Today, August 24, 2025, marks the anniversary of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572, a significant event in which Roman Catholics in France, during the French Wars of Religion, massacred French Huguenots (Protestants) in Paris and other cities. The violence began on the night of August 23–24, 1572, following the marriage of the Catholic princess Margaret of Valois to the Protestant Henry of Navarre. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Queen Catherine de’ Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre targeted Huguenot leaders, including Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, and spread to Catholic mobs slaughtering Huguenots across Paris and beyond.

Estimates of the death toll vary widely, from 2,000 (per a Catholic apologist) to 70,000 (per the Huguenot Maximilien de Béthune). Modern historians suggest a range of 5,000 to 30,000 deaths, with the violence continuing in Paris despite a royal order on August 25 to stop it and spreading to cities like Rouen, Lyon, Bourges, Orléans, and Bordeaux through early October. The massacre was sparked by religious and political tensions, particularly after a failed assassination attempt on Coligny, which Catherine feared would expose her role in the plot. This event deepened the divide between Catholics and Protestants, led to a wave of Huguenot emigration and conversions, and fueled a major international crisis, with reactions ranging from Catholic praise to Protestant horror.

Christ taught (in Matthew 7:15-20) that we will know men by their fruits. It is time to recognize that Roman Catholicism is a movement that is drenched in blood, with murder being officially sanctioned by Roman Catholic leadership.

The true Christian church does not claim to be infallible all the while committing the most egregious of sins.