Bienheureux André Grasset de Saint-Sauveur
Canadien, martyr de la Révolution française (+1792)
André Grasset de Saint-Sauveur (1758-1792), né à Montréal, martyr québécois de la Révolution française, béatifié le 17 octobre 1926.
Le 2 septembre 1792, au cours d'un simulacre de procès, chacun des 92 prêtres et des 3 évêques prisonniers des Carmes doit répondre à la question: "Avez-vous prêté le serment à la Constitution civile du clergé?" Suite à la réponse négative de l'inculpé qui répond: "Ma conscience me le défend", celui-ci est jeté au bas du petit perron qui donne dans le jardin où l'attendent des sbires avec baïonnettes, sabres et piques jusqu'à ce qu'il ait rendu le dernier soupir.
Quand, en 1927, les Sulpiciens québécois décidèrent de fonder un externat classique au nord de Montréal pour répondre au développement de la métropole, ils pensèrent tout naturellement à donner le nom d'André Grasset à cet établissement scolaire afin d'offrir à la jeunesse d'ici, venue s'abreuver au savoir supérieur, un modèle de dépassement issu du terroir. Le bienheureux André de Montréal a préféré la société des prêtres en août 1792, plutôt que de vivre à Paris avec son père et sa mère et échapper ainsi aux assassins. En septembre 1792, il a préféré la mort à l'apostasie. Ces deux choix successifs témoignent de sa fidélité à la promesse du baptême. Rappelons qu'André Grasset est le premier Canadien de naissance à être élevé sur les autels.
Un autel dédié aux martyrs de la Révolution française et notamment à l'un d'eux, André Grasset de Montréal, se trouve dans la chapelle vitrée du Saint-Sacrement, à l'entrée de la basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal.
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/12433/Bienheureux-Andre-Grasset-de-Saint-Sauveur.html
Bienheureux André Grasset
André Grasset nait à Montréal le 3 avril 1758. Son
père, originaire de Montpellier (France), devenu secrétaire général des
Colonies, était arrivé au Canada en 1749. Après la mort de sa première femme,
il avait épousé la fille d’un riche marchand, avec qui il avait eu cinq fils
dont André, le deuxième. Ils habitent tout près de la chapelle du Bon Secours.
Après la signature du traité de Paris, le 10 février
1763, M. Grasset vend sa propriété et repart en France avec toute sa famille.
André a six ans. Son père l’inscrit au collège Sainte-Barbe à Paris où il
termine ses études classiques avant de s’orienter vers la sacerdoce.
L’archevêque de Sens remarque vite ses qualités et sa grande piété et le nomme
chanoine de sa cathédrale. Deux ans plus tard, en 1783, il est ordonné prêtre.
En 1789, au moment où éclate la Révolution française,
André a 31 ans. En 1790, l’Assemblée nationale constituante supprime les
chapitres des cathédrales et, en 1791, demande à tous les membres du clergé de
souscrire à la « Constitution civile du clergé ». André se réfugie chez les
Pères Eudistes de Paris, dans leur maison des Tourettes. C’est là qu’il est
saisi, en août 1792, pour être conduit prisonnier au couvent des Carmes,
l’actuel Institut catholique de Paris.
Le 2 septembre 1792, au cours d’un simulacre de
procès, chacun des 92 prêtres et des 3 évêques prisonniers des Carmes doit
répondre à la question: « Avez-vous prêté le serment à la Constitution civile
du clergé? ». Suite à la réponse négative de l’inculpé qui répond: « Ma
conscience me le défend », celui-ci est jeté au bas du petit perron qui donne
dans le jardin où l’attendent des sbires avec baïonnettes, sabres et piques
jusqu’à ce qu’il ait rendu le dernier soupir. Le pape Pie XI le béatifie avec
les autres Martyrs de Septembre, le 17 octobre 1926.
André Grasset est le premier Canadien de naissance à
être élevé sur les autels.
SOURCE : https://crc-canada.org/biographies/bienheureux-andre-grasset/
Blessed André
Grasset de Saint-Sauveur
Profile
Immigrant from Canada to France where
he served as a priest in
the archdiocese of Sens and canon of
the cathedral there.
During the persecutions of
the French
Revolution, he was arrested and murdered for
refusing to take an oath of allegiance to civil constitution. One of the Martyrs
of September.
