Ursuline Martyrs of Valenciennes

The Ursuline convent of Valenciennes, placed under the patronage of the Blessed Sacrament, was founded in 1654 by five nuns from Mons and two from Namur, at the initiative of Charlotte and Marie d'Oultreman, two local notables. On the eve of the French Revolution, this religious house was the most important girls' school in Valenciennes, enjoying an excellent reputation for the instruction and Christian education of young girls in the region. The community then numbered thirty-two nuns.

In February 1790, Mother Marie-Clotilde Paillot was elected superior of the community. On September 30, 1790, municipal commissioners presented themselves at the monastery to draw up an inventory of property and question the sisters on their desire to persevere in their vocation. Unanimous, the thirty-two nuns declared their wish to remain faithful to their vows and continue their educational work.

The situation deteriorated severely in September 1792, when coalition troops besieged Valenciennes. The convent being requisitioned by the city's defenders to serve as a barracks, the sisters were forced to temporarily exile themselves to Mons, in Belgium (then under Austrian rule). In November 1793, after the recapture of Valenciennes by Austrian troops, the Ursulines were invited by the inhabitants and their archbishop to return. They reoccupied their devastated convent, restored it, and courageously resumed teaching. It was during this period that they welcomed into their community three other nuns deprived of their own monastery: Sister Marie-Joséphine (Poor Clare) and two Brigittines, Sisters Marie-Françoise and Anne-Marie Joseph.

The fate of the nuns shifted once again after the French victory at Fleurus in June 1794. Austrian troops evacuated Valenciennes in August, leaving the city in the hands of revolutionary forces. The representative of the Convention, Jean-Baptiste Lacoste, organized a fierce repression there and ordered the arrest of the nuns on September 1, 1794.

Although the fall of Robespierre on 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794) had theoretically ended the Great Terror in Paris, the persecution continued actively in the border regions. The nuns were incarcerated and accused of the "crime of emigration" (for having stayed in Mons), fanaticism, treason, and wearing prohibited religious habits. Brought before a special military commission, they were deprived of defenders and witnesses by virtue of the revolutionary laws of the time.

The martyrdom was accomplished in two stages: * October 17, 1794: A first group of five Ursulines (Sisters Marie-Natalie, Marie-Laurentine, Marie-Ursule, Marie-Louise, and Marie-Augustine) appeared before the tribunal. Condemned to death, they climbed the scaffold erected on the Place d'Armes in Valenciennes while singing the Miserere psalm. Sister Marie-Natalie (Louise-Joseph Vanot), the first to climb the steps, exclaimed with fervor: "Come, the day of glory has arrived!" * October 23, 1794: The second group, composed of the superior Mother Marie-Clotilde Paillot and five other nuns (Sisters Marie-Scholastique, Marie-Joséphine, Marie-Françoise, Anne-Marie Joseph, and Marie-Cordule), was in turn condemned and executed. They walked toward their execution singing the Magnificat. Mother Marie-Clotilde, eager to support her daughters until the end, asked to be executed last. Sister Marie-Cordule (Jeanne-Louise Barré), initially forgotten in her cell, demanded to share the fate of her companions and courageously climbed the scaffold.

The reputation for holiness and martyrdom of the eleven religious sisters of Valenciennes spread immediately after their death. The cause for beatification was officially introduced in the diocese of Cambrai in 1898. The decree formally recognizing their martyrdom in hatred of the faith (in odium fidei) was promulgated on July 6, 1919.

On June 13, 1920, Pope Benedict XV solemnly celebrated their beatification in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. They were beatified at the same time as the four Daughters of Charity of Arras, who were also martyred during the French Revolution.

The spirituality of the Ursulines of Valenciennes was deeply rooted in the spirit of their founder, Saint Angela Merici, characterized by an intimate union with Christ, a life of rigorous communal prayer, and a total dedication to the instruction of youth. Their preparation for martyrdom was experienced in great interior peace and supernatural joy, testifying to their certainty of going to meet the heavenly Spouse. In a letter addressed to her niece shortly before her execution, Mother Marie-Clotilde Paillot wrote: "Share in my happiness!".

After the execution, the bodies of the martyrs were thrown into a mass grave at the Saint-Roch cemetery in Valenciennes. In 1925, the relics of the first five nuns executed on October 17 were discovered and formally identified. They are today piously preserved and venerated in the Saint-Géry church of Valenciennes.

The liturgical feast of the eleven blessed martyrs is set for October 23, the anniversary of the martyrdom of the second group and of the religious profession of their superior, Mother Marie-Clotilde. Their memory remains alive in the diocese of Cambrai and within the Ursuline congregation, as a model of absolute fidelity to Christ and of fraternal love carried to the supreme gift of life.