Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Desecration of St. Denis (Encore)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone, this is Gary. Just wanted to let you know that I've been running encore episodes the last few days because I've been moving, and that has required disassembling and reassembling my podcast studio. Things are almost back to normal, and I should have brand new episodes for you tomorrow. The French Revolution was one of the most significant events in history. It wasn't just a political revolution where one government replaced another. It was also a social revolution where the revolutionaries attempted to upend the entire foundation of French society. But it wasn't just enough to change France. There were also efforts to obliterate France's past. Learn more about the desecration at San Deney and the purposeful attempt to destroy French history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Fear is the virus is trending on TikTok. Vaccines are poison.

Starting point is 00:01:06 Then your yoga teacher says that sex traffic children are being sacrificed by satanic liberals, but it's all okay. The Great Awakening is coming. What is happening? Every week on Conspiratuality Podcast, we explore the fever dreams that suck friends, family, and wellness gurus down the right-wing cult spiral in a search for salvation. The desecration at San Deney was a rather bizarre and creepy moment in the history of the French Republic.

Starting point is 00:01:42 And to understand why it happened and its importance, there are a few things we need to know beforehand. And the first concerns the Basilica of San Deney itself and its importance and French history. And for the record, I will be using the French pronunciation of San Deney for the rest of the episode, not the English Saint Denis. San Deney is a community located in the northern suburbs of Paris, about 9.4 kilometers or 5.8 miles from the city center. And it's named after San Dene, who was believed to be the first bishop of Paris, who was buried at the location which now bears his name. The Pope supposedly sent San Dene in the third century to convert the Parisi tribe

Starting point is 00:02:21 who lived in what is today Paris, and the Romans executed him. And according to legend, he was decapitated and then picked up his head and walked several miles, all while his severed head gave a sermon on repentance until he arrived at his burial site. Today he's considered to be one of the patron saints of France. An abbey was eventually established at the site of the tomb of Sandini. The abbey of San Deney became an important center of French christendom, the Frankish king Degabert I ordered the remains of Sandinie to be reinterred in a new basilica that he had ordered built. Because of its proximity to Paris, and its relation to one of the

Starting point is 00:02:59 most important saints in French history, it became associated with the French monarchy. In fact, ever since the Frankish king, Clovis I first, was buried there in the year 511, it became the burial site for almost every king of France. until the 19th century, every French monarchs, save for five, were buried in Sandini. San Deney was on a par with the cathedral at Rems, which was used for the coronation of French monarchs in importance. And just as an aside, in the year 1144, the choir of the church was reconstructed with what were at the time very modern architectural techniques. And it's considered to be the very first example of Gothic architecture. So if you wanted to make a comparison, the Basilica of

Starting point is 00:03:46 San D.Ni was similar to Westminster Abbey in London or Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The second bit of background information you need to know has to do with the nature of the French Revolution. The American Revolution and the French Revolution are often linked in history because they occurred close together, and they did have some things in common. However, the two revolutions were profoundly different. The Americans simply wanted the British out so that they could rule themselves. The French Revolution was about completely reshaping French society and centuries of French civilization. In perhaps the most famous episode of the French Revolution, the decision was made to execute King Louis XVI and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The execution of Louis XVIth on January 21st,

Starting point is 00:04:34 1793, by guillotine, was something that shocked the royal courts of Europe. The execution of Antoinette nine months later only made matters worse. And you'd think that having overthrown the king, trying him for treason, and then executing him, the job of the revolutionaries would have been over. However, it was not. Killing the king and establishing a Republican government only changed French politics. There was still the job of completely changing French society and social institutions. In previous episodes, I've touched on the vast social reforms undertaken during the French Revolution.

Starting point is 00:05:12 The revolutionary government tried to change the calendar and implement the equivalent of a secular state religion that worshipped reason. They attempted to abolish the Catholic Church, change the legal system, dismantle the aristocracy, institute land reform, and a host of other social changes. And to be honest, many of these changes were good and necessary. but the revolution also came under the influence of extremists who ushered in what became known as the reign of terror. This episode is about one such instance where the revolution went beyond abolishing the monarchy and attempted to abolish the very memory of monarchy from French history. Because of its historic association with the French monarchy, the Abbey of San Deney was in the crosshairs of the French Revolution,

Starting point is 00:05:58 more so than other properties that happened to have been owned by the Catholic Church. On September 14th, 1792, the monks of the Abbey of San Deney celebrated their last Mass, and on September 15th the next day, the abbey was dissolved. The great Gothic Basilica of San Deney was turned into a grain storage facility, and most of the medieval monastic buildings on the site were demolished. What happened at San Deney at this point was actually not out of ordinary for most church-owned property at the time. San Deney was not the only abbey that was targeted. in France. However, about nine months later, on August 1st, 1793, after the execution of Louis

