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Black Republic of Letters

Note - Georges Picot

Georges Picot (1838-1900) was a French lawyer and historian who served as president of the French Anti-Slavery Society. He was the father of François Georges-Picot, who negotiated the Sykes-Picot agreement through which France and Britain divided the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. Learn more about Georges Picot.

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"The Anti-Slavery Congress at Saint-Sulpice" Translation: The opening ceremony of the free Anti-Slavery Congress was solemnly celebrated on Sunday, 21 September, at the Saint-Sulpice church. The enthusiasm of the Christian community was even greater than could have been expected. From one o'clock, the side aisles, the nave of the church were nearly full; at 2:30, when the vespers began, the holy space was jam packed, and one could not walk around freely.

The whole nave was reserved for invited guests, at the head of whom were the clergy of Paris, the directors of the congregations and charities, and the delegates of the seven major powers represented at the Congress, which were: Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Portugal. Also present were the six delegates of the French Anti-slavery League; Messrs. Jules Simon, Georges Picot, of the Institute, and Lefèvre-Pontalis, the former deputy, for the Committee of High Patronage; Messrs. Keller, the former deputy, the Marquis de Vogüé, the former ambassador, and Baron d'Avril, former minister plenipotentiary.

The entrance of the young Black converts brought by Mgr. Livinhac, bishop and apostolic vicar in the region of Lake Nyanza and who has been called to serve as Mgr. Lavigerie's coadjutor, caused a true sensation. These children went into the choir stalls, having the White Fathers beside them. Mgr. Livinhac officiated.

The papal nuncio, Mgr. Rotelli, made his entrance as the magnificat began. The whole clergy, Mgr Livinhac at its head, went before this representative of the Pope who had come, in solemn procession, up to the dais that had been prepared for him near the choir stalls.

When the vespers concluded, the nuncio, the officiant, and all the bishops in attendance came to sit on the pew that faced the pulpit. Mgr. Rotelli has to his right, Mrg. Livinhac, Mgr. Brincat, the Bishop of Hadrumetum and auxiliary of Mgr. Lavigerie, the Abbot Icard, superior general of the Sulpicians; to his left were Mgr. Fabre, archbishop of Montreal, and Mgr. Combes, bishop of Constantine.

After one hundred and fifty singers artfully performed the Cantata on African slavery, composed by Mr. Bellenot, the choirmaster, His Eminence Cardinal Lavigerie mounted the pulpit. Although sickness and fatigue have left traces on his venerable face, the eminent prelate is still admirable for his vigour and eloquence. With his long almost white beard, he reminds one of the beautiful heads of the patriarchs whose memory has been preserved by tradition.

It was 4:10; the daylight was fading and the church was beginning to illuminate. Along the two stairways that went up to the pulpit, to the left and right of the majestic prelate, six White Fathers stood motionless; while at the edge of the nave packed with a contemplative crowd, spreading out from the dazzling base of the lights of the high altar, were the black silhouettes of the little Africans. The spectacle was gripping for its originality and grandeur.

Recalling, in a few words, the ceremony that had taken place two years earlier in this same church of Saint-Sulpice, where he found his former superior as well as one of his most zealous collaborators, the Cardinal traced the historical contours of the great project to which he had dedicated the last years of his life, and for the triumph of which the Pope did not cease to give his support. He also recalled the Brussels Act through which the powers of Europe a plan of execution to destroy the slave trade in Africa. In the success of his noble task, Mgr. Lavigerie had the more or less unanimous support of the episcopate, and he thanked the diverse press for what they had done for him. Thanks to this support, definitive success is certain, if the powers hold to their resolutions written in the Brussels Act.

The prelate then described the organization of the committee, each of which represents a nation and overseen interests in Africa in the region placed under its dependency. Then, in an eloquent move, he recalled the results he had achieved in the Sahara and the regions of Sudan:
What do I do in these immense regions?

I did what the Church does, the Church that Our Lord made, in his image, as the great Sower. Exiit qui seminat, seminare. I sowed what Christians sow, as our Tertullian said, when they want to assure eternal harvests; I sowed with blood, the blood of my sons, the White Fathers you see at this moment around the pulpit. Six of them, in addition to those who were sacrificed in other regions of Africa, suffered martyrdom under the blows of barbarians and fell blessing their executioners.

How can I forget them today, in this parish of Saint-Sulpice, to which the first of them belonged like you, by his birth, my three dear Brothers, and whence, six years before his martyrdom, he left to come learn among us in the hard life of missionaries.

But that blood of the apostles was not the only blood.

All devotions are united in France for a conquest that we are leaving to Providence: science, charity, even the army have left, for a quarter of a century, in the desert, the traces of their bloody heroism.
In a magnificent peroration, Mrg. Lavigerie solemnly conferred a part of his noble mission on his coadjutor, Mgr. Livinhac.

"As for me" he added,
I will return to my Africa, never to leave again, and I will give to it what God wills to give me in courage for the remaining years, being happy if, not having been able to work any better for the sanctification of the Father's flock that He has surrounded me with for a quarter of a century, it is my lot to fall pursuing the lost flock!
The emotion in the room was profound when the Cardinal descended from the pulpit. Many people knelt as he passed by, imploring his blessing. It was 5:05.

The allocution was followed by the singing of Veni Creator by Saint-Saëns, and by the taking of the Holy Sacrament led by Mgr. Rotelli. Auguez sand Rousseau's O Salutaris, and Vernet, Gounod's Ave Maria; the choir magisterially executed Tantum ergo by. Widor, who played the great organ, and Handel's Alleluia.

It was after 6:30 when the crowd left the church to its calm and silence. This magnificent and imposing ceremony left the deepest impression on all those who attended.

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