Born
5
April 1758 in Montréal, Quebec, Canada
martyred on 2
September 1792 at
the Hôtel des Carmes, Paris, France
1
October 1926 by Pope Pius
XI (decree of martyrdom)
17
October 1926 by Pope Pius
XI
Additional
Information
books
Book of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
video
fonti
in italiano
MLA
Citation
“Blessed André Grasset de
Saint-Sauveur“. CatholicSaints.Info. 11 December 2019. Web. 3 September
2022. <https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-andre-grasset-de-saint-sauveur/>
SOURCE https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-andre-grasset-de-saint-sauveur/
Blessed André Grasset
André Grasset was born in
Montreal on April 3, 1758. His father was French, from Montpellier, and had
arrived in Canada in 1749, when appointed secretary of the new governor general
of New France. After the death of his first wife, he married the daughter of a
rich merchant, with whom he had five children. André was the second. They lived
close to the Chapel of Bon Secours.
After the Treaty of
Paris, on February 10, 1763, Mr Grasset decides to sell his property and to
return to France. André is six years old. He is sent, together with his
brothers, to the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris where he finishes his classical
studies, before going on to preparing for priesthood. His bishop recognizes his
qualities and piety and appoints him as canon of the Cathedral. Two years
later, in 1783, he is ordained priest.
When the French
Revolution begins, in 1789, André is 31 years old. In 1790 the National
Constituent Assembly suppresses the Cathedral Chapters and, in 1791, obliges
all members of clergy to sign the “Constitution civile du clergé”. André finds
refuge with the Eudist Fathers in Tourettes, Paris. Here, in 1792, he is
captured and made prisoner in the Carmelite convent, where today is the
Institut Catholique de Paris.
On September 2, 1792,
together with other 92 priests and 3 bishops he is asked to answer the
question: “Have you signed the Constitution civile du clergé?” By answering
“no, my conscience forbids me to do so”, he is thrown down in the garden where
guards, with bayonets, swords and spikes, kill him. The pope Pius XI beatified
him, together with the other Martyrs of September, on October 17, 1926. André
Grasset is the first Canadian to be beatified.
SOURCE : https://crc-canada.org/en/biographies/bienheureux-andre-grasset/
Blessed André Grasset
André Grasset was born in Montreal on April 3, 1758.
His father was French, from Montpellier, and had arrived in Canada in 1749,
when appointed secretary of the new governor general of New France. After the
death of his first wife, he married the daughter of a rich merchant, with whom
he had five children. André was the second. They lived close to the Chapel of
Bon Secours.
After the Treaty of Paris, on February 10, 1763, Mr
Grasset decides to sell his property and to return to France. André is six
years old. He is sent, together with his brothers, to the Collège Sainte-Barbe
in Paris where he finishes his classical studies, before going on to preparing
for priesthood. His bishop recognizes his qualities and piety and appoints him
as canon of the Cathedral. Two years later, in 1783, he is ordained priest.
When the French Revolution begins, in 1789, André is
31 years old. In 1790 the National Constituent Assembly suppresses the
Cathedral Chapters and, in 1791, obliges all members of clergy to sign the
“Constitution civile du clergé”. André finds refuge with the Eudist Fathers in
Tourettes, Paris.
Here, in 1792, he is captured and made prisoner in the
Carmelite convent, where today is the Institut Catholique de Paris. On
September 2, 1792, together with other 92 priests and 3 bishops he is asked to
answer the question: “Have you signed the Constitution civile du clergé?” By
answering “no, my conscience forbids me to do so”, he is thrown down in the
garden where guards, with bayonets, swords and spikes, kill him. The pope Pius
XI beatified him, together with the other Martyrs of September, on October 17,
1926.
André Grasset is the first Canadian to be beatified.
SOURCE : https://diocesemontreal.org/en/node/3964
Second Draft: In revolutionary France, Montreal-born
André Grasset was martyred for his faith
Montreal CEGEP bears the name of a priest who was
murdered for refusing to deny the authority of the pope.
Author of the article:
John Kalbfleisch • Special to
the Montreal Gazette
Publishing date:
Sep 02, 2016
Mention Canadian martyrs of the Catholic Church, and
the eight Jesuit missionaries slain by Iroquois in the mid-17th century
immediately come to mind. But they were not the only clerics with ties to this
country to die for their faith.
In 1789, the Bastille prison in Paris fell; the French
revolution was underway. Two years later, as part of a radical and violent
remaking of society, a law called the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was
passed. In effect, it demanded that the clergy of France deny the authority of
the pope and become priests in an independent national church.
