Monsignor Surat

A carte-de-visite portrait of Auguste-Alexis Surat (1804-1871), popularly called ‘Abbé Surat,’ who was Archdeacon of Nôtre-Dame.

Born in Paris on 27 February 1804, he died in the same city on 27 May 1871. He was shot by the Communards at the prison of La Roquette during the Semaine Sanglante [Bloody Week] in the closing days of the Paris Commune. He died alongside the Archbishop of Paris Georges Darboy, the jurist Louis-Bernard Bonjean, l’abbé Deguerry and the journalist Gustave Chaudey.

Photographed by Pierre Petit of Paris.

An inked inscription on the print reads: ‘Surat / fusillé par la Commune’ [Surat / shot by the Commune], while another inscription in the lower margin reads: Monsg. Surat – Fusillé pendant la Commune’ [Monsignor Surat, - Shot during the Commune].