Marie Durand: Righteous Resistance

Registe, the French word for resist, is scratched into the rim of a refuse hole in the tower of Constance. Tradition ascribes the etching of this slogan to Marie Durant, the most famous prisoner at the time that the 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 gunshots soon after, but her life would turn out very different.

She was held behind a large door inscribed with the words all hope abandoned. 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.

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.

Though unjustly imprisoned, Marie sought to make the best of her situation and that of the other woman she was sentenced to live with. There was another woman whose story is perhaps sad of the Marie's a young girl at the age of 8, imprisoned for 40 years because her mother took her to a Protestant church service.

Such cruel punishments are not of God. To take away someone's liberty because you disagree with their beliefs is not Christian or 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.

The women were eventually released. Marie was an old woman, having spent her best days 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.

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 your 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 and deep in the Savior'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.

Sam.