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ANNE CARDON, THE SISTER WHO STAYED BEHIND
COMPILED BY BROOKIE PETERSON
AUGUST 2003
ANNE CARDON RIVOIR GAUDIN
THE SISTER WHO STAYED BEHIND
Anne Cardon was born the 20th of May, 1822, the first child of
loving parents, Philippe and Marthe Marie Tourn Cardon. She died
sixty years later. She was the only living child of the family who
did not go to America. Anne was the oldest of nine children. When
she was nine years old her four-year-old brother, Barthelemi died.
When Anne was twelve years old her little sister, Louise, was born
on Christmas Day, but before the young girl turned five, she too
passed away. So, you can see, Anne was “acquainted with grief” from
an early age, yet because of the loving kindness in her family, she
had many happy times also. Besides her two siblings who died as
children, she had four brothers and two sisters who all outlived
her, yet moved away from her and lived on the other side of an
ocean on another continent.
But, to begin at the beginning, as far as is known Anne didn’t
write her life history or any part of it. The following points of
her life have been determined from the history of her sister, Marie
Madeline, from five letters written by Anne, or for her by someone
else, to her family and from facts gleaned from Church and public
records. Her daughters have also written letters which shed light
on their mother’s life.
Anne was born in a village called Borgata Cardon [see appendix A]
located in Prarostino, Torino, Italy. [However, as a country, Italy
did not exist until 1861 when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia
proclaimed it the kingdom of Italy and became its king.] Her
birthplace is in an area known as the Piedmont in the foothills of
the Cottian Alps. It is situated in the north of Italy near the
present day cities of Turin and Milan and even closer to the town
of Torre Pellice. Her ancestors were French speaking and belonged
to a protestant religion known in English as Waldensian, in French
page 2
as Vaudois [Vo dwaU] and in Italian as Valdes.
This group of Christians was much persecuted because of their
beliefs which were different from the dominant Catholic religion.
For a history of the Waldensian people see Appendix B. In 1848
there was an Emancipation Edict which gave Anne’s people civil
rights, the right to education and an equality before the
government. However, there was still prejudice against their
religion although its outward manifestation no longer took the form
of kidnaping children and, forbidding further contact with their
parents, placing them in Catholic homes. This despicable practice,
among other heinous acts of cruelty, had been common for centuries.
Soon after the Edict, the Cardon family were able to move off the
rugged mountain and live in the valley near San Secondo.
We know little of Anne’s growing up years, but can surmise that
they were years of hard work to help her parents with the younger
eight children. Her sister Marie tells of their religious training.
“The only book which my father had was a Bible which then was over
two centuries old, handed down by his ancestors. I well remember
the time when all our family would gather around my mother and
father each night, just before retiring, and listen to him read a
chapter in whole or in part from the Bible. After he had read he
would review what he had read and explain to us little ones many
good principles.”
In her letters, Anne speaks of her feelings about her parents.
Writing to her sister in 1873, just after her mother had passed
away, she describes her mother’s character and the love she
exhibited towards her children.
“You can understand very well how much the death of our
dear Mother afflicts me. To me it seems that she is
always before my eyes. With her great goodness that God
gave her she never stopped showing us the way to Heaven.
page 3
With a sweet spirit, and with charity. She didn't weigh
our mistakes, but she asked forgiveness from God, warning
us with sweetness and tears. My dear Sisters, I thank you
infinitely for the attention you have given to me in
sending hair from our dear Father & our tender Mother.
[It was a common practice to send hair which was an
intimate and easily preserved object connected to a loved
one. Often it would be mounted and framed or put in a
locket.] More than that, I see that you think of me and
I hold dear these precious hairs. Even more precious
because they are from our dear Father & Mother, who have
been so far away, and that they are in my hands.”
In a letter to her sister, written in 1881, the year before she
died, she expresses her love and admiration for her father. From it
we can know that she must have had a largely happy childhood and
youth, feeling peace and security because of their wise and loving
direction.
“I will never be able to thank you enough for the good
details you give us of all my dear family and my dear,
dear father.(*Philippe Cardon) . . How I would like
to see him, hug him and take loving care of him, he who
took care of me like the apple of his eye. Ah, my memory
and my heart do not fail me as far as affection and
filial respect are concerned. It is with the strongest
memory, the greatest respect, the sweetest and most
thankful affection that I remember his fatherly
tenderness, his instructions, his counsel, his wholesome
and corrective counsels. They will always be the
traveling companions .... of my pain, my intimate friends
in my solitude. His good instructions were blessed by
the grace of God in Jesus Christ for my soul. May God’s
divine blessing rest on him. May the Lord God be his
strength and his shield.”
