A memorial relic card for the five Dominican fathers of Arcueil, killed in Paris on May 25, 1871, in the last days of the Commune. A composite albumen portrait of the five priests is mounted above five small squares of cloth, each fixed with a cross of red silk thread and labeled with a father’s name. A printed and signed certificate on the verso, dated Arcueil, June 1, 1872, attests that the fragments come from the garments the priests wore on the day they died. The threads pass through the card and are gathered under a red wax seal.

The photograph arranges five oval portraits within a painted rosary, each on a ribbon banner: R.P. Bourard, R.P. Captier, R.P. Delhorme, R.P. Chatagneret and R.P. Cotrault. Each father wears the white habit and black cappa of the Order of Preachers. Captier, the superior, is at center. Chatagneret wears wire spectacles, and Delhorme and Cotrault are bearded. Above them a crowned shield beneath the Dominican motto “Veritas” shows a star, a crossed palm and lily, and a dog holding a torch. Below, a cartouche reads “Les Dominicains d’Arcueil massacrés à la Barrière d’Italie, le 25 mai 1871” (The Dominicans of Arcueil, massacred at the Barrière d’Italie, May 25, 1871). On the mount below the relics, a printed shield bears a cross and palm within a crown of stars, with the motto “Pour le bon Dieu” (For the good God).

The certificate reads, in translation: “We the undersigned, Vicar-General of the Dominicans of the Teaching Third Order, certify that we have attached opposite, by means of a red silk thread whose ends are joined beneath our seal, five fragments of the garments worn by the Reverend Fathers Captier, Bourard, Delhorme, Cotrault, Chatagneret, on the day of their massacre, May 25, 1871.” It is signed in ink by the vicar-general.

The fathers taught at the Dominican college at Arcueil, just south of Paris, founded and led by Father Captier. During the street fighting of the Commune’s final week, they were arrested with members of the college’s lay staff and held at the fort of Bicêtre. On May 25 they were moved to a prison on the avenue d’Italie. Late that afternoon they were ordered into the street one by one and shot. Captier’s last words to his companions, “Let us go, my friends, for the good God,” are the source of the motto on the mount. Eight lay professors and servants died with them, and their bodies were carried back to Arcueil the next day.

Image 3 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches, on a mount 5 3/4 x 9 1/4 inches. The verso also bears later pencil notations.