Chateau d’if
Marseille is the setting of Alexandre Dumas classic book, “The Count of Monte Cristo” more specifically the prison featured in the book is Chateau d’If. It is a prison just off the coast of Marseille much like Alcatraz Island prison located in the San Francisco Bay off the coast of California. The fictitious character Edmond Dantes is falsely accused of treason and sent off to serve out his time without a trial at the grim island fortress. It is a story with classic elements of love, adventure, justice, revenge, hope, and forgiveness.
Steve and I took a short ferry boat out to Chateau d’If last week. It was a spectacularly beautiful day with clear cerulean skies overhead and glass-like blue-green waters below. The Chateau d’If is a small fortress on a rocky island rising out over the sea. Our crowded ferry docked and we began our short climb up to the medieval prison with curved turreted walls; a striking stark white stone structure against the aquamarine sea/sky backdrop.
While wandering around the prison we saw a plaque commemorating over 3,500 Huguenot Protestant prisoners that were held there in the late 1800s. As we climbed up and down uneven stone spiral staircases and looked into cells it was sobering to think of the many that were held there. Prisoners with wealth could buy better cells complete with fireplaces and proper beds. The poorer prisoners were relegated to the dungeons without light and suffered disease and hunger in overcrowded stone enclosures. Even just poking my head into the darker depths of the prison made me feel claustrophobic and panicky.
On the plaque commemorating the Protestant prisoners one sentence stood out to me, “Ils ont prefer les chains la prison et la mort a l’abjvration.” In essence this sentence is a testimony of their commitment to their faith in God. They preferred the chains of prison and death to abnegation. Abnegation meaning to renounce or surrender or give up their faith. Instead they chose to be locked away in squalor rather than to abandon their God.
This faith of theirs is a sobering story that has haunted me since our little literary landmark touristy trip. Am I willing to go where He sends me? Even if it’s so contrary to the hopes and dreams I have of a rich and full life complete with friends and family surrounding me and meaningful work that allows me to use my gifts and talents to a ripe old age? I am so soft. The title of my blog is a life less comfortable. I have lived for years in uncomfortable places. I have been a sweaty mess with beastly bug bites and suffered sickness that would be avoided in more developed places but still it has essentially amounted to discomfort rather than true suffering.
There is a song by Sara /groves called, “when the saints” that has been echoing in my thoughts since our trip to d’If.
“... But when I think of all who’ve gone before me and lived the faithful life
Their courage compels me...
... I see the man of sorrows and his long troubled road
I see the world on his shoulders and my easy load...”
The song goes on to talk about the saints through time that have been faithful in dire circumstances. How the song writer wants to be one of them. The man of sorrows is Jesus and how he lived his life here on earth with the ultimate example of faithfulness to his Father.
I hope I never have to be in prison for my faith, that I am not separated from my friends and family indefinitely. I hope to have work that is life-giving and meaningful. However my prayer is that I will be more in love with my God than the lesser gods that are so easy to get lost in. May the courage of those french Protestant believers compel me to live less myopically and more eternally.
Steve and I took a short ferry boat out to Chateau d’If last week. It was a spectacularly beautiful day with clear cerulean skies overhead and glass-like blue-green waters below. The Chateau d’If is a small fortress on a rocky island rising out over the sea. Our crowded ferry docked and we began our short climb up to the medieval prison with curved turreted walls; a striking stark white stone structure against the aquamarine sea/sky backdrop.
While wandering around the prison we saw a plaque commemorating over 3,500 Huguenot Protestant prisoners that were held there in the late 1800s. As we climbed up and down uneven stone spiral staircases and looked into cells it was sobering to think of the many that were held there. Prisoners with wealth could buy better cells complete with fireplaces and proper beds. The poorer prisoners were relegated to the dungeons without light and suffered disease and hunger in overcrowded stone enclosures. Even just poking my head into the darker depths of the prison made me feel claustrophobic and panicky.
On the plaque commemorating the Protestant prisoners one sentence stood out to me, “Ils ont prefer les chains la prison et la mort a l’abjvration.” In essence this sentence is a testimony of their commitment to their faith in God. They preferred the chains of prison and death to abnegation. Abnegation meaning to renounce or surrender or give up their faith. Instead they chose to be locked away in squalor rather than to abandon their God.
This faith of theirs is a sobering story that has haunted me since our little literary landmark touristy trip. Am I willing to go where He sends me? Even if it’s so contrary to the hopes and dreams I have of a rich and full life complete with friends and family surrounding me and meaningful work that allows me to use my gifts and talents to a ripe old age? I am so soft. The title of my blog is a life less comfortable. I have lived for years in uncomfortable places. I have been a sweaty mess with beastly bug bites and suffered sickness that would be avoided in more developed places but still it has essentially amounted to discomfort rather than true suffering.
There is a song by Sara /groves called, “when the saints” that has been echoing in my thoughts since our trip to d’If.
“... But when I think of all who’ve gone before me and lived the faithful life
Their courage compels me...
... I see the man of sorrows and his long troubled road
I see the world on his shoulders and my easy load...”
The song goes on to talk about the saints through time that have been faithful in dire circumstances. How the song writer wants to be one of them. The man of sorrows is Jesus and how he lived his life here on earth with the ultimate example of faithfulness to his Father.
I hope I never have to be in prison for my faith, that I am not separated from my friends and family indefinitely. I hope to have work that is life-giving and meaningful. However my prayer is that I will be more in love with my God than the lesser gods that are so easy to get lost in. May the courage of those french Protestant believers compel me to live less myopically and more eternally.
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