When she was twenty-five years old in 1847, Anne married Jaques
Rivoir, who was nineteen years older than she. This marriage only
lasted ten years before he died, leaving her a widow at age thirtyfive.
It would not be possible to give a complete version of Anne’s life
without referring to the dream her sister Marie had as a child.
page 4
[See Appendix C]. Partly because of her father’s knowledge of this
dream and its look into the future, he was open to the teaching of
Lorenzo Snow and the other missionaries when they came to Italy in
1850.
During the year 1852 her entire family--parents and siblings--was
baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That
is the whole family except for Anne; her husband, Jaques Rivoir,
was antagonistic toward the new religion, and forbade her to visit
her parents’ home or to have anything to do with the Mormons. It is
said that, at the time, she was receptive and sympathetic towards
the religion her family chose. Her sister reported that she wanted
to hear the elders explain the gospel; however, in her letters
written two decades later, it is clear that she has misgivings
about the practice of polygamy.
The names of her parents have already been mentioned. Her brothers
and sisters, in birth order are second after Anne, Jean–also the
name of her paternal grandfather, born 1824; Catherine, 1829;
Philippe-later Louis Philip, 1832; Marie Madeleine, 1834; Jean
Paul-later Paul, 1840; and Thomas Barthelmy, 1842.
Anne’s husband, who had objected to her even learning of the
gospel, died just three years after her family emigrated to the
United States. She was left with two small daughters, Marie age
seven and Anne or Annette, age two. Three years later, she married
her second husband, who was her cousin, Barthelemy Gaudin, son of
her father’s sister, Martha Cardon Gaudin. He must have been good
to Anne’s daughters as her older daughter, Marie, speaks very
lovingly of him and calls him her “second father.”
Another factor in Anne’s day to day life was a permanent house
guest – Aunt Marthe, who was very handicapped and so required hours
of time for her care each day. Aunt Marthe was the sister of
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Barthelemi Gaudin, Anne’s second husband. She is also the sister
of
the wife of Paul Cardon, Suzanne. She lived with Anne and
Barthelemi for over a decade, and later, after Anne’s death, lived
with her daughter Marie for more than another ten years. They
continually struggled to take care of her financially and
physically.
Later letters [1888]from Marie describe best for us Marie’s own
life and work and the great trial Aunt Marthe posed to their
livelihood.
“As for me, I’m rather well, and I work as much as I can
in order to raise my five children, who are still quite
small, and to take care of your poor sister Marthe
(Gaudin), whom you can’t help but feel sorry for. Last
winter she had the misfortune to fall on a stick of wood
that poked out one of her eyes and caused her terrible
suffering for a long time. She is becoming fatter and
soon will not be able to stand up. I have to wash her and
take care of her like a little child. So, my dear
relatives, pray God for me that he gives me much
patience.
I still have a lot to do, especially since my little girl
was nearly always sick since the death of my dear
husband. Then we had a very long and difficult winter.
Papa(Bartholemy Gaudin) was also feeling poorly. He often
complains of having pains in his arms. He can scarcely
work, even though he does everything that he can. He is
no longer very strong and can neither plow nor even work
in the vineyard, which means that to stay here I need a
good domestic, and I would really be thankful if you
could help me pay for one. .... I can only thank God for
having such wonderful relatives, and I hope that He will
keep you a long time in good health.
To understand something of the country and times in which Anne’s
life was lived it is enlightening to read a commentary on the
reason most of the emigrants chose to leave their homes and farms
to venture to the new world.
Devastating crop failures struck in the 1850's. A pastor
page 6
wrote:
“It is dreadful; if we do not receive substantial subsidies
our people will starve by the hundreds...most of our families
are ruined. Some have six, eight or ten children – all of them
dependent, with no prospect of food for the next day. So great
is the poverty that most of our people are on the brink of an
abyss –[crops] have failed for four consecutive years. – our
villages are destitute.”
Population increase, agricultural crises, debts and extreme
poverty; all pointed to emigration in the interest of survival. One
emigrant who sailed for Argentina said,
“Neither the love of adventure nor the prospect of wealth
drives us to take our families to remote countries we do not
know and from which none of us will probably ever return. No,
poverty, suffering, and hunger are the forces that expel us.”
You Are My Witnesses - Giorgio Tourn and Associates page 235-6
Quoting from Anne in 1871
“You must know that among us, namely in Europe everything
has changed; everything has an excessive price, from the
meats to the grains. Cows that before sold at the price
of 120 Franks today sell from 350 to 400 Franks, fat pigs
from 14 to 16 Franks and the big ones from 25 to 40
Franks.
