St. Germaine Cousin

St. Germaine Cousin (c. 1579 – 1601) was born to a poor family at Pibrac, near Toulouse in southern France. Sickly from birth, with a withered right hand and afflicted by scrofula, she was neglected and mistreated by her stepmother, made to sleep in the stable or under the stairs, and set to tend the family's sheep alone in the fields. In these harsh conditions she grew in remarkable holiness, praying constantly, sharing her meager bread with beggars poorer than herself, and never missing daily Mass.

Many pious tales are told of her — that she left her flock to attend Mass and it was never scattered by wolves, and that scraps of bread hidden in her apron once appeared as spring flowers. She died alone at about twenty-two on her pallet under the stairs. Decades later her incorrupt body was discovered, and reported miracles led to a wide cult. She was canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867 as a model of patience and charity in obscurity and suffering.