It was in 1791 that the anti-religious feeling of the French Revolution began to affect the French Benedictine community at Montargis.   Officials called at the convent demanding the title deeds, but Mother Benedict, the 33 year old Prioress, refused to hand them over.
 

Mother Benedict was to confront the officials several more times over the next months, and each time she was able to use her forceful personality to triumph in any arguments.  When her election was annulled by the authorities and another ordered, the nuns simply elected her again! Unfortunately things were to go from bad to worse.  First there was a failed attempt to arrest their Jesuit Chaplain, Pere LaFontaine, and shortly afterwards the convent was surrounded by soldiers who claimed the right to search the building whenever they saw fit.

Mother Benedict

Community life became impossible and Mother Benedict began sending the nuns away secretly in groups of two and three.   She finally left only just in time to escape a party of officials from the National Assembly carrying a warrant for her arrest.  The guillotine had lost another victim.

The group of forty nuns were re-united in Dieppe and set sail for England, but their voyage almost ended in disaster when a sudden storm developed in the Channel, lengthening their journey time from 10 to 26 hours!  They finally put ashore at Shoreham some six miles short of their intended destination.