Martyrs of the French Revolution
Part II
Killings of Non-Juried Priests July-August 1792
Dr. Marie-France Hilgar
The primary objective of the French Revolution was to destroy the Catholic Church. As long as Louis XVI went along with the "civil Constitution" of the clergy, he was not threatened, but when he opposed its enforcement, he signed his death warrant. On August 10, 1792, the royal family was thrown into jail, the king could no longer exercise his right to veto, and the clergy became a privileged target. The general massacre of priests and of those bishops who had chosen to remain in France became the grand project of the Revolution.
Paris waited until September to start the massacres, but in the provinces, atrocious murders were committed as early as April. In Saint-Ouen-des-Toits, about two hundred miles west of Paris, a priest was hiding in a farm. He had refused both to take the schismatic oath and to abandon his parishioners who still came to him—discreetly, they thought. Stool-pigeons reported him to the national guard who surrounded the farm, found the priest, dragged him into an open field and killed him.
In Entrevaux, the soldiers were watching with great care the border to the county of Nice, then belonging to the kingdom of Sardinia. On June 4th, they made an important catch, that of Martin Raynard, archdeacon and vicar general of Senez. At age seventy-seven, he was venerated and respected. The soldiers hit, for a long time, his head and whole body. They then threw him into a small river. Fearing he might survive they pulled him out, saw that he was indeed still alive, though full of wounds and fractured bones. He told them, "I forgive you." The executioners kept on beating him until he died.
The little town of Banne, in the south of France, was peaceful and God-loving, thanks to its pastor, Father Pradon, who was protected by the local authorities. Father Nadal, born in Banne, had taken refuge there when he was thrown out of his church in Arpalhargues. When on July 12, 1792, republican troops took the small town, the two priests, knowing well what was in store for them, tried to hide in the nearby forest. The persecutors organized a hunt which soon allowed them to capture the two non-juried priests. Since the priests would never have been found guilty by the people of Banne, they were taken to Les Vans where executioners would surely be found. As soon as the two prisoners were brought in, they were surrounded by men armed with swords who cut them to pieces.
The following day, July 13th, a promising convoy arrived at Les Vans: seven priests had been captured in the peaceful and religious village of Naves. Fathers Bravard and Lejeune, both priests of Saint-Sulpice, had been professors at the seminary of Saint-Charles at Avignon from which they had fled at the time of the massacres. Father Clemenceau was pastor of the parish of Saint-Castor in Nimes and vicar general of the diocese; Father Bonijob, canon of the Cathedral of Uzes; Father Faure, pastor of Monts in the diocese of Ales; and two other priests from the diocese of Uzes, Father Montagnon, prior of Valabris, and Father Drome, vicar of the parish of Saint-Victor de la Côte.
As the seven priests were taken to the jail of Les Vans, they received blows and insults. The next day, third anniversary of the Bastille massacre, around one o'clock in the afternoon, Father Bravard looked out the window and saw a gang of madmen who were ostensibly sharpening their swords, while joyously shouting: "The heads of churchmen are going to fall." He told the other priests: "My friends, the time of our martyrdom has arrived." They confessed each other. Fathers Bravard, Lejeune and Clemenceau were taken to a "tribunal" where they were asked to choose between death or the oath of allegiance to the Constitution. Father Bravard answered proudly, for himself and his companions: "Fear of death will not make us betray our conscience. We will always be faithful to God, to our religion, to our king, to our country." The killers did not even wait for the death sentence to be pronounced. They dragged the three priests to the town square and before sacrificing them, danced wildly around them.
Not wanting to finish them off too quickly, they cut the priests repeatedly with their blades. They were surprised to hear neither complaints, nor insults, and they stopped their slaughtering for a moment. "So, we are going to kill you!" said the butchers. "Whenever you wish." answered Father Bravard, covered with blood but still standing. The priests were put to death. The other four priests, having given the same answer to the members of the tribunal, suffered the same fate.
Another non-juried priest remained, one with whom the murderers showed more patience. Young Father Novy, born in Le Vans, was the pastor of the little town of Aujac. Having been evicted from his parish, he had come back to live with his family. When the revolutionary forces took Les Vans on July 9th, he was arrested and taken to jail but, because he was from the particular town, they tried to spare him. When he finally refused to swear allegiance to the Constitution, the murderers brought his father, showed him the bloody corpses of the other priests and told him that it was up to him to make his son change his mind if he did not want the same thing to happen to him. A dialogue took place between father and son, which reminds us of the words found in the Acts of the first martyrs of the Faith. "My son, I beg of you, save my life by saving yours." "Father, I will do much better. I will die worthy of you and of God. You raised me in the Catholic Faith. I have the great fortune of being a priest. It will be better for you to have a son who is a martyr rather than an apostate." Father and son embraced. They were separated by the executioners who asked for the last time: "Oath or death?" "Death" was the answer. The young priest fell, cut to pieces.
