Marie Durand: The Survivor in the Tower

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:22]Marie Duro was not by profession a preacher, teacher, linguist or scholar.

[00:00:27]Yet she survived immense persecution over an extended period of time that some would say was harder than enduring the martrus flames in death. She was imprisoned in this tower here behind me for 38 years. And though she had opportunities to recant and though she observed other women [music] recant and then leave, she refused to famously engraving the words resist into stone in the tower. In order to understand her trials correctly, it's important to understand the context of Protestantism in France in the 1700s.

[00:01:06]In the 1500s, there was significant tension and persecution of Protestants with events such as the St. Bartholomew's massacre. But in 1598, the edict of Nance was signed into law giving Protestants freedom to worship.

[00:01:19]However, with the stroke of a pen, the revocation of the edict of Naz was signed in 1685, [music] causing many Protestants or Hugenos to flee the country. But the Duran family decided to stay. It was illegal to attend a worship service, own a Bible, or be a Protestant minister. And it is in this context that Pierre became a preacher. In 1719, at a secret worship service, when the king's guard came and raided, Pierre managed to escape.

[00:01:47]Marie's father, Etien, also escaped, grabbing her in the process. But their mother, Claudine, sadly was never seen again.

[00:02:02]In 1524, despite the king outlawing ordination on punishment of death, Pierre was ordained to the gospel ministry and immediately became a wanted man with a huge bounty on his head. And when the king's man Laz couldn't capture him, he turned his attention to his family. [music] In 1729, Marie's father was arrested, but she managed to escape.

[00:02:24]And a few months later, she would marry Matthew Seir, a man in his late 30s, almost 20 years her senior. In 1730, Marie was tracked down and arrested. And some historical sources suggest that she would have deliberately revealed her family name as Durro in order to be [music] arrested as she would have assumed her husband's name after marriage.

[00:02:52]Marie was taken here to the Tower of Const which was a women's prison specifically set apart for hugeno women.

[00:02:58]And as she entered the prison, she signed her name, Marie Duro, on the prison role. Entering, she would have faced an inscription from Dante's inferno, all hope abandoned. Ye who enter here. Marie would never see her father, her brother, or her husband again. Her father was released from prison in 1743 around the age of 80 years old. Her husband was released in 1750 after being in prison for 20 years.

[00:03:26]and her brother was sadly martyed in Melier in 1732.

[00:03:36][music] Marie organized worship services here in the tower to encourage the women. And although correspondence to and from the women was officially forbidden, she found a way to circumvent the system and corresponded with a few women, including her niece Anna. A few of the notable women that she ministered to in the prison included Isabel Manet, who came here with a three-month-old son. Yet, six years later, when her husband died, her now six-year-old son was taken from her. In 1739, Hugenos who had been exiled to England sent some charitable aid, including food, soap, clothing, and thread.

[00:04:22]In the summer months, the heat and humidity would have been unbearable. In the winter months, the cold winds would have blown through. The food came up through a hole in the center of the circular room, and the human waste went down through the same hole. The desperate conditions here in the prison wore down many of the women. And from time to time, when they had the opportunity to recant, many of them chose that path. Yet, Marie continued to resist. By 1762, there were only 16 women left here in the prison. And despite visits from many French officials of high rank and then pleading with the king for their release after being appalled at the conditions, he repeatedly refused to do so. Marie was finally discharged through the agency of the letter of grace on the 14th of April 1768 after being a prisoner for her faith for 38 years.

[00:05:21]After her release, she returned here to her childhood home in Labouche. Her niece and her friend Anne Goute, who had been released just before her, were waiting here for her on her arrival.

[00:05:31]Together, these three women [music] eaked out an existence here in the quietness of the countryside. The Woo Church in Amsterdam gave her a pension of 200 leaves per month, which she generously shared with a neighbor of hers, an elderly 73-year-old man who himself had survived the GS, returned home, and had no income.

[00:05:56]Marie died in September 1776. And though no statue honors her life, [music] her steadfast resilience and faithfulness to the Lord is inspiring. Though you may not be a religious leader, an academic scholar, and your lot in life may be humble, your quiet faithfulness can inspire others and future generations.

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