Religion8 June 1794

Festival of the Supreme Being

Also called: Cult of the Supreme Being, Cult of Reason

Robespierre replaced the atheistic Cult of Reason with a state festival honouring the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul, staged by David.

The Festival of the Supreme Being on the Champ de Mars, with the artificial mountain and tree of liberty — Pierre-Antoine Demachy, 1794, Musée Carnavalet
Public domain · Source

During the Terror churches were closed and a fierce dechristianisation campaign held a “Festival of Reason” in Notre-Dame. Believing atheism corrupted morality, Robespierre had the Convention recognise the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul in May 1794.

On 8 June 1794 (20 Prairial Year II) Paris held a festival staged by David. Robespierre, as president of the Convention, set fire to an effigy of Atheism in the Tuileries Garden, and the procession moved to an artificial mountain on the Champ de Mars. When the Law of 22 Prairial sped up executions two days later, suspicion and fear spread among fellow deputies that he meant to make himself the high priest of a new creed.

People

Maximilien Robespierre1758 – 1794

key figure · Jacobin leader who dominated the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror and was guillotined after the Thermidorian Reaction of 1794

Jacques-Louis David1748 – 1825

participant · Neoclassical painter and Convention deputy who painted The Tennis Court Oath and The Death of Marat, staged the revolutionary festivals and later became Napoleon’s court painter

Festival of the Supreme Being

The map in 1794

People

Before and after

Themes that include this event