“We must tell you that here we have had our own worries
and our own concerns. Our uncle Jacques has had the
misfortune to burn down his house; they are left with
almost nothing; they have to stay here with us, and many
other things have happened. Did I not tell you that here
grain is sold at the price of 8 Franks per bushel,
potatoes are more than one Frank, fruit and other
foodstuffs are sold in proportions... anyway everything
has changed in price. Everything goes at a great rhythm,
everything runs fast, the time as well as the money.”
As before mentioned, many of Anne’s feelings are expressed in her
letters to her sisters or brothers. We have no record of any
exchange of letters between them for seventeen years after their
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emigration. Perhaps the cost of sending mail was prohibitive.
Some
things Anne writes in the earliest letter we know of [1871] would
lead you to believe they had little or no communication during all
those years.
“My dear sisters, I want to tell you that it gave me
great pleasure to receive your letter. ... You are
manifesting in me the desire to receive your news more
often. We are surprised to find that the letters can get
lost. Many letters have been addressed to you but you
have received only that one.
“Does the great railroad that you have from New York to
San Francisco pass near your city? Tell us also what you
do and if you live in the city or the country.
“Thanks to God we are well just as we see that you are.
It gives us great pleasure to see your photographs,
especially to see your beautiful clothes, your beautiful
attitudes, elegant, and the beautiful hair you have. Here
we find that neither our hair nor our look conserve
themselves as well as yours; this shows that good air is
there among you.”
Her last comment --- attributing their beautiful hair and look to
good air is fascinating, the fact probably being, that she had a
life of drudgery eking out a living from vineyard and farm and
taking care of Aunt Marthe while theirs were lives of hard work,
but of better quality.
Anne was a very spiritual person. She understood many gospel
truths. Often in her letters she speaks of the Savior and her
Heavenly Father. However, if in her young married years she was
inclined toward the Church, she had a change of thought about one
of its practices as she matured. Quotes from a letter written in
1871 show this. She must have just learned of her father’s taking
a plural wife some eight years after the marriage.
“I must tell you that the last letters that you wrote to
me gave me great pleasure but at the same time sorrow;
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can you understand this? It has been years that I have
[not] known what our father had done ..... and so violate
the seventh commandment of God but what do you want? We
cannot judge him nor condemn him, but we can regret it
and this shows that God did well at the beginning to
create a man and a woman, in his great wisdom; and who
are we to change His Statutes and His Laws?
“You tell us nothing of Jean and Philippe, you tell us
nothing of Barthelemy; do they as well have many wives?
I have always had a great disgust for this ... polygamy.
It seems to me that we can be children of God through
Jesus Christ, following His commandments, and if those
missionaries that took you away had never talked about
polygamy but only of baptism; that is following the
ordinances of the Lord, because ours comes to us from
Rome (this we know for certain), they would have had
hundreds of people instead of a few that accepted them.”
Most of their letters were written for them by someone else;
apparently, it was hard for them to write, although from several
clues I believe they knew how, but perhaps their ability was
superficial. It may have had something to do with writing in Patois
which was what they called the dialect they spoke.
“You ask me how I can be happy without the presence of my
family, but I can tell you that most of my time I am sick
to know that I wasn't able to follow you and our dear
parents.”
Writing 17 years after their departure, Anne writes of her lifelong
dream to join her family in America.
Late 1870's
“You know that we have a problem with Marthe, our sister
and sister-in-law. We fear that she will not be able to
face such a voyage, because she is too fat. Barthelemi
says it would be too difficult to travel only us two with
her, because we would have to help her get on and off the
train and from the boat, just like you would have to do
for a baby, and then our conscience impedes us from
leaving her here alone, but also we fear that if we leave
her here with what little land we own, she would not be
able to take care of it. Therefore, now we have taken a
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decision, and now we all wait for your answer to know if
we can come or not.
“Regarding our trip, we could pay only one half and no
more. We pray you, tell us if you think it will be
possible for us to have land because here we sell all
that we have; we are forced to do it to pay a part of the
voyage. When we will be in America, we will be under the
grace of God and also under yours.”
The following letter was composed by Anne about one and one/half
years before she died.
1881
“We would all like to come, but for all of us to come
would make nine people. Marie has a baby boy to wean and
Annette also has a baby girl to wean; with their husbands
they make six plus the three of us.
