Dechristianization Campaign

The Dechristianization Campaign during the French Revolution aimed to reduce the influence of the Catholic Church and promote secularism within French society. Initiated in 1793, the campaign was driven by radical revolutionaries (notably the Jacobins) who viewed the Church as an instrument of the old regime. The campaign sought to replace religious traditions with Enlightenment values.

One of the notable actions was the expropriation of Church property. The National Assembly decreed the nationalization of church lands on 2 November 1789, which were sold to pay off the public debt. Clergy members were secularized, with many priests forced to swear an oath of loyalty to the constitution (the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was enacted on 12 July 1790). Those who refused to take the oath (refractory priests) faced persecution, arrest, and sometimes execution.

Public worship was suppressed. Churches were repurposed or desecrated; religious symbols were destroyed or replaced with symbols of the new civic religion (such as busts of Marat and other revolutionary figures). The iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris was converted into a Temple of Reason in November 1793, and the Cult of Reason was promoted as a state-sponsored atheistic religion.

The Revolutionary Calendar was introduced on 24 October 1793. The aim was to remove all religious and royalist influences from the calendar. It started from the founding of the French Republic on 22 September 1792. Each month was renamed and structured around rational ideas, and religious holidays were replaced with revolutionary festivals. Sundays, which were traditionally days of rest and religious observance, were eliminated.

The Dechristianization Campaign faced significant resistance. Many citizens, particularly in rural areas, remained devoutly religious and opposed the forced secularization. This resistance was evident in the Vendée uprising (a royalist and Catholic insurrection in western France) between 1793 and 1796, which was brutally suppressed by the Revolutionaries.

By 1794, the radical phase of the Dechristianization Campaign began to decline. Leaders such as Maximilien Robespierre (a key figure in the Reign of Terror) opposed atheism and promoted his own Deist Cult of the Supreme Being. The campaign officially ended with the fall of Robespierre on 27 July 1794. In the aftermath, some religious practices were gradually restored, and the Concordat of 1801 (signed between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII) reestablished the Catholic Church in France, though it remained under state control.

The Dechristianization Campaign left a lasting impact on French society and the relationship between church and state. The campaign highlighted the Revolution's commitment to Enlightenment principles and the turbulent struggle to redefine French identity and authority during a period of profound transformation.

• The dechristianization campaign during the French Revolution was marked by the systematic removal of religious symbols and practices, with many churches being closed or repurposed (some even transformed into temples of reason).
• One of the most bizarre aspects of the campaign was the reformation of the calendar in 1793, which eliminated Sundays and religious holidays altogether, creating a 10-day week known as the 'décade' to reduce Christian influence.
• French Revolutionaries sought to replace Christianity with a cult of reason, promoting rational thought and scientific understanding as the new ideals, but these efforts were met with mixed reactions across the population.
• In an extreme move of radical secularization, the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris was renamed the 'Temple of Reason,' where citizens participated in ceremonies to honor reason rather than God.
• The campaign ultimately included the execution of priests who refused to abandon their faith, leading to violent uprisings in regions like the Vendée, where loyalty to the church remained strong.