#frenchrevolution — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 18 August: St. John Paul II

This morning, dear brothers and sisters, our thoughts turn to the sixty-four French priests who died with hundreds of others aboard the Rochefort prison ships. As Saint Paul urged Timothy, they “fought the good fight of the faith” (1 Tim 6:12). They endured a long Calvary because they remained faithful to their faith and to the Church. They died because, to the very end, they steadfastly affirmed their close communion with Pope Pius VI.

In their profound isolation, they sought above all to maintain a spirit of prayer. Tormented by hunger and thirst (cf. Lk 16:23), they spoke no word of hatred against their persecutors. Little by little, they became conformed to the sacrifice of Christ that they celebrated by virtue of their ordination. They now stand before us as a living sign of the power of Christ at work in human weakness.

In the depths of their distress, they never lost their capacity to forgive. The unity of the faith and the unity of their country mattered to them more than anything else. We may therefore joyfully repeat the words of Sacred Scripture: the souls of these righteous men are in the hand of God. “They seemed to have perished. Their departure was thought to be a disaster, but they are at peace” (Wis 3:2-3).

Saint John Paul II

Excerpt from the homily, 1 October 1995

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Monument to the 254 priests from the Rochefort prison ships who were buried on Île Madame in 1794. Image credit: Thierry Llansades / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).