“This wall against which a great number of priests were killed, and still stained with the blood of the martyrs, has been transported here to be offered for the veneration of the faithful.”

I’m on the Chrism Press blog today talking about the Holy September Martyrs, to whom my forthcoming novel To Crown with Liberty is dedicated.

Like most of my saint friends, the Holy September Martyrs found me, rather than the other way around. When I started work on a novel set during the French Revolution, I had never heard of them. I had heard of the more famous Carmelites of Compiègne, whose martyrdom is often credited with ending the Reign of Terror, and I considered writing the book to somehow include or culminate in their martyrdom on the guillotine. But as I did my research, another group of martyrs nudged me and said, “No. Not the end of the Terror. The beginning.”

You can read the full article here.