Today September 2

Today is the bittersweet feast day of the Martyrs of September. Bittersweet because their death was so beautiful and yet so unjust; bittersweet like the very Revolution it signified: "liberty, equality and fraternity" is a noble and worthwhile goal; the bloodbath that followed was not.

Briefly, all the priests who didn't sign the oath to uphold the law that denied the pope any authority over French Catholicism. The oath, not only being forbidden by the highest ecclesial authorities -- the pope himself, was against the consciences of all loyal men, as it denied the universal authority of the popes. It truly violated the the spirit of independence of the Church.

All the "non-jurors," as priests who refused to sign were called, were arrested. Then the killings began. Most were summarily executed -- many by being led down a stairway, at the end of which they were macheted to death. Some were "tried" in a kangaroo court first. Some were then shot, others were stabbed. Among these latter was John du Lau, Archbishop of Arles. He was quietly praying in his chapel (where he could have hidden, then later escaped). When summoned, "The Archbishop of Arles!", he bravely called out, "I am he whom you seek." And the brave bishop of Beauvais dragged himself from the infirmary when he heard his name, saying, "I do not refuse to die with the others, but I cannot walk. I beg you to have the kindness to carry me where you wish me to go." That shut them up. For a minute, anyway. They murdered him, too.

191 priests were beatified for this feast day in 1926 by Pius XI.