A young priest named André Grasset de Saint-Sauveur
was among hundreds who rejected this demand, and it cost him his life.
André Grasset was born in 1758 in a house overlooking
Montreal’s old marketplace, today’s Place Royale. After the Treaty of Paris
formalized the fall of New France five years later, his father returned with
his family to the mother country. There, young André received a sound education
and eventually entered holy orders in the town of Sens, not far from Paris,
where his father had settled.
Few chose allegiance to the Civil Constitution of the
Clergy. France then had about 130 bishops, of whom only five took the
revolutionary oath. Most priests, especially in rural areas, held to their
faith as well, though in Paris they were in the minority and thus more exposed
to victimizing by the mob.
Early in 1792, Canon Grasset retreated with some 60
other so-called refractory priests to the Paris residence of the Eudist fathers,
the Maison des Tourettes. They were under no illusions they’d be safe from the
revolution’s fury; it was a haven simply for reflection and prayer.
In August, fears of a foreign invasion aiming to
restore the just-deposed monarchy began to sweep Paris. The clergy, as well as
inmates in the city’s jails, were seen as a potential fifth column. And so it
was that late that month Grasset and his comrades were arrested and conveyed to
the convent of the Carmelites, by then a prison.
All told, 92 priests and three bishops were locked up
there, and in the first week of September the terror began.
Each of the clergymen was subject to a swift and
farcical trial. To call it justice would have been far wide of the mark.
Each was asked, “Have you taken the oath to the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy?” Each replied, one way or another, “My conscience
forbids me to do so.”
With no more ado, each was roughly manhandled through
the door and shoved down stone stairs to a garden below. There, a gang of thugs
set to work with knives, swords and pikes. Afterward, the bodies were dumped
into the garden’s well or in ditches elsewhere in Paris.
During five days of bloodletting in Paris, as many as
1,400 people were murdered, among them Grasset and another 190 clerics. In
1926, Pope Pius XI beatified them as the Blessed Martyrs of September 1792.
André Grasset was the first person born in Canada so to be blessed.
In Montreal, he is commemorated in Collège
André-Grasset, a post-secondary institution on Crémazie Blvd. founded by the
Sulpician order in the year following his beatification. And, in the Chapel of
the Blessed Sacrament in Notre Dame Basilica, the altar is dedicated to the
martyrs of the revolution including, of course, André Grasset.
In the basilica, there is also a stained-glass window
bearing Grasset’s image as well as vignettes of churches important in his life.
One vignette shows the old Notre Dame Church, the predecessor of today’s
basilica, that stood more or less in the middle of Place d’Armes. It was there
that he was baptized into the faith that, 34 years later, he would value more
than life itself.
Beato Andrea Grasset de
Saint-Sauveur Sacerdote e martire
>>>
Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
Montréal, Canada, 3
aprile 1758 - Parigi, 2 settembre 1792
Tra la folta schiera di
ecclesiastici che durante la Rivoluzione Francese persero la vita nelle Stragi
di Settembre del 1792 troviamo anche degli stranieri: oltre allo svizzero
Apollinare da Posat, padre cappuccino, vi è anche il canadese Andrea Grasset de
Saint-Sauver.
Nato a Montréal il 3
aprile 1758, si trasferì in Francia, ove divenne canonico della cattedrale di
Sens. Allo scoppio della Rivoluzione, trovò rifugio presso gli Eudisti di
Parigi. Al rifiuto di sposare le teorie rivoluzionarie in materia
ecclesiastica, volte a disconoscere l’autorità pontificia sulla Chiesa
gallicana, i religiosi vennero internati presso il convento carmelitano della
città, , il 2 settembre 1792 avenne il massacro di ben 95 martiri in odio alla
loro fede cattolica, capeggiati da tre vescovi, Jean-Marie du Lau d’Alleman ed
i fratelli Francois-Joseph e Pierre-Louis de La Rouchefoucauld-Bayers.
Insieme con altre vittime
della persecuzione religiosa morte in quei giorni a Parigi, per un totale di
191 persone, Andrea Grasset de Saint-Sauver fu dunque beatificato da Papa Pio
XI il 17 ottobre 1926.
Autore: Fabio
Arduino
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/Detailed/93176.html
Voir aussi : https://www.diocese-edmundston.ca/fr/docs/saint_andre_grasset_de_saint-sauveur.pdf
http://collections.banq.qc.ca/bitstream/52327/1986881/1/0000059411.pdf
