her body was found incorrupt, recognized by the deformed hand and the marks on her neck.
- 1867
Canonized
Pope Pius IX declared the shepherdess of Pibrac a saint on June 29, 1867.
