On May 21, 2013, the French writer Dominique Venner took his own life in front of the main altar of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Venner was seventy-eight years old when he put a handgun into his mouth and pulled the trigger. He left a note on the altar to explain his “gesture,” which took place before nearly a thousand church visitors. After declaring his soundness of mind and expressing regret to his wife and five children, Venner wrote that he offered his life as a sacrificial protest to awaken Europeans to a civilizational crisis.
I love life and expect nothing beyond other than the perpetuation of my race and my mind. However, in the evening of this life, in front of huge dangers for my French and European country, I feel the duty to act so long as I have strength. I sacrifice myself to break the lethargy that has overtaken us. I offer my life as a protest. . . . While so many people are slaves of their lives, my gesture embodies an ethical will. I give death to myself in order to awaken slumbering consciences. . . . I protest against the poisons that are destroying our identity and the foundation of our civilization.
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