Vigils Reading – Bl Virgin Martyrs of Orange

A reading from “The Catholic Encyclopedia” on

THE MARTYRS OF ORANGE

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The Martyrs of Orange were a group of 32 beatified religious women

martyred at Orange, France, during the French Revolution between July 5 and

26, 1794. Two were Cistercian nuns from Avignon, the others were from

Bollene, near Avignon. The others were from Bollene, near Avignon and

included 16 Ursulines, 13 Sacramentine nuns and one Benedictine nun. For

refusing to take the oath of Liberty of the new regime, the nuns were expelled

from their convents, arrested and held in La Cure prison in Orange. These and

other nuns formed a kind of religious community, and spent hours in prayer

daily and religious exercises until condemned for fanaticism and superstition.

Besides these, many others were imprisoned and died under dire

circumstances at this same time. The martyrs of the prison ships or on islands

off the shore of La Rochelle who died of starvation or illness off the shore of La

Rochelle included over 547. Yet for the cause of beatification, only 64 among

these were retained as martyrs, namely, those who were explicitly mentioned in

the lists of the deported.

On October 1, 1995, Pope John Paul II beatified three other Cistercians at

the same time as 61 other priests and religious of various Congregations. The

martyrs of the prison ships of Rochefort died in 1794, the same year as the nuns

of Orange, and were declared martyrs in 1925. They were not the only

Cistercians who died of starvation or illness in the slave ships or on the islands

off the shore of La Rochelle. Our Menology mentions several others. Yet for the

cause of beatification, only 64 among the 547 who died, were retained as

martyrs, namely, those who were explicitly mentioned in the list of the

deported.11

The three Cistercians were: Bro, Elias Desgardin, a lay Brother from Sept

Fons. He cared for his sick companions. A martyr of charity, he died of typhoid

fever at the age of forty-four. He was buried on the island of Aix. Also Dom Paul

Charles, the Prior of Sept Fons. Detained on the ship Les Deux Associes, he died

at the age of fifty-one, esteemed and loved by his companions in captivity, he

was buried on the island called Madame. The third beatified martyr was Dom

Gervais Brunel, Superior of La Trappe, who died at the age fifty in a provisional

hospital on the island Madame. Stricken with typhoid fever, he arrived there on

the point of dying, dying on the very day of the disembarkment.

One of them made a statement that can be applied to all these beatified

religious and to many others condemned to die on the prison ships: “If we are

the most unhappy of men, we are also the happiest of Christians”.