Myths surround the story of the French Revolution. Truth has
been obscured by the conventional wisdom of fashionable Marxism. The uprising
in the Vendée in defence of the Catholic faith is dismissed as a
"counter-revolutionary" plot hatched by the nobility and the clergy
afraid of losing their power and status.
In this great epic of heroism, endurance and sacrifice it has been said that the Vendean struggle was a costly failure. It was certainly costly; but not a failure. The peasants fought to restore the King, the Catholic religion, and to avoid service in the revolutionary militia. In the last two they were successful and visibly so. True, they did not immediately restore the King, but the monarchy returned in due course. That it did not remain long was no fault of the Vendeans.
The great success of Catholic missionaries in the following century grew in part out of the memory of the witness given by the brave Vendean peasants. It remains a story to confound today's atheists and to nourish the spirits of Christians everywhere.
http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/1996/jul1996p12_799.html
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