26 December 1767 A.D. French Huguenot Marie Durand Released from Tower of
Constance after 37 Years
Graves, Dan. “Marie Durand
Released at Last.” Christianity.com. Jun
2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/marie-durand-released-at-last-11630273.html. Accessed
24 Dec 2014.
On this day, December 26, 1767,
the day after Christmas, thirty-six
prisoners, some of them sick and broken, stumbled out of the Tower of
Constance. Among them was Marie Durand. She had been in the tower thirty-eight
years.
The Tower of Constance stood on
swampy land near the Rhone River, in Aigues Mortes, France, not far from the
Mediterranean Sea. Built by Duke Philip the Bold, the tower was designed in
imitation of Jerusalem architecture. The stronghold also served as a
lighthouse, with a lantern in the top-most tower, known as "the beacon of
Charlemagne."
During the French Civil Wars
between Protestants and Catholics following the Reformation, the tower fell
into Protestant control. But in 1632 Louis XIII regained it. King Louis XIV
converted it to a women's prison.
The female prisoners were kept
in the upper room. A little light and air came through narrow windows. In the
center of the floor was an opening onto the guardroom below. The authorities
saw this as the perfect place to hold and torture those they considered to be
heretics. But at least one prisoner refused to yield. Inscribed on the wall is
the slogan "Register," meaning "Resist!"
In 1730 a fifteen-year-old
Huguenot girl was arrested and taken from her home in Bouchet-de-Pransles. Her
name was Marie Durand; her crime was to have a brother who was a Protestant
minister; they held Protestant meetings in their home. Pierre Durand was known
as the "Pastor of the Desert," a reference to the mysterious woman
described in Revelation 12:6.
Unable to lay hands on Pierre,
the government arrested Marie's father in 1728. Before he was taken to prison,
Etienne Durand married his young daughter to Matthew Serres, whom he hoped
could protect her. Marie's arrest separated the young couple. Matthew was soon
imprisoned with his father-in law at a fort. In 1732, Pierre was captured and
hanged.
When Marie entered the Tower--so
cold in Winter and so hot in Summer--it was as if a ray of sunshine had
penetrated its darkness and despair. Although just fifteen, she became the
tireless Christian focus of the Tower, and remained the spiritual leader of the
prisoners for thirty-eight years. She nursed the ailing, wrote letters for
those who could not write, and (after a psalter was allowed) read psalms aloud
each evening. She encouraged her fellow-prisoners to sing Huguenot hymns. Not
all the women were Christians. Some were crude.
But the prisoners knew her family; they sympathized with her youth and they
respected her for her piety. All were blessed through her.
Marie wrote to churches and
government officials with appeals for improved prison conditions. Her appeals
were even relayed to the philosophers Voltaire and Rousseau. Thanks to Marie's
efforts, the prisoners were allowed a copy of the Psalms and permitted to take
air on the rooftop. She never recanted her faith.
Disgusted with prison
conditions, the governor of Languedoc ordered the captives released despite the
objections of King Louis XV. After her release, Marie returned to her childhood
home. Her husband and father were dead. An Amsterdam Walloon church supported
her for the rest of her life. She died in 1776.
Source:
1. Lambert, Nadine. "Marie Durand."
http://www.protestants.org/faq/histoire/htm/ durand.htm
2. "Marie Durand (1712-1776)."
http://www.protestants.org/faq/histoire/htm/ durand.htm
3. Snyder, Ann. Personal notes from an article in The Young
Reformer, Issue 11.
4. "Tower of Constance."
http://www.eglise-reformee-fr.org/contents/his-musees.html.
Last updated June,
2007
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