Early morning. A prison in central China at Wuchang in the province of Hupeh. The guards arouse and tell the old frenchman to follow them. He asks: "Will I be coming back here?" Their hesitation tells him clearly that the decree of execution has come from Beijing. There is a moment or two when he can receive a final absolution from the Chinese priest imprisoned with him. A word to the other christians in the prison courtyard. He tells them to rejoice because he has the good fortune to die for Jesus Christ. He is led to the execution place just outside the town walls. They bind him to a stake and using a strong cord, the executioner strangles him in the manner traditional in that country. It is 18 February 1820.
2. TO RETURN TO THE BEGINNING
His family
They were quite a family, the Clets. and not the sort of people who expected to end their lives at the hands of an executioner. Fifteen of them if you count all the names in the baptismal register of the parish of Saint Louis in Grenoble. in south east France. The reality was less crowded. Half of them died in childbirth or within months . Only six survived to adulthood, their births spread over some fourteen years. Their house in the middle of the town, roomy and comfortable though it was, gave no protection against the recurrent epidemics that plagued such town dwellers.
Country cousins widened the family circle, their homes in the district of Varces generously shared. Varces, set in beautiful hilly country rising towards the Alps, made of Regis (the name Francis was shared with an older brother so the family from the start simply called him Regis) a country man like his father who had come to Grenoble as a young man to make his fortune. His thickset burly frame grew strong with mountain treks, swimming in the cold streams and lakes, and work in the fields side by side with his cousins. Friendships formed there and family ties would always be important for him.
At home his mainstay was his eldest sister Marie-Therese. Fourteen years older, and with their mother weakened and pre-occupied by her disappointing pregnancies, it was this sister who provided the direction and care that the young boy needed. She would outlive him by a matter of months, enclosing all of his years in the generosity of her life
His father, Cesaire, had married into a good cloth business. The family house and shop and warehouse filled a narrow area between two streets of Grenoble. His older brother, a canon of the collegiate church of Saint Louis in the city, had smoothed the way for him on his first arrival from the country. This uncle, already dead when Regis was born in 1748. set for all of them the standards of religious practice and social status which marked their way of life. Naturally there was high regard for the Varces family where a royal notaryship had been purchased, placing that brunch of the family on the edges of nobility. Cesaire Clet himself was a respected and successful business man. In detailed legal documents over the years he would provide for the material future of his children. Yet his faith was the overriding force in his life.
Religion was inescapable in the Clet household. The dead uncle's tomb occupied a place of note in the parish church. His mother's only sister had entered the Carmel of Grenoble and close contact was maintained between the sisters. The family was in the habit of making excursions to the great Monastery of Chartreuse, only a day's journey away. It was natural then that Regis' older brother Francis should be attracted to that order and make his profession at the Chartreuse of Valbonne in 1764.
His sister Anne in her turn joined her aunt Marie Therese in the Carmel. taking the name of Sister Constance of Saint Bruno in recognition of her brother's Chartreuse patron. His cousin Gaspard from Varces had entered the Augustinian Order. It would have been surprising if something of all this did not rub off on Regis - or. perhaps, in the questioning spirit of the time, he might well have reacted in the opposite direction.
That he did not can be put down to the education he received. He received his first lessons and his instruction in reading from his sister. Marie Therese. To the best of our knowledge he joined the other members of his family at the Jesuit College of Grenoble for his secondary studies. The formation given in that college would have built on the traditions of his own home, giving intellectual strength to its piety. There, in 1763, as a fifteen year old, he experienced the upheaval that came from the expulsion of the Jesuit Order from France. Opinions would differ, but in his family it would have been seen as a victory for evil and he must have missed the familiar teachers. To be sure the Bishop of Grenoble appointed priests to take the place of the Jesuits and, in the few years that remained of Regis' schooling, little change would have taken place in the curriculum. It would leave in his mind little love for the freethinking agnostics who had brought about the dismissal of the Jesuits."
They were quite a family, the Clets. and not the sort of people who expected to end their lives at the hands of an executioner. Fifteen of them if you count all the names in the baptismal register of the parish of Saint Louis in Grenoble. in south east France. The reality was less crowded. Half of them died in childbirth or within months . Only six survived to adulthood, their births spread over some fourteen years. Their house in the middle of the town, roomy and comfortable though it was, gave no protection against the recurrent epidemics that plagued such town dwellers.
Country cousins widened the family circle, their homes in the district of Varces generously shared. Varces, set in beautiful hilly country rising towards the Alps, made of Regis (the name Francis was shared with an older brother so the family from the start simply called him Regis) a country man like his father who had come to Grenoble as a young man to make his fortune. His thickset burly frame grew strong with mountain treks, swimming in the cold streams and lakes, and work in the fields side by side with his cousins. Friendships formed there and family ties would always be important for him.
At home his mainstay was his eldest sister Marie-Therese. Fourteen years older, and with their mother weakened and pre-occupied by her disappointing pregnancies, it was this sister who provided the direction and care that the young boy needed. She would outlive him by a matter of months, enclosing all of his years in the generosity of her life
His father, Cesaire, had married into a good cloth business. The family house and shop and warehouse filled a narrow area between two streets of Grenoble. His older brother, a canon of the collegiate church of Saint Louis in the city, had smoothed the way for him on his first arrival from the country. This uncle, already dead when Regis was born in 1748. set for all of them the standards of religious practice and social status which marked their way of life. Naturally there was high regard for the Varces family where a royal notaryship had been purchased, placing that brunch of the family on the edges of nobility. Cesaire Clet himself was a respected and successful business man. In detailed legal documents over the years he would provide for the material future of his children. Yet his faith was the overriding force in his life.
Religion was inescapable in the Clet household. The dead uncle's tomb occupied a place of note in the parish church. His mother's only sister had entered the Carmel of Grenoble and close contact was maintained between the sisters. The family was in the habit of making excursions to the great Monastery of Chartreuse, only a day's journey away. It was natural then that Regis' older brother Francis should be attracted to that order and make his profession at the Chartreuse of Valbonne in 1764.
His sister Anne in her turn joined her aunt Marie Therese in the Carmel. taking the name of Sister Constance of Saint Bruno in recognition of her brother's Chartreuse patron. His cousin Gaspard from Varces had entered the Augustinian Order. It would have been surprising if something of all this did not rub off on Regis - or. perhaps, in the questioning spirit of the time, he might well have reacted in the opposite direction.
That he did not can be put down to the education he received. He received his first lessons and his instruction in reading from his sister. Marie Therese. To the best of our knowledge he joined the other members of his family at the Jesuit College of Grenoble for his secondary studies. The formation given in that college would have built on the traditions of his own home, giving intellectual strength to its piety. There, in 1763, as a fifteen year old, he experienced the upheaval that came from the expulsion of the Jesuit Order from France. Opinions would differ, but in his family it would have been seen as a victory for evil and he must have missed the familiar teachers. To be sure the Bishop of Grenoble appointed priests to take the place of the Jesuits and, in the few years that remained of Regis' schooling, little change would have taken place in the curriculum. It would leave in his mind little love for the freethinking agnostics who had brought about the dismissal of the Jesuits."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