“To come, without counting the babies, it would cost us
about 5.000 Franks. In coming there, we would like to
have land that doesn't cost too much, that is fertile and
not too far from you. If we have to come and live far
away, without seeing each other more than we do now
nothing would change. We are coming to be with you. We
could divide the cost of the voyage. Now I'll explain the
reason. Barthelemy and I still have some debts and our
land is not worth much. Marie could sell but even in
Milan, land isn't worth much, and her husband is the
family son [probably means the oldest or birthright son
or possibly the only son of his parents.]. Annette also
has her land in Milan, and her husband is a bricklayer by
profession and the family son as well.
“When we want to sell we must do it at a cheap price.
Dear family, we would come with pleasure but we have need
of time to sell and gather the money necessary. Is
polygamy still there among you? And even if it is, will
we be obligated to practice it?
Written to her sister Catherine Cardon Byrne, by Jacques
Constantin of Collaray: From “Your most affectionate Anne
Cardon Gaudin. My husband is Barthelemy Gaudin of
Balcoste and I have two wonderful daughters Marie and
Anne Rivoir.”
page 10
Anne, the mother, died July 25, 1882. This is an account of her
death written by her daughter Anne, signing Annette, the diminutive
form of Anne. It tells the family in America of her mother’s last
days.
Praustin August 8, 1882
“Very dear and well-loved family: Uncle and aunt and
cousin [masculine] and cousin [feminine] and especially
to our dear grandfather if he is still living,
“It is with great sorrow that we write you a few lines to
inform you of the long illness of our dear mother -- 3
months when she was ill before taking to bed and then 4
months in a bed of pain of which the 8 last days the
violent pain almost surpassed her strength, but she
endured her torments with a great patience. She said it
was nothing in comparison to the suffering which Jesus
Christ had on the cross for some hours before his death.
She got a stomach ache which did not leave her until her
death.
“She said that she would have liked to be healed
physically in order to see you in her last days. As she
saw herself approaching death, she said that she would
like to be able to run to meet death in order to more
quickly be close to her Savior and to her dear mother. At
last she died the 25th of August [Should be 25th of July;
she writes this letter on the 8th of August] at 2 o’clock
in the afternoon with her bed surrounded by her two
daughters and some other women with us. Well, I hope and
have a firm belief that she waits for us at the feet of
Jesus where we will find ourselves soon all together. I
think that my sister will write to you more of our dear
mother; pardon all our faults and don’t forget to write
to us I beg you.
“I declare myself [to be] for life your niece Rivoire
Annette”
The daughters, Marie and Annette, continued to live in poverty, to
long to join their American relatives to the end of their lives.
Living with Marie is her second father, Barthelemi Gaudin and his
sister Aunt Marthe Gaudin, who continues to be a great problem for
them as she was for their mother, Anne.
page 11
December 28, 1888
“And now I will send some details on me and my family as
you ask me to. My Papa [in another letter she says “your
cousin, my second father Barthelemy Gaudin and his poor
sister idiot–Martha Gaudin] lives with me since more than
a year.... poor Aunt Marthe continues to be in a
deplorable state. She fell recently and the only eye that
she has left was so badly damaged that I think that she
doesn’t see any more at all. She has to be fed like a
baby, and I dress her, and tend her as if she only had a
few more months.
“This is a terrible trial that God sends us, and you
can’t imagine the sad condition of the poor aunt, and of
all the trouble that she gives me. Without her, I could
with my children look for another house, sell my land,
and find an occupation that would procure me the daily
bread. But no one wants to take me with the unfortunate
Aunt Marthe, and that is why I am obliged to continue to
live in the house where I am. I would be very grateful to you if
you could send me something which would help me from now till next
summer, and would provide for the needs of the Aunt. I have tried
three times to get her into a charitable establishment, but they
absolutely will not take her because of her state of complete
dependance.”
Your niece
Marie Gonnet
And [writing] for her: Emma Pons
The godmother of Marie Rivoire was Catherine Cardon who was her
mother Anne’s sister and the 4th child of Philippe and Marthe Marie
Tourn Cardon. Showing her immense gratitude and her feelings of
love and dependence on those in America, Marie writes some years
later:
4 April 1892
“Believe it dear godmother that it is impossible for me
to describe to you the gratefulness which I feel in
thinking of you who were so good to me at the time of the
death of my dear mother and the 500 francs which you sent
to me contributed greatly for me and I weep in thinking
of so many of your good deeds of which I have been
witness myself and pray that God will bless you and
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preserve all of you a long time. I see that you have
always been very good to me and I am extremely grateful
to you for that. I find myself at present still at La
Tour [Torre - Pellice] on this farm. I still have
Marthe. Marthe has been my little one and my charge, but
what would you? I must have patience and be content with
my lot. But I assure you that I must have enormous
patience to tend this miserable one. I went to visit my
sister yesterday and she is also very unfortunate with 4
or 5 small children. She tells me to greet aunt Madeline
and receive from the bottom of our hearts our sincere
greetings. Your Affectionate Goddaughter,”
Marie
In closing the small window of opportunity we have had to view Anne
Cardon’s life let me mention again the high priority faith in Jesus
Christ and God held for her. It seems that many of the Waldensians
had the Gift of the Spirit called beholding of angels and
ministering spirits [Moroni 10:14] for they had in their histories
records of dreams and visions. Some were given at an early age as
was her sister’s, Marie Madeline, when she was six or seven years
old. Anne wrote this in one of her letters [1873].
