Martyrs of Orange

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Altarpiece in the Chapel of the Martyrs in Orange Cathedral

The Märtyrinnen of Orange († 6-26. July 1794 in Orange , France ) is, by 32 nuns, mainly nuns who at the time of the French Revolution during the " Grande Terreur because of their adherence to the" religious life in Orange on were guillotined .

history

In February 1790, the French National Assembly ordered the abolition of the religious orders . A few months later the civil constitution of the clergy was passed, which provided for the judicial separation of the clergy from the papacy and thus the conversion of the French church into a national church . Clergymen who refused to take the state's mandatory oath on the constitution were persecuted. Many were imprisoned or deported; 30,000 to 40,000 clerics left the country or went underground in the years from 1791.

The basis of most of the death sentences against Catholic martyrs during the revolutionary period in France was the refusal or the revocation of the oath on the civil constitution. In the city of Orange, the Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced a total of 322 people to death, mainly priests and other clergymen who had refused to take the oath.

After being expelled from their monasteries, a number of nuns settled in a former Ursuline monastery in Bollène , where many of them came from, and lived there together in prayer and poverty for 18 months. 29 of them were arrested on April 22, 1794 in Bollène because they had refused to take the civil oath " Liberté-Égalité " required by the local government . The prisoners were taken to the former church prison near the cathedral in Orange on May 2nd, where 13 other nuns were already being held. The nuns, who came from different, mostly contemplative communities, decided there to give themselves a uniform rule . In his work Les Martyrs de la Révolution Française , the Catholic philosopher and historian Ivan Gobry (1927–2017) describes the daily routine of the prisoners: “They started their day at five o'clock with prayer, followed at six o'clock by the Office of the Most Holy Virgin Mary . At seven o'clock they ate a meager meal and at eight they recited the litany of saints. At nine o'clock the call to appear before the tribunal began - everyone was ready and many impatient to be chosen. "

On July 6, 1794, the first religious was brought before the people's tribunal and did not return to her fellow prisoners. More sisters were picked up on the following days. They were accused and convicted without a defense opportunity for “lack of revolutionary civic spirit ” ( incivisme ), because they had tried “to destroy the republic through fanaticism and superstition”. The condemned were taken to the Roman theater in Orange , where they had to wait for their execution together with other prisoners, among whom were other religious women, and were finally guillotined on what was then Cours Saint-Martin (today's Cours Aristide Briand ). At the drum rolls that accompanied the executions, the sisters still alive are said to have intoned the Te Deum . On July 26th, 1794, the last four of the 32 religious sisters killed in orange were executed. One day after their execution, the Jacobins were ousted in Paris , and Robespierre and 21 followers were guillotined on July 28th. The reign of terror ended abruptly. About twenty nuns condemned in orange escaped execution by the decree of the Convention that stopped the killings.

The 32 martyrs of Orange were born in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. beatified.

Martyrs

The martyrs came from different, predominantly contemplative and cloistered religious communities: there are sixteen Ursulines , thirteen sacraments , two Cistercians and one Benedictine .

