St. Germaine
St. Germaine Cousin was born near Toulouse in 1579. Her right hand was withered and paralyzed at birth. She lost her mother when she was only a child.
After the death of her mother, her father remarried and St. Germaine was treated harshly by her stepmother and was denied a real place of her own in the family home. She relegated to worked as a shepherdess for the family and slept in the stables. She was denied practically any contact with her stepbrothers and stepsisters.
While her homelife was horrible, her inner life was the opposite. She was a pure soul, in constant contact with God, daily praying the rosary and attending Mass. Germaine’s love of God spilled into her love for her neighbors and she would often teach local children the basics of the faith.
She died at the age of 22. Nearly a half century after her death her body was found to be incorrupt. When it was left exposed for a year it became the object of great veneration and the source of many miracles.