“...when I was 13 years old I saw in a vision how God
guided you and me at the same time. I heard a great voice
that said to me ‘through fasting and prayer many sins
will be forgiven you.’ I hope that God will --- give us
strength from his Holy Spirit so that we can say as St.
Paul, when he said, ‘Oh God how happy I am to have
learned to live in the state in which I find myself.’
“And it is the same for all of us to be happy in the
state in which we find ourselves. It is enough that we
live worthy of being among the elect. Seems to me that,
we should all pray to God on our knees with fasting.
“I am not coming to America to search for the riches of
this world but I go to find the peace of my soul, and
also because my two daughters have always desired since
their infancy to reach you one day. This has always been
their greatest desire. [Of course, she never realized
this dream, although she writes as if it is about to
happen.]
page 13
“Well, by the grace of God I feel that I am one of his
children that he has redeemed with his precious blood.
Faith, hope and love are not feeble and spiritless words
for me. My hope is in God, who by the merits of his wellbeloved
son, our only Savior, gave us a celestial
inheritance. [He] will be my strength, my support, my
light and my everything for time and eternity.”
To me, this is the story of a valiant woman who loved God all her
life and also had great love for her family. During the 1990s some
of the extended family were able to contact some of her
descendants. All of them were descendants of Annette, her younger
daughter. The older daughter, Marie, lost three children to death
when they were very young; her son Jean Gonnet, who lived to
adulthood, died without leaving children.
Annette’s descendants -- grandchildren and great grandchildren know
something of her, but know no stories nor any facts about their
great-great grandmother, Anne. She has been forgotten because of
lack of information about her. In the summer of 2002, when a group
of family members visited Italy, they met several of these
descendants. They were very gracious and interested in their
history. They also asked for three copies of the Book of Mormon and
one couple have since had the missionary lessons. It is hoped that
in time some of them will accept the gospel message. Surely this
would bring great joy to grandmother Anne.
DATES RELEVANT TO ANNE’S LIFE
1822 20 May Anne Cardon, [first child] daughter of Philippe Cardon
and Marthe Marie Tourn his wife, was born.
1847 30 Sep Anne 26 md Jaques Rivoir 44 at Prarustin
1850 15 Dec Anne’s first child, Marie Rivoir born.
[Father Philippe and Marthe Marie’s first grandchild]
1855 7 Jan Anne’s daughter Anne Rivoir [known as Annette] born in
Prarustin
1857 5 Feb Anne’s husband Jaques Rivoir died
1860 29 Nov Anne md cousin Barthelemy Gaudin. They had no
children. [Barthelemy was the son of Marthe Cardon and
Barthelemy Gaudin. Marthe was sister of Father Philippe and
the senior Barthelemy was the brother of Jeanne Marie Gaudin
Stalle, Father Philippe’s second wife.}]
1864 20 Feb Marthe Cardon Gaudin, sister of Father Philippe, died
1874 16 April Anne’s daughter Marie 24 married Jean Gonnet
1878 2 May Anne’s daughter Anne [Annette] md Jean Pierre
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Constantin All living descendants of Anne have come through
her daughter [Annette] Rivoire Constantin.
1879 24 Sep Anne’s grandchild Jean Michel Gonnet, son of Marie,
was born.
1882 25 July Anne died.
1895 Probably January Marthe Gaudin died. She is the “Aunt
Marthe” in many of the letters, also
known as Martrota; she is the sister
of Anne’s second husband Barthelemy
Gaudin. Marthe Cardon Gaudin who was
sister to Father Philippe, who died
some thirty years earlier was her
mother[1964].
Marie Rivoir Gonnet: On church records the spelling is Rivoir, but they
sometimes spelled it Rivoire.
Marie had two more Gonnet children.
1884 Jaques died at age 1
1886 Feb Her husband Jaques died. Her son Jean was 6 years old and
her daughter Marie Alice, 8 months old at the time, died in
1889 at age four.
