Sunday, June 15, 2008

Know Your Saints: Saint Valérie


Saint Valérie was a Roman martyr of the early second century. She was supposedly born of nobility and converted to Christianity by St. Martial of Limoges. Her husband was Saint Vitalis of Milan who was buried alive for his faith.

She was soon after tortured and finally beheaded in the company of several other martyrs in the Coliseum. Her remains were gathered and stored in the catacombs of Saint Sebastian. In 1867, the Very Reverend Canon Charles M. Ménard, of Saint Thibodaux, Louisiana, visited Rome and convinced Cardinal Patrizzi to give him a relic of Valérie: part of an arm bone.
In 1868, her reliquary was brought by steamship to St. Joseph Church in Thibodaux, where it remains today. Indeed, as the patron saint of the city, the blessings she brought are thought by some to have been a reason that the city was spared the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
The feast day of Valérie and Vitalis is April 28.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this entry about the St. Valerie Shrine. The city is named just Thibodaux, not Saint Thibodaux. Anyone know where figurines of St. Valerie can be found?