If we want to understand the anti-clerical atmosphere in France in the years leading up to the apparations of Our Lady of Lourdes, let us consider the fate of the Congregration of St. Maur
Newsdesk (11/02/2026 10:49, Gaudium Press) First, a little about the Patron of the Congregration. Saint Maurus —along with Saint Placidus— was the most famous disciple of Saint Benedict of Nursia. The main information we have about Saint Maurus is found in the life of the great monk and Patron Saint of Europe, as recounted in the second book of The Dialogues of Pope Gregory the Great (540-604), which at the beginning of the text mentions four disciples of Benedict as its sources. From The Dialogues, we know that Maurus’ father was a Roman nobleman named Eutychius, who had entrusted his teenage son, who was “gifted with holy habits”, to St. Benedict.
Maurus is mentioned in several passages of St. Gregory’s account, the best known of which concerns his obedience to an order from Benedict, who had shouted from his cell for him to go and help Placidus, who had fallen into the lake: the young man immediately went to help his brother and, without even realizing it, traversed the lake walking on the water, picking up Placidus, and carrying him to the shore. As soon as he came to understand what he had done, he told everything to Benedict, who attributed the miracle to the disciple’s quick obedience, while the disciple considered that the miracle had happened only because of the holy master’s order. It was Placidus who resolved the dispute over humility: ‘While I was being saved,’ he said, ‘I saw the Abbot’s cloak over my head and felt that it was he who was pulling me out.’
In the 9th century, Abbot Odo of Glanfevil published the Life of Saint Maurus, claiming to have based it on a summary written by a disciple of Benedict named Faustus, according to which it was Maurus who founded the Benedictine Monastery of Glanfevil, the first in Gaul (modern-day France), after being sent to the other side of the Alps by his Master, together with Faustus and ten other monks. The village where the Abbey was located was later named Saint-Maur-sur-Loire.
An entire congregation martyred by the ‘champions of freedom’
Among the many other dedications to the Saint, in 1618 the Congregation of Saint Maur was founded in his honour, a Benedictine religious institute that spread rapidly throughout France. Its members, called ‘Maurists’, were distinguished for their erudition and made a great contribution to historical and philological culture, as well as to the study of patristics. Monks such as Jean Mabillon, founder of palaeography, and Bernard de Montfaucon, considered the father of modern archaeology, carried out their work in Maurist monasteries.
The congregation was suppressed by supporters of the French Revolution and its last Superior General was murdered by the revolutionaries, along with 40 other Maurist Brothers, on September 2nd, 1792 in one of the massacres of Christians that took place during those days. These massacres were the result of the decision of many religious figures not to swear allegiance to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, with which the revolutionaries sought to subject the Church to the State, continuing in their attempt to destroy Christianity.
With the Revolution, French society changed and anti-clericalism became entrenched. The contributions of Religious to society were forgotten or denied and their reputation twisted to suit the propaganda of the day. However, Christ is King, and only a short time after this, and so many other massacres of holy Religious and faithful, He sent His Mother to Lourdes with a message of penance, conversion and hope!
(Biographical data taken from La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana).
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