1890 married 2nd Bernardino Francese
They had one son Alberto, who died age 3. Husband #2 died.
1892 married 3rd Barthelemy Volle who died before Marie.
1895 Her letter says she is married to a man named Pinot
1931 Marie, who never got to come to America, died in Italy.
The death date for Annette Rivoir Constantin is not established.
APPENDIX A
The Cardon Borgata appears on a map as early as the seventeenth
century. Borgata means hamlet or small village. According to the
Masters’ thesis of Diane Stokoe page 41, the family of Philippe and
Marthe Marie Tourn Cardon lived in the Cardon village prior to the
Edict of Emancipation for the Waldensians which brought new
freedoms in 1848. It was in that village that Marie Madeleine had
her childhood dream. Soon after 1848, as there was no longer reason
to hide in fear, Philippe moved his family down to San Secondo di
Pinerolo, on the edge of the Piedmont plains where he worked as an
architect and stone mason.
So it was in San Secondo that the family lived when the father
first heard of the missionaries and went to hear the gospel
preached. However, the Borgata is the place we identify as their
home. There are a number of things to look for in a visit to it.
Some of the homes have been restored, and people live in them
either year round or use them as summer retreats. You will remember
that in early days, the animals lived on the first floor and the
family on the second to take advantage of the heat which would rise
page 15
from the animals and which would make their homes warmer.
Take notice of the wild strawberries. Suzette Stale Cardon brought
strawberry plants from her home and carried them in the first
handcart company. She was a master at drying strawberries. In
Arizona, the University asked her to explain her method as the
extension division had never been able to do it so well.
You will discover that the doors and windows are very small. There
are probably two reasons for this. Our ancestors were small people.
Also a portion of their taxes were determined by the size of the
windows and doors. The smaller they were, the lower the tax.
We should be able to find the outdoor ovens. Marie Madeleine writes
that, in Italy, they would bake as much as one hundred pounds of
flour and roast meat to feed those who came to their home to hear
the missionaries. Near the homes is the symbol of the Waldensians
– the eternal flame meaning Keep the eternal flame of the gospel
alive. Off in the distance we can see an old Waldensian temple.
Climb up the terraces to get a beautiful view and feel the
connection that will come into your heart that our ancestors lived
and worked, loved and died here.
APPENDIX B
WALDENSIAN HISTORY FOR CARDONS
Much of the following comes from an article by Ron Malan,
“Waldensian History .. A Brief Sketch”
Available at PFO web site http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~waldense/
All serious historians now agree that the Waldensian movement began in
Lyons about 1170. Claims to greater antiquity came much later and are
unfounded. These claims seem to have been brought about by a desire to
show descent from the time of the Apostles, but they have proven to be
incorrect.
It is now also universally agreed that the founder's name was not Peter
Waldo; he was never called Peter until some 150 years after his death.
The form of his name currently accepted is either Vaudes or Valdes –.
We'll use the form Valdes here, as the "l" sound is maintained in the
current name Waldensian and will therefore be more familiar.
And, until joining the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, his
followers never called themselves "Waldensians." That term was applied
to them by those who sought to destroy them and therefore carried
pejorative connotations. Rather, they consistently referred to
page 16
themselves as the "Poor of Christ," the "Poor of Lyons," the "Poor in
Spirit," or more simply "Brothers." By the middle of the 13th century
they were considered to be heretics and they had to move to rural areas,
eliminate public preaching and simply try to maintain their group, not
increase it in size.
Most of their preachers settled down, married, and raised families. They
were no longer inclined to give away all they had, but they came to
devote much of their effort to providing for their families, including
legacies for heirs. Their wills demonstrate this, yet they still had the
attitude of being generous to and caring for the poor.
Due to the influence of the reformation, there was a major change in
their worship habits and status as a church in the mid-sixteenth
century. They began to erect formal buildings of worship, in place of
the traditional secret meetings in the open or, for smaller groups, in
homes. The openness increased their numbers, but being more visible also
increased the persecution they experienced. They began to call
themselves Waldensians; though formerly it had been a belittling name
used by their persecutors, it now became a compliment. Their pastors or
Barba began to be educated–mostly in Switzerland. Up to this time they
had been opposed to formal education for the Barba.
For the century following the mid 1500's persecution of the Waldensians
became very severe, constantly increasing. There was the massacre of
1545 and in 1630 a terrible plague killed many of their number including
eleven of their thirteen pastors. In April 1655, the Waldensians were
ordered to quarter the soldiers of the Duke of Savoy in their homes.
Early on Easter morning, at a given signal, these troops arose and
brutally murdered their host families. This became known as the Piedmont
Easter, and led the English poet Milton to write his famous sonnet, "On
the Late Massacre in Piedmont," about the "slaughtered saints."
