Marie-Madeleine Fontaine and 3 companions

The community of the Daughters of Charity of Arras, established since 1656, initially counted seven sisters at the beginning of the French Revolution. Their daily mission consisted of caring for the sick in their homes, managing a dispensary (hospice), and providing free education to the young girls of the city. This work of charity was deeply appreciated by the local population.

With the outbreak of the Revolution and the rise of religious persecution, the community was put to a severe test. In July 1792, one of the sisters, Françoise Coutocheaux, decided to leave the community to return to her family. Faced with the growing dangers of the Terror, the superior, Marie-Madeleine Fontaine, made the prudent decision to send the two youngest sisters, Sister Rose Michau and Sister Jeanne Fabre, to take refuge in Belgium.

Only four sisters remained in Arras to courageously continue their service to the poor and the sick: Marie-Madeleine Fontaine, Marie-Françoise Lanel, Thérèse Fantou, and Jeanne Gérard. In 1793, the representative on mission Joseph Lebon, a former apostate priest tasked with imposing the Terror in the Pas-de-Calais, confiscated the community's property and renamed their establishment the "House of Humanity." He placed a lay director at their head and forced them to wear civilian clothing. Despite these vexations and the climate of dechristianization, the four sisters continued their ministry of charity discreetly but firmly.

The sisters' refusal to take the oath of liberty-equality, which they considered contrary to their conscience and religious vows, sealed their fate. On February 14, 1794, they were arrested under false accusations of counter-revolutionary complicity (notably the discovery of counter-revolutionary journals allegedly hidden in their home, likely planted without their knowledge).

They were first imprisoned at the Saint-Vaast Abbey in Arras, which had been converted into a prison. During their detention, they provided great spiritual and moral comfort to their fellow cellmates. During their interrogation on April 4, 1794, they reiterated their categorical refusal to take the oath.

On June 25, 1794, the order was given to transfer them urgently to Cambrai. The following day, June 26, 1794, they appeared before the revolutionary tribunal, which sentenced them to death.

Led to the scaffold on the Place d'Armes in Cambrai, the sisters displayed heroic serenity. In the cart, they sang the hymn Ave Maris Stella and recited the rosary. When the guards tried to snatch their rosaries away, they firmly resisted. In mockery, the bailiff ordered the rosaries to be placed on their heads as crowns. It was thus crowned that they climbed the steps of the guillotine. Before dying, Sister Marie-Madeleine Fontaine uttered a prophecy to the crowd: "Christians, do not be distressed, you will not die, we are the last victims." This prediction came true: the fall of Robespierre a month later ended the Great Terror, and Joseph Lebon was arrested and subsequently executed.

The cause for the beatification of the four martyrs of Arras was introduced at the beginning of the 20th century. The decree recognizing their martyrdom in hatred of the faith (in odium fidei) was promulgated on July 6, 1919.

They were solemnly beatified on June 13, 1920, by Pope Benedict XV at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, at the same time as the eleven Ursuline martyrs of Valenciennes. Their liturgical feast is set for June 26, the anniversary of their birth into Heaven.

The spirituality of the blessed martyrs of Arras is fully inscribed within the Vincentian charism bequeathed by Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Louise de Marillac. Their lives were entirely given to Christ through the unconditional service of the poorest, considered their "lords and masters." This active charity was accompanied by a life of intense prayer, symbolized by their unwavering attachment to the rosary right up to the foot of the scaffold.

Their legacy remains alive, particularly in northern France and within the Vincentian Family. A commemorative plaque honors their memory in Cambrai, and several churches, notably in Miniac-Morvan (Brittany) and Cumières-le-Mort-Homme (Meuse), house statues or paintings depicting their martyrdom. They remain a model of fidelity to religious conscience in the face of political oppression.