Solange was born into a poor, but devout family in the town of Villemont, France near Bourges. She was devoted and consecrated her virginity at 7-years-old. Solange was popular and very beautiful some even said her mere presence cured the sick and exorcised devils. She caught the eye of many including the son of the count Poitiers who was highly taken.
In 880 the man would come to Solange as she tended her sheep. He would get rejected by the shepherdess. He did not take the rejection well and planned to take her for himself. One night he would kidnap her by force. She would struggle against him. While they were crossing a stream she struggled greatly and fell from the horse. She would then try to flee him for him to catch up. He would then behead her with his sword.
Legend states that Solange's severed head invoked three times the Holy Name of Jesus and she was able to pick up her head and walk to the church of Saint-Martin (now Saint-Solange) in the village of Sain-Martin-du-Crot and dropping dead there.
Immediately there was a cult surrounding her grew. Many miraculous cures were attributed to her intercession. In 1281 an altar was erected in her honor at that church, now known as the church of Saint-Solange. Her head is preserved there as a relic. A nearby field where she prayed is referred as the field of Saint Solange and locals would go there during great times of stress to form a procession through Bourges with the reliquary head to invoke her against drought.
Her feast day is May 10th. She is the patron saint of Berry, France, Bourges, France, for rain, rape victims, and shepherds.
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