teem for her virtues, and a token of communion. This
seems to have happened while St. Germanus was absent in Italy in 449, a
little before his death. This circumstance, so providentially opportune,
converted the prejudices of her calumniators into a singular veneration
for her during the remainder of her life. The Franks or French had then
possessed themselves of the better part of Gaul; and Childeric, their
king, took Paris.[5] During the long blockade of that city, the citizens
being extremely distressed by famine, St. Genevieve, as the author of
her life relates, went out at the head of a company who were sent to
procure provisions, and brought back from Arcis-sur-Aube and Troyes
several boats laden with corn. Nevertheless, Childeric, when he had made
himself master of Paris, though always a pagan, respected St. Genevieve,
and, upon her intercession, spared the lives of many prisoners, and did
several other acts of clemency and bounty. Our saint, out of her
singular devotion to St. Dionysius and his companions, the apostles of
the country, frequently visited their tombs at the borough of
Catulliacum, which many think the borough since called Saint Denys's.
She also excited the zeal of many pious persons to build there a church
in {084} honor of St. Dionysius, which King Dagobert I. afterwards
rebuilt with a stately monastery in 629.[6] Saint Genevieve likewise
performed several pilgrimages, in company with other holy virgins, to
the shrine of St. Martin at Tours. These journeys of devotion she
sanctified by the exercise of holy recollection and austere penance.
King Clovis, who embraced the faith in 496, listened often with
deference to the advice of St. Genevieve, and granted liberty to several
captives at her request. Upon the report of the march of Attila with his
army of Huns, the Parisians were preparing to abandon their city, but
St. Genevieve persuaded them, in imitation of Judith and Hester, to
endeavor to avert the scourge, by fasting, watching, and prayer. Many
devout persons of her sex passed many days with her in prayer in the
baptistery; from whence the particular devotion to St. Genevieve, which
is practised at St. John-le-rond, the ancient public baptistery of the
church of Paris, seems to have taken rise. She assured the people of the
protection of heaven, and their deliverance; and though she was long
treated by many as an impostor, the event verified the prediction, that
barbarian suddenly changing th