In 1685 The Waldensian pastors were expelled, Waldensian worship was
forbidden, and all children were to be baptized Catholics. Following the
refusal of the Waldensians to do this, within three days their
persecutors killed some 2000 of them. Some 8500 were sent to prisons;
most of these died from lack of food, water, disease and poor shelter.
Those who remained were sent into exile. Four years later in 1689, those
who could, came back to their homelands in what is known as “The
Glorious Return.”
Persecution continued for almost another 200 years. In the time of
Napoleon there was the infamous "home for Waldensian children," in which
kidnapped or enticed children had been raised as Catholics, their
parents not even permitted to visit them. There was a long history of
child snatching by the enemies of the Waldensians. The purpose was to
force the children to become Catholic. They were sometimes taken with
page 17
the knowledge, but not the consent, of the parents and at other times
simply abducted. No child wandering on its own was safe. Besides the
home for Waldensian children, sometimes they were taken in as a servant
to a Catholic family or at times as a family member.
In 1848, Savoy which had been a principality became part of Italy, and
finally the Waldensians were granted full rights of citizenship. For the
first time in centuries, Waldensians could hold public office, choose
the profession they wished, and acquire land; and their children could
qualify for higher education. But the declaration failed to provide
greater religious freedom. Still, it was the beginning of that process.
Upon receiving the news, the Waldensian villages celebrated by building
bonfires, visible all up the mountainside. It is interesting to observe
that Lorenzo Snow was sent to Italy in June of 1850. It could hardly
have been a coincidence; had he gone much earlier the Waldensians would
not have been at liberty to listen to his teaching.
During the last half of the nineteenth century, very hard economic times
befell inhabitants of the valleys. This led to emigration. Besides those
converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who left for
Utah in the 1850's, other groups emigrated to South America–Uruguay and
Argentina. Some emigrants went to South Africa. They also went to other
areas of the United States. In the 1880's and 90's additional groups,
who were not members of the Church, but related to member immigrants,
came to Utah.
Most of the time through the centuries, the Waldensians were extremely
poor, partly because of spending all their efforts on their own
security, but also because of heavy taxation. Often Catholics were
exempt from taxation while they were forced to pay doubly. However,
their hard work paid off in the fruit they obtained from their fertile
soil. They grew vines for grapes, chestnuts, figs, olives and many other
kinds of fruit. Silk production was a cottage industry. Higher up, the
land was devoted to pasture, and there was an abundance of milk and
wool. Enormous quantities of chestnuts were grown. They were dried and
cleaned and the surplus sold or bartered for grain. They were an
important source of food and could be made into biscuits.
The following paragraphs are descriptions of the Waldensians taken from
the writings of Marriner Cardon entitled “Children of the Valleys.”
“There were two characteristics of their religious devotion that were
frequently noted. The first was their knowledge of the scriptures. All
classes studied the Bible, which from the 12th century onward they had
in their popular tongue. Many, both men and women, could recite complete
books of the Bible. Their pastors and missionaries often memorized --
the New Testament.
page 18
“Their second notable characteristic was the singing of biblical psalms.
So common was it for the Waldensians to entertain themselves by singing
psalms while working in the fields or about their homes that anyone
found to be so engaged was presumed to be a Waldensian.”
Two quotes from Catholic Inquisitors when writing against them, rather
than condemning them, seem to be very complimentary:
“‘The heretics may be known by their manners and by their
language; for they are well ordered and modest in their manners;
they avoid pride in their dress, the materials of which are
neither expensive or mean...’
“‘They are such scrupulous observers of honor and chastity, that
their neighbors, though of a contrary faith, entrusted to them
their wives and daughters, to preserve them from the insolence of
the soldiery. They are temperate in eating and drinking — they do
not frequent taverns or dances. – They are on their guard against
the indulgence of anger. They may be known also by their concise
and modest discourse; they guard against indulgence in jesting,
slander or profanity.’”
From Reverend William S Gilly we learn the following:
“-- they form terrace upon terrace, in many places not exceeding ten
feet in breadth and wall them up with huge piles of stone. Upon these
terraces they sow their grain or plant vines.
“--- Picture this torn and rugged country, where neither carts nor beast
of burden can penetrate and where the farmer is constrained to serve
both as a cart and as a horse. I have seen slender women crushed under
enormous weights during the summer months – picking up dirt at the foot
of the mountain and carrying it on their back to the summit. In
successive years the same soil, washed back down in the valley, is again
carried up on backs a second, a third time, indefinitely.”
