Blessed John Francis Burté and Compagni, Saint of the day for 2 September

(d.2 September 1792 and 21 January 1794)

Blessed John Francis Burté and the story of his companions
These priests were victims of the French Revolution. Although their martyrdom spans a period of several years, they are united in the memory of the Church because they all gave their lives for the same principle. In 1791, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy required that all priests swear an oath that amounted to a denial of faith. Each of these men refused and was executed.

John Francis Burté became a Franciscan at 16 and after ordination he taught theology to young friars. Later he was guardian of the great conventual convent of Paris until he was arrested and held in the Carmelite convent.

Appolinaris di Posat was born in 1739 in Switzerland. He joined the Capuchins and acquired a reputation as an excellent preacher, confessor, and instructor of clerics. Preparing for his assignment in the East as a missionary, he was in Paris studying Oriental languages ​​when the French Revolution began. Refusing the oath, he was promptly arrested and detained in the Carmelite convent.

Severin Girault, a member of the Third Order Regular, was chaplain of a group of nuns in Paris. Imprisoned with the others, he was the first to die in the convent massacre.

These three plus 182 others - including several bishops and many religious and diocesan priests - were massacred in the Carmelite house in Paris on 2 September 1792. They were beatified in 1926.

Born in 1737, John Baptist Triquerie became a conventual Franciscan. He was the chaplain and confessor of the Poor Clare monasteries in three cities before being arrested for refusing to take the oath. He and 13 diocesan priests were martyred in Laval on January 21, 1794. He was beatified in 1955.

Reflection
"Freedom, equality, fraternity" was the motto of the French Revolution. If individuals have "inalienable rights", as the Declaration of Independence states, they must not come from society's agreement - which can be very fragile - but directly from God. Do we believe it? Do we act accordingly?