Genovefa of Paris: The Cult of Saints and the French monarchy, 451-1314

The aim of the present study is show the political uses the cult of the saints in the Middle Ages and to draw attention to hagiography's deployment in service of changing aspirations and agendas. It examines the vitae and miracula of Saint Genovefa of Paris from the sixth through the fourteenth centuries. In particular, it explores the social and political milieu in which the various redactions of her vitae were produced using liturgical, narrative, and documentary evidence. My research shows that the cult of Saint Genovefa was most popular when it could be put in service of the French monarchy. The reverence shown for Genovefa by Clovis and his wife Clothild made the saint an appealing object of worship for succeeding royal families as they attempted to draw a line of descent between themselves and the Merovingian dynasty. The canons of the abbey of Sainte-Genevieve were instrumental in the construction of a narrative that included Genovefa within the dynastic legend of the French monarchy. They used works of hagiography to define their significance and identity in the political and intellectual atmosphere of medieval Paris. Genovefa also served as a particularly effective symbol of a wider Frankish identity due not only to her relationship with Clovis, but to legends of her early miracles in defense of Paris. Thus, as the Carolingians and Capetians increasingly claimed dominance over a united Frankish kingdom, Genovefa's cult grew in importance. This study illustrates the rewards to be gained by using hagiography, liturgy, and ritual invocation as means of viewing the hopes and aspirations of medieval worshipers, and as a reflection of the political and social world in which these accounts were produced and disseminated.