“All the members of the family from eight years on had their part in the
active life of the family, then almost entirely farming or pastoral. The
heavy work was done by both men and women. Children looked after their
younger brothers and sisters, herded livestock and helped with all the
lighter work of farming and raising stock. —families ate meat only on
special occasions. Baths were not frequent. — Births were attended often
only by the grandmother of the baby. – One thing is astonishing, that
[such] persons — should have so much moral cultivation. They can all
read and write. They understand French, so far as is needful for the
understanding of the Bible, and the singing of psalms.”
page 19
— These observations give a few insights into the lives and homes of our
ancestors.
APPENDIX C
Marie’s Dream
Marie Madeleine Cardon Guild [Charles] wrote an autobiography which
describes much of the life of the Cardon family; it is priceless
for our understanding of earlier events. We do not know if she
began writing as some of the events happened or made notes of them.
Possibly it was all written in her later life, but it was addressed
to her children and edited in the year 1903, when she would have
been 69 years old. [She was born 6 July 1834.] She was the sixth
child of Philippe and Marthe Marie Tourn Cardon and the younger
sister of Anne the subject of this brief biography.
When Marie was six or seven years old in 1840 or 1841, she had a
most remarkable dream which is often retold in family gatherings.
In her dream she saw herself as a young woman. She was sitting on
a small strip of grassy meadow near her home, watching over her
father’s cows to keep them away from the vineyard. As she was
reading, she looked up and saw three men approaching. She dropped
her eyes being very much frightened. They told her not to be
afraid, that they were teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. They
also said that her family would join his church and later emigrate
to America. They gave her some small books and told her to study
them.
Quoting from her writing: "When I realized what had been said to me
and what I had seen I became frightened. I took my clothes in my
arms and ran downstairs to where my mother was preparing breakfast
for our family and hired man.
“As I came in she saw that I looked pale. She asked me if I was
sick. I said 'No.' Just at that instant I was not able to talk. My
mother told me to sit on a chair and she would soon see to me and
learn what was wrong. Soon my father came in and my mother called
his attention to me. She knew that if I was not sick that something
had happened which caused me to look so strange. My father took me
up, dressed me, and questioned me until I had told him all I had
seen and heard.”
As the years passed, Marie forgot her dream, but her father never
did. Many years later her father Philippe also had a dream about
page 20
missionaries coming. It reminded him of Marie’s dream. The very
next day, when he was working at his stone masonry, one of his
hired men told him he had heard of some missionaries teaching in
another town.
He went home mid-morning. His wife was very surprised and asked,
"Why are you home at this hour?" and he replied, "I can see two
strangers coming up the mountains bringing us a message concerning
the gospel. I must dress in my best clothes and go down to welcome
them."1
He quickly changed into his Sunday clothes and began the long walk
to find the missionaries. He walked that afternoon and all night
and the next morning arrived in time to hear Elder Lorenzo Snow
preach. He invited them to his home and to make it their
headquarters. They went with him to the mountains. They asked about
Marie, and the promise of Marie's dream was fulfilled when they
stood before her as she was seated in a meadow. Upon seeing them
she remembered her dream and recognized them. They handed her a
book and told her they were teaching of Jesus Christ.
They held Sunday meetings at the Cardon home--sometimes forty or
fifty or more were present. These were mountaineers who had arisen
at two or three in the morning and walked for hours to hear the
Elders teach. They baked bread in their big oven and cooked meat
for many so that none would go away hungry before their long walk
home.
After doing what they could as a family to convert some of their
friends and neighbors, they were told in a directive from the
Church issued in 1853 to "come to Zion." Their journey, beginning
on February 8, 1854, has often been described, and it was a
rigorous one. They traveled by carriage, railway, regular coach and
a coach placed on sleds, drawn by sixteen mules up the steep
mountain through ice and snow. Continuing by rail and steamer they
finally reached Liverpool where they waited for their ship, the
John M. Wood, to be completed. Their journey across the Atlantic
took almost two months.
Arriving in New Orleans May 2, 1854, they had to travel both the
Mississippi and Missouri rivers by steamer. At Westport, now a part
of Kansas City, Missouri, they prepared and began their pioneer
travel overland with ox teams. Leaving in early May, as part of the
Robert L. Campbell company, it took almost six months to reach Salt
Lake City on October 28, 1854. They had walked for more than 1300
page 21
miles in the final phase of their nine month journey.
Much of the information in this appendix comes from the
Autobiography of Marie Madeleine Cardon Guild, copied by
DJS, April 8, 1909 by order of Mrs. Charles Guild, obtained
via Edna Cardon Taylor.
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