Born of the powerful family of Florentine mécènes, she was the niece of a pope, a Machiavellian queen of France and an ardent believer in astrology. When Catherine de Médici (1519-1589) learned from her astrologer that she would die near Saint-Germain, she took the prediction to heart and thereafter avoided all places having the name Saint-Germain. Some fifteen years later when taken ill and on her death bed at the Château de Blois, a priest was hastily summoned to perform extreme unction. After giving her the last rites, she asked him his name. "Julien de Saint-Germain," he replied. "Alors, je suis perdue!" she answered, appalled.
Vocabulary
un mécène: a patron of the arts; sponsor
perdu(e): lost
Vocabulary
un mécène: a patron of the arts; sponsor
perdu(e): lost
Gisant or recumbent effigy of Catherine de Médici at the Basilique Saint-Denis.
©2012 P.B. Lecron