Starting point is 00:06:39 the 16th, the revolutionary government, known as the National Convention, passed a decree that said, quote, the tombs and mausoleums of the former kings, mounted in the Church of San Dene, in temples and other places across the entire republic, will be destroyed on August 10th, end quote. The formal excuse used by the National Convention was to retrieve lead used in the caskets of the monarchs. But in reality, August 10th was the one-year anniversary of the storming of Toulouse Palace and the end of the French monarchy. The decree was meant to send a message that the French monarchy was over and all vestiges of the monarchy were to be destroyed. From August 6 to the 8th, they got an early start destroying the funerary monuments of the Merivinian and Carolingian. Lingian kings. Much of this destruction was actually done by professional builders who were hired for

Starting point is 00:07:32 the job and not by a mob. However, the real destruction of the royal tombs was put off until October. We know much of what happened from the accounts of a man named Don Porie, a former monk who lived on the site. The first body that was exhumed was Henri IV, also known as Henry the Great. He died in 1610. His corpse was taken out of his tomb and was in such good condition that it actually was put on display for two days. The stab ruins from where he was assassinated were still clearly visible. The body of Henri IV, however, was the exception. As Porey noted, quote, most of the bodies were decaying. A foul-smelling, thick black vapor was released, which they desperately tried to dispel with vinegar and gunpowder that they had taken the precaution of burning, which did not prevent the work

Starting point is 00:08:23 from feeling unwell and feverish, but without consequences. End quote. Louis the 13th body was in an advanced state of decay, but it was noted that his mustache was still jet black. And Louis XIV, the man named the Sun King, who had reigned for 72 years, had turned totally black since he had been interred in 1715. I don't want to get into the details of the state of decay

Starting point is 00:08:47 of every single monarch who was exhumed, but suffice to say that it was a very macawful, and disturbing sight for those who witnessed it. Each of the tombs was stripped of anything of value that may have been buried with the kings, and this includes all gems and gold jewelry. The lead that lined their tombs was collected to be used as ammunition for the French army. In total, 46 kings, 32 queens, their children and other notable people, 170 in total, had their tombs open and their bodies exhumed.

Starting point is 00:09:20 All of them were unceremoniously dissembed. dumped into two trenches that were dug outside the church. One trench was for everyone in the Valois dynasty, and the other was for everyone in the Bourbon dynasty. There was a great crowd that had assembled to witness the burial of all these kings, and it was reported that many people took body parts as souvenirs, including supposedly an entire leg of Catherine de Medici. Layers of lime were thrown down on the layers of corpses to try to keep the smell down, but that was about it. all of the bodies were buried without any respect or dignity. The next year, the lead tiles of the roof of the church were removed, which exposed the interior

Starting point is 00:10:01 of the building to the elements. Despite what happened, the significance of San Deney was never forgotten. The French Republic eventually became the French Empire under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, and Napoleon planned for his tomb to be at San Dene, where all the previous French monarchs had been buried. The church was repaired and reconsecrated in 1806 just 13 years after it had been defiled. Napoleon ended up dying in exile on the island of St. Helena, so he was never buried there, but other French monarchs were. Louis XVIth, who had been executed by the revolutionary government,

Starting point is 00:10:38 had his ashes interred there. And in 1813, a massive renovation took place in the church to restore it to its former glory. However, it wasn't until 1817 that all of the remains, that had been tossed into a mass grave back in 1793 were exhumed. However, after 24 years in the soil, in addition to the decades or centuries of decay before that, it was now impossible to identify any of the remains, which were now mostly just bones. All of the bones were placed into an ushery in the church with the names of all those whose tombs had been defiled. Today, the Basilica of San Deney is also a cathedral that is open to the public to visit. There were a few monuments inside the church that weren't destroyed, but for the most part,

Starting point is 00:11:23 the church lost much of the splendor that had held during its heyday. The desecration at San Deney was one of the oddest and most disturbing aspects of the French Revolution. Even many of the supporters of the revolution in France were uneasy with what happened at San Deney. Many countries have removed their monarchs from power, but no other country has taken such extreme measures to destroy the history and the very body. of the kings and queens that came before them. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer.

Starting point is 00:12:01 My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. That's where everything happens that's outside the podcast. And links to those are available in the show notes. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups, You too can have it read in the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Desecration of St. Denis (Encore)

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.