Marie Durand: Righteous Resistance Season 1 | Episode 44
'Register', the French word for 'resist'
is scratched into the rim of a refuse hole in the tower of Constance.
Tradition ascribed the etching of this slogan to Marie Durand,
the most famous prisoner at the time that the slogan appeared.
Marie's brother was a Huguenot pastor and he held worship services in his home
and for this reason she was snatched from her home as a recently married teenager
and thrown into prison in the year 1730.
Marie's brother Pierre was killed by gunshot soon after,
but her life would turn out very differently.
[music]
She was held behind a large door inscribed with the words,
'All hope abandon ye who enter here',
in a large circular stone prison.
There was a six-foot circular hole in the ceiling
that let in precious little light and air
as well as snow and rain, depending on the season.
Food came in via a similar hole in the floor.
Cold, wet, humid, and damp,
the women suffered here for nearly 40 years in misery, infection, and tears.
[music]
Marie was only young when she was taken a prisoner,
but because of her education she became a leader
and was able to act as an agent for the women.
For 38 years, until 1768, she led them in singing and prayer
through the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter.
Marie was always trying to better their condition,
tirelessly petitioning until she was finally able
to get every woman granted the book of Psalms.
[music]
Though unjustly imprisoned,
Marie sought to make the best of her situation
and that of the other women she was sentenced to live with.
There was another woman whose story is perhaps sadder than Marie's.
A young girl at the age of 8 imprisoned for 40 years
because her mother took her to a Protestant church service.
[music]
Such cruel punishments are not of God.
To take away someone's liberty because you disagree with their beliefs
is not Christian nor representative of Jesus.
One can only imagine the despair and hopelessness
that these women suffered right here in this room
as year after year, decade after decade
they lived in such pitiful conditions with no hope of release.
[music]
The women were eventually released.
Marie was an old woman, having spent her best years in prison.
Her family home here in the mountains became a Huguenot monument,
a testimony to religious steadfastness
in the face of unjust ecclesiastical and royal oppression.
Marie was just an ordinary woman.
She did not write a thesis on theology nor did she preach any sermons.
She did not willingly seek out trouble
nor did she stand before councils to defend her faith
as many others we have talked about did.
She was unjustly imprisoned yet remained steadfast,
preserving her faith in the face of terrible injustice and oppression.
[music]
I find her story moving and inspiring.
We never know when in the course of the normal affairs of life
we might be called upon to exercise a faith that we don't think we have
and show courage to those around us.
The song says, 'Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their winds of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain
Will you anchor drift or firm remain?'
The answer lies in the chorus.
'We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm in deep in the Saviour's love.
We often sing this song when things in life are going so smoothly,
but if and when the waves come, may our anchor hold.