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Aleteia: "Agnès de Nanteuil, discreet heroine of the Resistance
On August 2 and 3, 1944 in Rennes, two German convoys took resistance fighters incarcerated in the Jacques Cartier prison to the concentration camps. Among the hundreds of detainees was a young girl under the age of 22: Agnès de la Barre de Nanteuil.
Harcourt Studios
Agnès de la Barre de Nanteuil.
"I feel that today, we don't have the right to be mediocre and let ourselves live. We too must fight in our own way." On the convoy taking her to the concentration camps in early August 1944, was Agnès de Nanteuil thinking of these few words she had written in a letter to her spiritual father, Abbé Macé, in 1939? Agnès de la Barre de Nanteuil was born on September 17, 1922. She grew up in Paris, in a wealthy and deeply religious family. The eldest of six children, this little "gang leader" showed a strong character from an early age. Her cousin described her as "strong-willed, self-confident, proud... a real little volcano".
The young girl discovered the Children of Mary movement and became a Guide de France. In February 1937, at the age of 15, Agnès attended a five-day retreat. The retreat, a mystery of a soul's encounter with God, brought Agnès to a true conversion. From then on, she was no longer lukewarm. Her desire to do better, to be less selfish, led her to concrete decisions: to obey her parents without reprimanding them, to do her best, to live joyfully. Her family, facing financial difficulties, moved that same year to Vannes, where Agnès forged some wonderful friendships. Her spiritual father gave her a picture of Jesus on the cross, which she carried with her everywhere: the suffering Christ was the source of her life. "Communion will be the remedy for my soul", she wrote, describing her falls.
Scouts de France school camp in Caden, 1942.
War breaks out, followed by defeat. Under German rule, there were curfews, ausweiss and other restrictions. The Nanteuil family lived in hope of liberation. Agnès passed her baccalaureate in philosophy in 1941 and began studying nursing. At the end of 1943, her mother authorized her to join the network to which she herself belonged. Initially a liaison officer, Agnès was then put in charge of gathering intelligence in preparation for the landings, and took part in operations to mark out parachute drops. But on March 14, 1944, she was arrested by the Gestapo. One interrogation followed another, followed by torture and deprivation. Agnès prayed for the strength not to speak. In prison, she managed to send discreet letters to reassure her family.
As the Allies advance, Agnès finds herself and her sister Catherine on a train where almost 1,500 prisoners are living in inhuman conditions. On August 7, when the train stopped in the middle of the countryside and the prisoners took to the air, there was general panic: Allied planes targeted the train, and the guards panicked, firing on the prisoners as they sought shelter. Agnès collapses, badly wounded in the stomach. She offers her suffering, a week of pain during which, for lack of care, gangrene spreads. Agnès spoke of God, never complained, and created a climate of prayer around her that struck the witnesses.
The image of Christ that Agnes took everywhere with her.
On August 13, Agnès took her last breath. That evening, the train arrived in Paray-le-Monial, the city of the Heart of Jesus. Her body was later repatriated to the Boismoreau cemetery in Vannes. She was posthumously awarded the Resistance medal, along with her mother and sister Catherine. Her fight for freedom, rooted in an unshakeable faith, made her one of the only female sponsors of a cadet class. "I give my life for my God and my country... I was denounced, but I forgave..." were her last words at the end of her short pilgrimage on earth.
She was posthumously awarded the French Resistance medal, along with her mother and sister Catherine.
