9 Parisian saints to accompany Catholics during the Olympics

Paris is not a city, it’s a world, they say, and so is the rich Catholic culture visible in its people and places. We gathered nine names of Parisian saints to accompany Catholics in 2024—the year of the Olympics and reopening of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral.

St Denis

In the mid-third century, St Denis arrived in Paris as its first bishop—one of seven others sent to evangelise present-day France. He subsequently was martyred, along with two companions, Eleutherius and Rusticus, by suffering decapitation, presumably a result of the persecution of the Emperor Decius. After his head was severed, according to legend, St Denis carried it several miles, all the while preaching a message of repentance. A Parisian pilgrim’s path was popularised in the Middle Ages, visiting various sites associated with St Denis’ arrest, trial, suffering and death. St Genevieve later saw to the construction of a church on the site of St Denis’ tomb, the site of the present-day cathedral bearing his name just north of Paris. And he’s spotted on the facade of Notre Dame Cathedral, just near the main entrance. His feast is 9 October.

St Genevieve

Even as a seven-year-old girl, St Genevieve wanted to live a life consecrated to God alone. This desire was encouraged when she met St Germain of Auxerre, a holy bishop. Having moved to the city from her peasant home in the countryside outside of Paris, Genevieve quickly became associated with the extraordinary and miraculous. Her intercession with God brought about healings and protection in life and death, and she was soon considered to be a visionary and a mystic. St Genevieve is credited with having saved Paris from invaders and destruction on multiple occasions, through the help of her prayers and with her ability to evangelise amid crises. Around the turn of the sixth century, St Genevieve was instrumental in the conversion of the first Catholic king of France, Clovis I. Through the centuries following her death around 500, Genevieve’s relics were often venerated and processed publicly amid great trials facing Parisians. Her relics were subsequently destroyed during the French Revolution, although a few small remaining pieces survived and are preserved in Paris’ parish church of St Étienne-du-Mont. Her feast is 3 January.

St Louis IX

The reign of St Louis IX as king of France, in the middle half of the 13th century, was marked as a golden age of French culture and prominence on the global stage. A man of courage and action, he also supported the intellectual life of the church and supported the establishment of a theological school in Paris that would later be known as the Sorbonne. The great St Thomas Aquinas, a preeminent theologian and philosopher of the day, even joined him once at court. St Louis’ life’s highest aim was to give his all for the glory of God and the good of his people. He led two of the Crusades, during which he took possession of a relic of Christ’s crown of thorns. St Louis built a magnificent chapel in Paris to house the relic. Known as Sainte Chappelle, it remains one of the most visited places in France. He died in 1270 in Tunisia after contracting dysentery en route to the Holy Land during the eighth Crusade. His feast is 25 August.

St Vincent de Paul

Ordained a priest in 1600, St Vincent de Paul came to see clearly how holy priests were needed to reform a Church besieged by clericalism and corruption. ‘There is nothing so grand as a good priest,’ he said. As he poured out his life in ministry for others, especially those on the margins, he sought to assist the Church in renewing priestly life with a focus on personal sanctification and the needs of the poor. With that in mind, Vincent established the Congregation of the Mission—a men’s order also known as the Vincentians, directed toward those abandoned and forgotten—in addition to working for seminary reform and founding the Daughters of Charity so that women could share in ministry to the sick and poor. Vincent de Paul died in Paris in 1660, heralded as having ‘changed the face of the Church’. His feast is 27 September.

St Louise de Marillac

St Louise de Marillac grew up in a home without stability. Born out of wedlock, she was not afforded the rights of other siblings and was mistreated by her father’s wife. Still a member of an affluent family, Louise received an education at a convent school sponsored by royalty outside of Paris. Although drawn initially to religious life, Louise was denied entrance to a convent. Instead, her family arranged for her to marry the queen’s secretary, Antoine Le Gras, in 1613. Looking to give more of her life to service to the poor and sick, Louise was instrumental in forming the Ladies of Charity, an association of the wives of wealthy men. This eventually paved the way for the Daughters of Charity, which Louise helped establish with St Vincent de Paul after she was widowed in 1625 and in which she professed religious vows. Considered a patron of the Church’s charitable services, Louise died in 1660 and was canonised three centuries later. Her feast is 15 March.

St Catherine Laboure

Born into an agrarian family, the ninth of 11 children, St Catherine Laboure was interested in religious life from an early age. Despite her father’s resistance, she eventually joined the Daughters of Charity in Paris in 1830. Her desire to serve the needy led to decades of care for the poor, sick and elderly. During those decades, she remained silent about the supernatural visions she received from the Blessed Virgin Mary. These visions—for which she is best known today—began just months after St Catherine started her novitiate on Rue du Bac in Paris, and they have resulted in one of the most popular devotions and sacramentals for Catholics ever since: the Miraculous Medal. Two main visions in 1830 are what brought about the striking of the medal—one on 18 July and another on 27 November. Our Lady’s request for a medal, and a subsequent apparition holding a globe covered with gems, all flowed particularly from Mary’s desire to dispense graces she obtains from her Son by the help of her prayers, as well as her help and protection in times of trial and difficulty. St Catherine died in 1876. Her feast is 28 November.

St Madeleine Sophie Barat

In the wake of the French Revolution, St Madeleine Sophie Barat dedicated her life to the restoration of religious life and of the Church’s educational apostolate. Well educated, even in the midst of the Terror, by age 15 she had received a thorough exposure to the Bible, the teachings of the fathers of the Church and theology, thanks to her brother, a seminarian. She dedicated a new religious congregation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, demonstrating the apostolic zeal that inflamed her work. Spending most of her time travelling about France and abroad, Sr Madeleine Sophie founded nearly 100 institutions in her congregation before her death in 1865. She also, notably, established institutions in the United States, resulting in the arrival of St Rose Philippine Duchesne in Missouri. Sr Madeleine Sophie was canonised in 1925. Her feast is 25 May.

St Marie-Eugenie Milleret

St Marie-Eugenie Milleret was the oldest child born in a well-to-do family in 1817. After her father’s financial ruin, her family suffered great difficulty, including her parents’ separation in 1830. But Marie-Eugenie began to understand God was calling her to something more. She credits two life-changing events with helping her move her along in her faith: her first Holy Communion at age 12 and an 1836 sermon by the famous Dominican Father Henri Dominique Lacordaire at the Notre Dame Cathedral. Milleret’s focus on religious life intensified, eventually leading her to establish a congregation dedicated to educating the poor and inspired by the Blessed Virgin. The fledgling community, the Religious of the Assumption congregation, had to overcome much suffering before the Pope’s eventually gave his approval nearly 50 years later. Milleret died in 1898 and was canonised in 2007. Her feast is 10 March.

St Salomon Leclercq

About a month after the fall of the French monarchy in 1792, hundreds of Catholic clerics were arrested as a feverish anti-Catholicism swept across Paris. Some 3,000 people were killed that September, including 191 bishops, priests and other clerics, religious and laity who were beatified as martyrs in 1926. Among them was Br Salomon Leclercq, who was canonised in 2016. Like thousands of others who remained firm in their faith amid persecutions, unwilling to submit to the new government’s requirement of an oath of loyalty, Br Leclercq was forced to practise his ministry underground. His feast day is 2 September.