The majority of relics of Sainte-Geneviève were publicly burned during the French Revolution, but a few small surviving pieces, as well as the rock on which his tomb rested, are preserved in St-Étienne-du-Mont.
The church itself on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève began to be built in 1517 and was completed in 1627. The tombs of Blaise Pascal and Jean Racine are also in the church. Jean-Paul Marat was buried in one of the church's two cemeteries, although neither of them now exists.
After the French Revolution, the church was transformed, like its neighbor the Pantheon, into a sanctuary of reason, called the "Temple of filial piety". It was also at this time that the relics of Saint Geneviève, patroness of Paris, were destroyed. What was saved is in a small chapel in the rededicated church, including her burial stone surrounded by a gold latticework and some of the saint's minor remains housed in a glass cylinder.
Hisrelics are very rare, because his body was burned by the Revolutionaries in 1793. There is a very small one which is permanently behind his tomb, but it is not easily accessible. The large one, which is in a portable shrine, next to the high altar, comes from the treasury of Notre-Dame de Paris and is loaned every year to Saint-Etienne du Mont. This is the relic that was in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois and was deposited at Notre-Dame after the Revolution, after being recognized by a bishop, who was in office before the Revolution. During the novena of Saint Geneviève, there are two masses every day, one at 3 p.m. and another at 6:45 p.m., often presided over by bishops: at the end of each mass, one can approach to venerate the great relic and kiss it .iser.
The double spiral staircase with the attic above is called a jube. This is a type of rood screen which originally separated the laity from the high altar. This one was installed in 1530 and created by Biart le Père. Most of the rood screens were removed during the Counter-Reformation or after Vatican II. This is the only surviving example in Paris.