July 14th in Bordeaux: there also, homicide fury hit non-juried priests, Father Jean Langoiran, vicar general of the diocese, and Father Dupuy of the parish of Saint-Michel. The first priest came from modest background and had distinguished himself at a very young age by his piety and his intelligence. He had received a degree at La Sorbonne and was professor at the University of Bordeaux. He was compassionate and generous, full of zeal. When the civil constitution of the clergy was published, not only did he refuse to sign it, but he actively denounced it as an imposture, and he published pamphlets against it. His parish church having been taken away from him, he had returned to his own house where he spent his time praying and meditating. As the revolutionaries were getting ready to plant a "liberty tree" for the 14th of July celebrations, a friend of Father Langoiran begged him to take refuge in his country home in Cauderan, which he did on July 12th, and where he found another priest, a barefooted Carmelite by the name of Simon Pannetier.
But the revolutionaries learned about his move and did not let go of their prey. The next morning, as soon as the sun was up, a group of armed men, without any warrant, searched the house. They found that a third priest, Father Dupuy, was living nearby. They dragged the three priests to the city hall of Cauderan where the people in charge declared there was no reason to detain the three prisoners. The gang of armed men still put the priests in the local jail, which was dark and damp, and where they stayed for twelve hours without food or chairs.
Father Pannetier later related how they spent their hours of captivity: "We occupied ourselves with prayer, with pious talks and with our predicament. We abandoned ourselves to the decrees of the Divine Providence. We were ready to accept the sufferings that would undoubtedly come our way and we enjoyed remembering this quote from the Acts of Apostles: "They were coming out of the council, rejoicing to have been found worthy of suffering outrages in the name of Jesus Christ. Father Langoiran often repeated those words. He added that God was granting him the grace to understand the feelings of the great Saint Ignatius of Antioch. While thinking of the torture which was being prepared for him, he said: 'If, when I am thrown to the wild beasts, they wanted to spare me, I would, as other martyrs did, incite them to devour me so that I may become wheat for God.'"
When people in Bordeaux heard of Father Langoiran being in Cauderan, they asked that he be transferred because they wanted him to be the main attraction of the July 14th celebration. While the three priests were moved from one jail to the other, they received blows and insults. Father Langoiran had written a letter to his sister; he asked Father Pannetier to deliver it. Father Pannetier expressed his surprise, as he expected to die with the other priests, but Father Langoiran assured him he would not die at that time.
They arrived at the chancellery. In the courtyard, a huge crowd was threatening the poor, innocent priests and shoving them around. "Suddenly," wrote Father Pannetier, "I know neither why nor how, I rushed into a room. God helped me; nobody stopped me. Someone in the room hid me and I no longer saw what was happening." Which was just as well because he would have been horrified.
Father Dupuy had barely set foot on the first step of the building when he was stabbed by swords. He fell. In spite of his wounds, he managed to pick himself up and run to the colonel of the national guard, a Protestant by the name of Dravenant, who tried to help, but the murderers were too numerous. The first one to get to the two men passed his sword through the body of Father Dupuy.
He still was not dead, so the executioners thought of another manner of torturing him. They tied a rope to his feet and dragged him through the courtyard amidst general glee, while the civil and military authorities watched. Four thousand madmen were torturing two innocent priests. Ten thousand national guard who had been gathered for the celebration did not intervene.
As for Father Langoiran, he did not last long. The first murderer who reached him, wanting to be credited with the death of the vicar general, gave him a deadly blow. The priest hardly had time to say: "Lord, forgive me as I forgive them." His head was cut off, put on a stake and paraded throughout the city from eight at night until two in the morning, especially in front of the windows of the martyr's sister.
The two bodies were then abandoned in the streets. The following day the town councilmen had to write their report. They stated that they left the authors of the crimes to the remorse of their consciences!
The two bodies were buried secretly—so secretly that the faithful of Bordeaux who wanted to give them a religious burial came close to despair when they were unable to find them. In April of 1800, as a chapel was being restored, the workers who were using picks to replace the floor, first found pieces of cloth and then of human flesh. Then two corpses were found, dried up but well preserved. One had been beheaded and the other one had been tortured. They were buried with all the veneration which martyrs deserve.
As for Father Pannetier, he lived another two years, fulfilling his priestly duties and escaping the enemies of the Church. In the spring of 1794, he told his parishioners that the Blessed Mother would grant him the grace of suffering martyrdom in the octave of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, usually celebrated on July 16. On the 20th, he was found, arrested and taken to the revolutionary tribunal of Bordeaux, which condemned him to death. He went peacefully to the guillotine. He was seventy-five years old.
—To be continued—
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