Thousands remember the faith of the Huguenots

A small town in the region of the Cévennes mountains (Southern France) is the meeting place for thousands of Protestants and evangelical Christians who celebrate their historical identity every year.

On Sunday 4^th September, 8,000 met to recall the persecution of the first French Protestants after the Reformation.

THE MEANING OF “DESERT”

The word ‘Desert’ defines the time between the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1598 - which had granted some rights for Protestant Christians - and the French Revolution in 1789 – which knocked down the absolutist monarchy.

For two centuries, the Huguenots were fiercely persecuted and any Protestant worship and literature was prohibited. Nevertheless, believers continued to meet clandestinely.

The 2016 meeting. / France 3

Risking their lives, whole families met regularly in the “assemblies of the desert”, in caves and forests, to listen to the Word of God and worship together.

Many of these Huguenot families read their bibles in a family context. Young preachers travelled to Geneva (Switzerland) to learn theology under the protection of Jean Calvin and the Swiss Protestant authorities, and then came back to spread the faith.

A GATHERING TO REFLECT ON THE PROTESTANT IDENTITY

The Desert museum.

For more than a century, French Protestants gather again in Mialet (Cévennes mountains) to honour the memory of their “spiritual ancestors” and reflect on how the resistance of the Huguenots in the 17^th and 18^th century inspires their witness an social action nowadays.

One of the conferences this year reflected on how Christians should better engage with refugees.

This yearly meeting takes place in a forest area next to the Desert Museum.