Dom Claude Beguignot and Dom Lazarus Tiersot

Carthusian Calendar : August 5

On October 1, 1995, Pope John Paul II beatifed Blessed Claude and Blessed Lazarus. They refused to take the revolutionary oaths opposed to the Church in the spring of 1794 and were forced to embark on two slave ships anchored at the mouth of the Charente River, at Rochefort with sixty-four other priest who were also martyred 1794-1795. Together in the most appalling conditions and, in addition, treated with brutality by the crew, forced to stand all day and virtually starved. After ten months they died.

After his Charterhouse of Bourg-Fontaine  was supressed by the revolution, Dom Claude Beguignot (born 1736) withdrew to Rouen, April 1793 he was arrested and put on the boat. During the ordeal Dom Claude was the one sick turned to for help. A priest who survived witnessed as follows to the monkk's manifest holiness: "The very view of this man inspired the love of mortification. You never tired of hearing him speak of God. he did it so worthily and with such unction." Dom Claude dies July 16, 1794.

Dom Lazarus Tiersot (born 1739), professed and Vicar of the Charterhouse of our Lady of Fontenay, withdrew to the town of Avallon at the suppression of his monastery. He was arrested in April 1793, and put on the boat. "He impressed the other priests as a Saint," says one who survived. He passed away August 10, 1794, having predicted his death.