Les Misérables, Book 6: Le Petit-Picpus, Chapter 10 summary
Book 6: Le Petit-Picpus, Chapter 10 of 365 · 3 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 10, the narrator explains how two acts of sacrilege in Paris lead two devout women to fund a Benedictine monastery devoted to continuous worship. The account distinguishes this legally established order from the Cîteaux nuns and the Bernardines of Petit-Picpus, despite their shared practice of Perpetual Adoration.
What happens
- The narrator contrasts a severe convent parlor with the more comfortably furnished parlor on Rue du Temple.
- The Temple garden contains a chestnut tree believed to be the ancestor of every chestnut tree in France.
- Two desecrations in Paris churches in 1649 prompt a solemn procession, but two devout women consider this reparation insufficient.
- The women give Mother Catherine de Bar money to establish a monastery devoted to continuous adoration.
- Church and royal permissions establish the foundation, whose first convent stands on Rue Cassette.
- The narrator distinguishes this order from the Bernardines, who receive permission to practice the same devotion in 1657.
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What to notice
The sentence states the account's central distinction: permission to share a practice does not merge the Benedictines and Bernardines.
Quick check
What do the two devout women consider necessary to atone for the desecrations?
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