Lecture: ‘Normandy parish priests in the Resistance’ by Alain Delalande and Father Pascal Marie

Join us on Wednesday 25 November at the Falaise Memorial for a new talk organised as part of the ‘Mercredis de l’Histoire’ series.

On the programme: ‘Norman parish priests in the Resistance’ by Alain Delalande and Father Pascal Marie, focusing on Father Daligault

Before getting to the heart of the matter, Alain Delalande will reflect on the importance of the priest’s role in small rural communities during the 1930s and 1940s, drawing on diocesan and departmental archives to describe the environment in which these parish priests lived and worked.

He will then paint a portrait of eight Normandy priests involved in the Resistance, some of whom paid a heavy price for their commitment. They are Fathers Victor Bousso, Jacques Leclerc, Roland Lambert, Marius Lannier, Marcel Launay, Arthur Meulant, Jean Ribault and Gaston Sébire.

For his part, Father Pascal Marie will present a profile of Father Jean Daligault, on whom he has been working for several months using sources that are unpublished or little known to the general public.

Alain Delalande, a native of Falaise, a former headteacher and re-enactor dressed as a priest from the 1940s – in a cassock and a barrette as headwear – has developed a keen interest in the role of men of the Church in the Resistance.
Pascal Marie, a priest responsible for sacred art in the Diocese of Bayeux-Lieux, took an interest in the fates of the men and women of the regular and secular clergy who died during the Battle of Normandy, before embarking on extensive research into Father Daligault.



Practical information:
✔ Wednesday 25 November at 11.00 am at the Falaise Memorial
✔ Free admission, subject to availability