Liberté, égalité, fraternité

Why did Father O’Toole invite three French nuns to set up a convent in the Staffordshire village of Haunton, in 1904?

No, it’s not the opening line of a seedy 1970s gag, it was a genuine question I asked myself when researching for my January feature.

I wanted to learn more, and was surprised to discover the nuns were escaping persecution due to their Catholic faith.

Wind the clock back four hundred years or more; the French population was staunchly Catholic, and by contrast, the Protestants struggled with legitimacy and were excluded from holding public office. But along came the Wars of Religion that saw a change in fortunes, and suddenly the Catholic Church was the villain. There followed the confiscation and destruction of much of their land and property, which is probably why France was left alone during the Reformation, because they had already removed everything from the Catholic Church, including its authority.

But despite this persecution, it was around September 1655 that Louis XIV confirmed there could be a religious establishment in Le Puy, Velay, France, and the bishop, the Right Rev Henri de Maupas, ordered they should be called The Congregation of The Sisters of St Joseph, and they were put in charge of a girls’ orphanage and teaching children.

And so, their story begins.

There were endless wars taking place on mainland Europe, predominantly between France and Spain. But it was the American War of Independence (1775-1783), that really inspired the French revolutionary spirit, and there were soon hordes of Frenchmen heading over the ocean to join the soldiers who were fighting against British rule.

It was the crippling cost of this war, combined with the personal extravagance of King Louis XVI, that put France on the brink of bankruptcy, and by June 1789 the French government had collapsed, followed by the famous storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. But this wasn’t just anti-royalist fever, there was also a growing dislike of the Catholic Church.

France’s brutal ‘Reign of Terror’ in June 1793 saw some 17,000 people executed without trial and a further 10,000 died in prison. This indiscriminate massacre included many Catholic nuns who refused to take the oath under the new Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

There was a slight let-up when the law was relaxed, but the general distrust and resentment towards the Catholic Church continued throughout the 19th century. Napoleon’s Concordat of 1801 at least helped calm things down between the state and the Catholic Church, and that lasted around one hundred years.

But the French people wanted a secular form of government, free from royalist or religious entanglements. The 1901 Law of Associations led to Catholic teaching being replaced with state education, paving the way to the repeal of the Concordat and the passing of the Law of Separation of Church and State.

Once again, churches and other religious buildings were closed, land confiscated, Catholic schools were taken over by the state, and all funding ceased.

And this is why, in 1904, when Father O’Toole was looking for help at his newly created parish of Haunton, the Archbishop of Illsley suggested he contact The Sisters of St Joseph of Bordeaux; and it was on 3 May 1905 that the three French Sisters arrived to teach at the village school.

Haunton Hall became St Joseph’s Convent School for Girls and continued until its closure in 1987, then in 1989, the Hall became a care home. I have tried to contact staff and others who I hoped would have some stories to share, but without success.

France’s secularisation was and still is intended to protect the right to freedom of conscience, requiring the state to remain neutral. It is a lofty ambition to combine neutrality, religion and politics. Can that utopia ever exist?

“If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow”

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

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