Alexandre Charles Marie Lanfant, June, and the Sacred Heart
French Revolution and the Sacred Heart
Early Life of Father Lanfant
Ann Alexander Charles was born on September 9, 1726, in the city of Lyon. His father was Jaime Lanfant, a bourgeois from Lyon, and his mother was Charlotte Berthoud. He was baptized the day after his birth in the church of Ainay.
He studied at the famous College of the Trinity, in Lyon, and on September 7, 1741 entered the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus, in Avignon. In Lyon he studied Theology and distinguished himself in preaching, so that his Superiors commissioned him to deliver the funeral oration of Monsignor Henri de Belzunce. From then on his fame as a preacher spread.
He made his Profession Vows in 1760. But, in 1762, the Jesuit order, in Paris, was suppressed. He however, continued to serve as a priest in Lorraine under the protection of the duke, (exiled Polish king Stanislas Leszczyński). In February 1766, he gave a funeral oration upon the death of Louis, Dauphin of France. Shortly thereafter the duke also passed away and Lanfant remained at the imperial court in Vienna, serving as preacher to Maria Theresa Habsburg.
When Father Lanfant returned to Paris, the late Dauphin's son, Louis XVI appointed him preacher at the royal court. He also served as the king's confessor from 1789 to 1791. As an orator he was so renowned that writers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, d'Alambert and Denis Diderot, came to listen to him preach.
Father Lanfan had a great devoted to the Sacred Heart; he encouraged the distribution of a pamphlet calling for forty days of prayer and penance1 which ended with a solemn prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart. He soon became a favorite target of the Jansenists' attacks.
The French Revolution Strikes
Father Lanfant refused to take an oath to the civil constitution of the clergy. He was arrested on August 29, 1792, on charges of influencing the monarch. Father Lanfant's position on the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was clear and immutable: total poverty or death is better than taking the “impious oath.” And in order to avoid that oath, he refused to preach Lent of 1791 before the King's Court.
Faced with the prospect of taking the oath, he wrote: “In that case, I will be forced and happy to attest to my faith, which I ask God to preserve even at the price of my own life.” And another day: “We are waiting for what will result with that oath. With God's help, I hope it is not forced. I need grace, and I ask for it. It is necessary to prepare to suffer and arm oneself with the strength of God.” And on February 2, 1791 he added: “I will say, as a final analysis, in the case of myself, that I believe it is my duty to clearly reject every oath, because if I were to take it according to the meaning given to it by the one who commands it, I would prefer to die before adhering to it.” to the principles that are the scourge of religion.”
The supporters of the Revolution spread various libels against Father Lanfant. So, that the good priest had to often disguise himself and frequently change his address when he stayed in Paris, to minster to the faithful there.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart
He remained hopeful that the situation in France would change and constantly referred to the fact that he had placed all his hope in the Heart of Jesus and spoke of the small images that he had been handing out.
To his niece, Madame de Saint Ouen, he wrote: “I am sending you two images of the Heart of Jesus, one for you and the other for your husband. These images defend against dangers. “Devotion to the Heart of Jesus makes great progress.” “You cannot imagine what stratagems priests use to administer the sacraments. I am in this, but I seek to stay in a happy medium between recklessness and comfort.”
Details about the few months leading up to his arrest and death, can be gathered from three letters written by him and from the testimonies of two priests worthy of faith. One of them was Father Amado Guillon, who had made a serious inquiry into Father Lanfant’s death. The other was a “constitutional priest”, Abbe S.E. Monnel, who voted in favor of King Louis’ execution, but would later, in his Memoirs, ask for forgiveness by retracting the evil that he had committed.
Letters
In one of those letters, dated August 8, 1792, Father Lanfant wrote, “I am not leaving Paris, and I do not see where I could go. If there is a revolution, the neighborhood will not be safe either. "I submit to the safeguard of Providence in whom I have trusted." later continues: “I cannot accurately paint the misfortunes that occur. They have reached the limit. The number of dead is unknown, and some say it is as high as seven thousand. There have been many heads cut off and a great multitude of thieves hanged. A good number of priests were locked up in the church of the Carmelite Fathers, on Vaugirard Street, where they spent the night in great discomfort.”
For a while Father Lanfant left his accommodation on the Rue Saint-Jacques and retired to a house dependent on the community of the Visitation nuns2, on the Rue Du Bac. He dressed strictly as a secular man, with a suit donated by a merchant's wife. Sensing danger, he later moved to the dark street VieilleMonnaie, to the house of a bookbinder. Father had an altar set up in the apartment of a good Catholic, (named Jalet, a wood turner by profession, who was a tenant in the same house); where he offered the Holy Mass.
The following is the account of Abbe Simon-Edme Monnel,3 (one of the men who voted for the death of the king of France.)
