St. Solomon Leclercq (1745-1792)

Sept. 1, 2024

By Columbia staff

Sept. 1, 2024

St. Solomon Leclercq

On Aug. 15, 1792, French revolutionaries in Paris tried to force Brother Solomon Leclercq to renounce the authority of the pope and take an oath of allegiance to the new government. He answered simply: “No.” In his last letter, written before his arrest that day, he wrote: “We bear with joy and thanksgiving the crosses and afflictions visited upon us.”

Nicolas Leclercq was born into a devout Catholic family of merchants in Boulogne, in northern France. Educated by the Lasallian brothers, he joined the teaching order in 1767, taking the religious name Solomon. He made final vows five years later.

Brother Solomon was an enthusiastic schoolteacher and gifted in math. He later served as a novice master, as well as secretary to the congregation’s superior general. When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, the new anticlerical government sought to bend the Catholic Church under its authority by demanding that clergy swear fealty to the state.

Brother Solomon and his confrères, along with hundreds of priests and other religious, were forced into hiding, dressing in civilian clothes to avoid detection. He wrote letters of encouragement to his family and began working with a Jesuit priest on a plan to help religious continue their ministry through what would later be called secular institutes.

After refusing to take the oath, Brother Solomon was imprisoned in a Carmelite convent. Another Lasallian brother, who later escaped, reported that Brother Solomon’s last days were like a retreat focused on detachment from earthly things in preparation for martyrdom.

On Sept. 2, at age 46, Brother Solomon Leclercq became the first Lasallian martyr, killed by sword with 166 other priests and religious in the convent garden. He was canonized in 2016.

St. Solomon Leclercq (1745-1792)

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