t tradition of the place assure us, that her father
was a poor shepherd. Adrian, Valois, and Baluze, observe, that her most
ancient life ought not to be esteemed of irrefragable authority, and
that the words of St. Germanus are {083} not perhaps related with a
scrupulous fidelity.[4] The author of her life tells us, that the holy
virgin begging one day with great importunity that she might go to the
church, her mother struck her on the face, but in punishment lost her
sight, which she only recovered, two months after, by washing her eyes
twice or thrice with water which her daughter fetched from the well, and
upon which she had made the sign of the cross. Hence the people look
upon the well at Nanterre as having been blessed by the saint. About
fifteen years of age, she was presented to the bishop of Paris to
receive the religious veil at his hands, together with two other persons
of the same sex. Though she was the youngest of the three, the bishop
placed her the first, saying, that heaven had already sanctified her; by
which he seems to have alluded to the promise she had already made, in
the presence of SS. Germanus and Lupus, of consecrating herself to God.
From that time she frequently ate only twice in the week, on Sundays and
Thursdays. Her food was barley bread with a few beans. At the age of
fifty, by the command of certain bishops, she mitigated this austerity,
so far as to allow herself a moderate use of fish and milk. Her prayer
was almost continual, and generally attended with a large flow of tears.
After the death of her parents she left Nanterre, and settled with her
god-mother at Paris; but sometimes undertook journeys upon motives of
charity, and illustrated the cities of Meaux, Leon, Tours, Orleans, and
all other places wherever she went, with miracles and remarkable
predictions. God permitted her to meet with some severe trials; for at a
certain time all persons indiscriminately seemed to be in a combination
against her, and persecuted her under the opprobrious names of
visionary, hypocrite, and the like imputations, all tending to asperse
her innocency. The arrival of St. Germanus at Paris, probably on his
second journey to Britain, for some time silenced her calumniators; but
it was not long ere the storm broke out anew. Her enemies were fully
determined to drown her, when the archdeacon of Auxerre arrived with
_Eulogies_, or blessed bread, sent her by St. Germanus, as a testimony
of his particular es