“One day, I had to have some books bound and I went to Leriche's house on Vieille-Monnaie Street, without letting me know, and in his workshop I found a man dressed in black, whose traits were familiar to me. I approached him and discovered that he was Abbe Lanfant. He turned pale when he realized that I had recognized him. I told him Noli timere, don't be afraid.
And he answered me: Qui sperat in Domino; no, he who waits on the Lord. And so without giving him away, because I did not pronounce his name, I walked away.”
In another letter by Father Lanfant we read: “There is talk of people arrested for treason, but I do not know their names or crimes. They say that there are various places to execute them. They say that priests over 60 years of age are exempt from deportation, and that they are simply detained in a house. The elderly cardinal of La Rochefoucauld, 84 years old, is already in the San Fermín Seminary.”
On August 30, 1792, Father Lanfant was arrested. The newspaper El Monitor Universal announced his capture as a true triumph for the revolution: “The Abbe Lanfant, the king's confessor, has been arrested.”
He was first taken to the Municipality, from there he was transferred to the Abbey of Saint Germain des Prés. The prison guard housed him in a room that overlooked the choir of the community Chapel. There he met a friend, the Abbe Chapt de Rastignac.
After his arrest, people tried to help him. One such person was the Abbe S.E. Monnel who had recognized him in the bookbinder's house, and the other person was his landlord. Unfortunately, their attempts to save him didn’t succeed.
The First Terror of the French Revolution
The September Massacres4 began on September 2 in the courtyard and cloisters of the Abbey, and around ten in the morning of the 3rd of September, Fathers Lanfant and Rastignac realizing what was in store for those imprisoned in the Chapel, went from the room to the Chapel Choir, and from above they exhorted the others to a Christian death.
Abbé de Rastignac died that same morning at around eleven o'clock. Abbe Lanfant, thanks to the efforts of Abbe Monnel, was released at one or two o'clock in the afternoon. However, a group of revolutionaries dragged him from the street and brought him back to the Abbey.
Father Lanfant seems to have been released for the second time on September 5, but immediately upon leaving the Abbey, he was once again recognized by a group of revolutionaries and massacred. He was 66 years old.
Story behind this post: My son, Josh, has been selected to act as a priest, who preached to the French Carmelite nuns during the French Revolution. Coincidentally, I stumbled upon this nameless priest, Fr. Alexandre Charles Marie Lanfant, while researching about June being dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I hope you found this post inspiring.
Catholic Tradition is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
References:
Forty days in June during the French Revolution
The first "month" of the Sacred Heart was celebrated at the time of the French Revolution. In fact, French Jesuit Alexandre Lanfant, who would die as a martyr in the Massacres of September 1792, encouraged the distribution of a pamphlet calling for forty days of prayer and penance which ended with a solemn prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart in June 1790. (source: Jonas, Raymond (2000-09-20). France and the Cult of the Sacred Heart: An Epic Tale for Modern Times. University of California Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-520-22136-9.)
The Sisters of the Visitation wish to be especially faithful to the mission they have received to love and bring others to love the Sacred Heart. As St. Margaret Mary has written; "Although this treasure of love is a good everyone can claim and to which everyone has a right, it has hitherto been little known and now is especially given to the Daughters of the Visitation because they are called to honor His hidden life. Having been revealed to them, they are to make it known and share it with others"
*From The Holy Constitutions of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (French: Constitution civile du clergé) was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that sought the complete control over the Catholic Church in France by the French government.
In September, Simon-Edme Monnel was elected deputy for the department of Haute-Marne, the second out of seven, at the National Convention4.
He sits on the benches of the Mountain. During the trial of Louis XVI, he voted for death and rejected the appeal to the people and the stay of executions. In April 1793, he voted against the indictment of Jean-Paul Marat6. In May, he voted against the reestablishment of the Commission of Twelve7. In Brumaire Year II (November 1793), he denounced Marc-Antoine Bernard, deputy for Bouches-du-Rhône and replacement for Charles Barbaroux, for federalism8. In Ventôse year II (March 1794), alongside François Bézard and Jean-Lambert Tallien, he was elected secretary under the presidency of Philippe Rhül9.
Not re-elected in 1795, Monnel was one of the seven former Convention members called to sit on the Council of Five Hundred in 1796, but the Council of Elders rejected this appointment.
He then returned to his native region, and at the time of the Concordat of 1801 became the parish priest of Villiers-le-Sec. During the Hundred Days in 1815, he signed the Additional Act, which led to his being condemned to exile by the law of January 12, 1816.
Monnel was forced into exile and settled in Constance, then in the Grand Duchy of Baden. He survives thanks to a pension sent to him by his family. In 1819, his former parishioners sent a petition to King Louis XVIII asking for his return, but they were not heard.
He died three years later, after having repented of his regicide. (source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon-Edme_Monnel)
Everyone should know this story in detail.
LE GASP