  • Sr. Marie-Rose (Suzanne-Agathe Deloye), † July 6, 1794
  • Sr. Iphigénie de Saint-Matthieu (Marie-Gabrielle-Françoise-Suzanne de Gaillard de Lavaldène), † July 7, 1794
  • Sr. des Anges (Marie-Anne de Rocher), † July 9, 1794
  • Sr. Sainte-Mélanie (Marie-Anne Madeleine de Guilhermier), † July 9, 1794
  • Sr. Agnes de Jésus (Jeanne de Romillon), † July 10, 1794
  • Sr. Sainte-Sophie (Marie-Gertrude de Ripert d'Alauzier), † July 10, 1794
  • Sr. Agnès de Jésus (Sylvie-Agnès de Romillon), † July 10, 1794
  • Sr. Saint-Martin (Marie-Clotilde Blanc), † July 11, 1794
  • Sr. Saint Théotiste du Saint-Sacrement (Marie-Elisabeth Pélissier), † July 11, 1794
  • Sr. Sainte-Sophie (Marie-Marguerite de Barbégie d'Albrède), † July 11, 1794
  • Sr. Sainte-Pélagie de Saint-Jean le Baptiste (Rosalie-Clotilde Bès), † July 11, 1794
  • Sr. Catherine de Jésus, (Marie-Madeleine de Justamond), † July 12, 1794
  • Sr. Rose de Saint-Xavier (Madeleine-Thérèse Talieu), † July 12, 1794
  • Sr. Marie de Saint-Henri (Marguerite-Eléonore de Justamond), † July 12, 1794
  • Sr. Marta du Bon-Ange (Marie Cluse), † July 12, 1794
  • Sr. Saint-Alexis (Anne-Andrée Minutte), † July 13, 1794
  • Sr. Madeleine de la Mère de Dieu (Elisabeth Verchières), † July 13, 1794
  • Sr. Saint-Gervais (Marie-Anastasie de Roquard), † July 13, 1794
  • Sr. Saint-François (Marie-Anne Lambert), † July 13, 1794
  • Sr. Sainte-Françoise (Marie-Anne Depeyre), † July 13, 1794
  • Sr. Marie de l'Annonciation (Thérèse-Henriette Faurie), † July 13, 1794
  • Sr. du Cœur de Marie (Dorothée Madeleine Julie de Justamond), † July 16, 1794
  • Sr. Marie de Jésus de la conception du Saint-Sacrement (Marguerite-Thérèse Charansol), † July 16, 1794
  • Sr. Saint-Joachim (Marie-Anne Béguin-Royal), † July 16, 1794
  • Sr. Saint-Michel (Marie-Anne Doux), † July 16, 1794
  • Sr. Aimée de Jésus (Marie-Rose de Gordon), † July 16, 1794
  • Sr. Saint-André (Marie-Rose Laye), † July 16, 1794
  • Sr. Saint-Basile (Anne Cartier), † July 20, 1794
  • Sr. du Cœur de Jésus (Elisabeth-Thérèse de Consolin), † July 26, 1794
  • Sr. Sainte-Rosalie (Marie-Claire Du Bac), † July 26, 1794
  • Sr. Catherine de Jésus (Marie-Madeleine de Justamond), † July 26, 1794
  • Sr. de Saint-Augustin (Marie-Marguerite Bonnet), † July 26, 1794

Adoration

In Christian iconography , the blessed martyrs of Orange are shown in habit as they climb the scaffold , where they are expected and welcomed by angels and their holy religious founders in heaven . The relics of the martyrs are in a shrine in Orange Cathedral.

See also

literature

  • Guido Pettinati: I Santi canonizzati del giorno. Vol. VII, edizioni Segno, Udine 1991, pp. 91-97.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ So the Martyrologium Romanum , quoted in Saintes Martyres d'Orange. In: Nominis , accessed January 26, 2019.
  2. ↑ Bruno Steimer : Martyrs of France. In: Herder's Lexicon of Saints. Freiburg im Breisgau 2011, ISBN 978-3-451-06180-6 , p. 225.
  3. ↑ Quoted from Krips-Schmidt: The Martyrs of Orange. In: Die Tagespost , July 10, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b Saintes Martyres d'Orange. In: Nominis , accessed January 26, 2019.
  5. ↑ For the entire section “History” cf. in addition to the individual documents also Katrin Krips-Schmidt: Saints of the day: July 11th: The Martyrs of Orange. In: Die Tagespost , July 10, 2017, retrieved for a fee at https://www.die-tagespost.de/kirche-aktuell/Tagesheilige-11-Juli-Die-Maertyrerinnen-von-Orange;art312,180009 on December 6 2018; also the presentation of Les 32 bienheureuses religieuses d'Orange (December 6, 2007, accessed January 2019) on the website of the diocesan archive of the Archdiocese of Avignon in French.
  6. ↑ Les 32 bienheureuses religieuses d'Orange . Presentation on the website of the Diocesan Archives of the Archdiocese of Avignon, December 6, 2007, accessed on January 26, 2019 (French).