• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / From the World / Testimonies Global

France: Protesters Set on Fire a Historical Convent—Only Three Lines in the Media

04/18/2023Willy Fautré |

During the pension reform protests, radical demonstrators in Rennes tried to set on fire the Convent of the Jacobins together with a police station.

by Willy Fautré

The attack against the Convent of the Jacobins. From Twitter.
The attack against the Convent of the Jacobins. From Twitter.

On 14 April, in the city of Rennes, radical anti-Macron protestors from the extreme-left, who oppose the new law fixing the retirement age at 64, started a fire at the historical Convent of the Jacobins, converted into a congress hall, and did the same at a police station that was empty at that time. The French media outlets only devoted a few lines to this act of violence targeting a 14th-century Catholic building.

Considerable damage was also caused to shops in the centre of the city.

Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin strongly condemned these outbursts on Twitter. “The damage and attacks tonight in Rennes, against a police station and the Convent of Jacobins, by thugs determined to fight are unacceptable.” He promised “full support to the police and gendarmes mobilized,” adding that “the perpetrators will be prosecuted.”

The union of officers and police commissioners also reacted to the damages at the police station deemed “lamentable.” “Here is a police office in Rennes intended to welcome our fellow citizens that is going up in smoke. Why? This action of activists discredits the fight against the pension reform,” said the unionists.

Following these fires, an investigation was opened for “damage by dangerous means and criminal association.” Three people have been taken into custody. We will see what will be the final outcome of the prosecution—if any.

The convent is a foundation of the Order of Preachers, better known as Dominicans or (in France) Jacobins. The originality of this new order, created in 1215, lied in its location in the heart of the cities. 

The first stone of the convent was laid on February 2, 1369, in the presence of the Duke of Brittany and built on the land of two generous donors, Pierre Rouxel and his wife. Its construction marked the beginning of an important spiritual, intellectual, and political revival in the history of the city and of Brittany. The work was rather slow because it was only based on donations from the faithful. To accelerate the undertaking, Duke John IV of Brittany gave his financial support and became the official founder.

The convent of Jacobins quickly became the place of an important pilgrimage, thanks to the devotion given to the image of the Virgin of Good News.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the importance of the Jacobin convent was not only linked to the worship of Our Lady of Good News, but also to its intellectual influence, which led to an increasing number of religious vocations. Theology was the primary subject taught here, which could be supplemented by philosophy, canon law, and the Holy Scripture.

The teaching was based on the important library of the convent: there were more than 5,000 printed books (a part of which is now kept by the library of Rennes Métropole). Just before the Revolution, some of the friars adhered to the new ideas of Freemasonry. Of the twenty or so Dominicans remaining in the convent in the 1770s, at least five were active in the “Parfaite Union” Masonic lodge.

Rennes’ Convent of the Jacobins (photo taken before the attack). Credits. 
Rennes’ Convent of the Jacobins (photo taken before the attack). Credits. 

At the Revolution, all religious properties were seized and became state property. Many of them were dismantled and sold as national assets. However, the convent buildings did not find a buyer. In 1793, the convent was assigned to the army and adapted to serve as military stores. Until the 1980s, the convent was the headquarters of the army’s sports associations; it also housed equipment and certain archives of the Ministry of Defense. The convent was listed in the supplementary inventory of historical monuments in September 1986. It was classified as a historical monument in May 1991. In 2002, it became the property of Rennes Métropole, which transformed it into a Congress Hall in 2018.

Tagged With: Catholic Church, France

willy_fautré
Willy Fautré

Willy Fautré, former chargé de mission at the Cabinet of the Belgian Ministry of Education and at the Belgian Parliament. He is the director of Human Rights Without Frontiers, an NGO based in Brussels that he founded in 1988. His organization defends human rights in general but also the rights of persons belonging to historical religions, non-traditional and new religious movements. It is apolitical and independent from any religion.
He has carried out fact-finding missions on human rights and religious freedom in more than 25 countries He is a lecturer in universities in the field of religious freedom and human rights. He has published many articles in university journals about relations between state and religions. He organizes conferences at the European Parliament, including on freedom of religion or belief in China. For years, he has developed religious freedom advocacy in European institutions, at the OSCE and at the UN.

Related articles

  • MIVILUDES, from Tragedy to Farce: Bailiff Compels Georges Fenech to Pay His Debts to Scientology

    MIVILUDES, from Tragedy to Farce: Bailiff Compels Georges Fenech to Pay His Debts to Scientology

  • L’anti-sectarisme à la mode de Caen : Pour éviter un procès, la MIVILUDES s’exécute face à la Scientology

    L’anti-sectarisme à la mode de Caen : Pour éviter un procès, la MIVILUDES s’exécute face à la Scientology

  • Another Scandal: France’s Cultural (and Anti-Cult) Diplomacy Is Financed by the Chinese Communist Party

    Another Scandal: France’s Cultural (and Anti-Cult) Diplomacy Is Financed by the Chinese Communist Party

  • Loup Blanc. 3. Tantra et sexualité

    Loup Blanc. 3. Tantra et sexualité

Keep Reading

  • Vandalism Against Catholic Churches on the Rise in Bavaria
    Vandalism Against Catholic Churches on the Rise in Bavaria

    The number of cases went from 271 in 2021 to 294 in 2022. They should not be dismissed lightly.

  • Trial for the Dissolution of the FECRIS: The Anti-Cultists Lose the First Round
    Trial for the Dissolution of the FECRIS: The Anti-Cultists Lose the First Round

    On May 15, the Court of Marseille rejected FECRIS’s motion to dismiss, and sentenced the anti-cult organization to pay the corresponding expenses.

  • Trappist Nun Monastery Confiscated by the Regime in Nicaragua
    Trappist Nun Monastery Confiscated by the Regime in Nicaragua

    The sisters left the convent after having been assured that they could transfer their property to the diocese. But the government seized the building.

  • France: Raelians Told that a “Cult” Cannot Rent a Room in an Accor Hotel
    France: Raelians Told that a “Cult” Cannot Rent a Room in an Accor Hotel

    Theoretically, the infamous 1995 “list of cults” is no longer in force. However, it is still used to discriminate against the movements that were included.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Sinicization of Christianity Comes to Hong Kong by Gladys Kwok
  • The Last Words of a Uyghur Father: A Son’s Memory by Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
  • China: Theological Seminaries Inspected to Check How “Sinicized” They Are by Zhang Chunhua
  • Occupied Ukraine: Anti-Cult “Experts” Target Moscow Patriarchate Dissident Priest by Massimo Introvigne
  • France, Sonia Backès Caught Red-Handed Again: A “Religious Profiling” of Muslim Students in Schools by Massimo Introvigne
  • Russia: Anti-Cultists Laughably Accuse Ukraine of Operating “Telephone Cults” by Massimo Introvigne
  • Freedom of the Press and Religious Liberty: Two Sides of The Same Coin by Peter Zoehrer

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY