On this day in 1853, in Roman Catholic France, the account of an exhumation was published, stirring a variety of emotions. Close to the holiday residence of Napoleon III was a small village in which the well-to-do Andru family lived. A Baptist, J. B. Cretin had evangelized Andru and several of the family cast aside their Catholicism and trusted Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Soon a small group began meeting at the Andru home to hear the Word of God. That is when the persecution started. The Andru children were kicked out of school and the Catholic farm workers were threatened with excommunication if they assisted in the yearly harvest. Then grandfather, Francois Andru died. The family made arrangements for Pastor Cretin to have the funeral in the city cemetery. Approval was granted by the mayor and his assistant director. This was perhaps the first ever non-Catholic funeral in the community, and more than four hundred neighbors attended, many hearing the gospel for the first time. The service concluded without incident. But the local priest was furious that a heretic was buried only a few yards from his church door. He got permission to exhume the body, but the sexton refused to disinter the body, so the priest hired some town drunks to do the task in the middle of the night. The decomposing body was dragged to the far end of the cemetery and was reinterred in an area reserved for suicide victims. When the news reached the Andru family they sought redress, but it was in vain. They had not declared themselves to be Protestants, so they didn’t even deserve that respect. The priest then arranged for his bishop to come and rededicate the ground that had been defiled by the presence of the body of a heretic.
That is not the end of the story. The city mayor was found hanged and was buried with the suicides. And his assistant director shot himself. But the Baptist church services at the Andru home became Spirit-filled and blessed. In a short time eleven converts were baptized and a revival was ignited. Henri Andru was called to preach, and he was ordained, taking the pastoral responsibilities from Brother Cretin.
Source – “This Day in Baptist History II” by Wayne Thompson and David Cummins.