Antoine Saint-Just was the youngest of all the major revolutionary figures and perhaps the hardest among them to understand. Dead at twenty-six, this enigmatic young man has been called the first professional revolutionary, the father of totalitarianism, deplored as a monster of fanaticism, and hailed as a hero. His youth, beauty, bravery, coldness and terse idealism have posthumously endowed him with the mystique of the "Angel of Death."
When I say, serious mental problems, I mean just that. This boy needed a therapist big time. Unfortunately, he was 100 years too early, so here we go. As a child and adolescent, Saint-Just was spoiled, hypersensitive, unruly, self-centered and moody. He developed what is termed chronic narcissism-he had very little endogenous sense of self-worth, as witnessed by the number of times he dreamed of committing suicide and by his "I despise the dust of which I am made" a statement which, given his fashion plate appearance, we have trouble stomaching. His lack of inner self-worth was compensated for by creating a theatrical façade that would be worthy of admiration, fear, and, as R.R. Palmer said "made his followers feel the pretense of a demigod." This façade was one of icy cruelty as well as incorruptible fanaticism. Everything about him was exaggerated---he wore very high cravats and gold earrings, he counseled "only the phlegmatic should rule" and remained impassive where other men would have panicked. It is as this façade that he became known to history as "Angel of Death", the "Apocalyptic" and "Apostle of the Terror" among other names. But that was just that, a façade, and it was really the hypersensitive and extraordinarily angry repressed self that called the shots all along. He had, as Betrand Barere said, a "mind of fire, heart of ice." Tanith Lee, in The Gods Are Thirsty characterizes Saint-Just in the following passage:
Priest. Saint-Just the priest, altar boy to Robespierre, the priestly slave. Saint-Just has made the exaltation of a Republic his high altar and taken Robespierre as his bishop. So young, held back on one hand by a pragmatic caution in his nature, goaded forward on the other by a longing to learn and to uplift, Saint-Just is not yet disillusioned, either in the Dream or the one he has allowed to expound it to him. So he has brought-found somewhere-some silvery flowers which the has arranged in a glass vase. And so he has been arguing below with Philippe Lebas, the Duplays' son-in-law, who in turn worships him. No, Robespierre is not crushed, not going down. No. If they are steadfast to their goal, the weeds can be cut away and the garden made fair, as was always intended.
The weeds . . . cut away.
Louis Antoine, don't you see, those weeds are living men and women?
No. It's only the glory of the great altar of perfection in the colossal cathedral of eternity you see.
His StoryLouis Antoine Leon Florelle de Saint-Just was born in Decize on August 25, 1767, the eldest child of Marie-Anne Robinot and Louis-Jean Saint-Just, a soldier. His father died when he was nine and Antoine, who appears to have been problematic from the getgo (there are stories that he set fire to his boarding school), fell in love with Therese Gelie, the illegitimate daughter of the aristocratic mayor, at 17. When she was married off to Emmanuel Thorin, who was deemed a better match, Antoine took his mother's silver and fled to Paris. His mother had him thrown in prison on a lettre de cachet. When he got out he published Organt, a long, rather pornographic poem in imitation of La Pucelle. This is rather hard to imagine of the stern young revolutionist Saint-Just was to become and Romain Rolland explains the possible impact of his youthful indiscretions on Saint-Just's adult character in Danton:
Saint-Just: I have seen more evil then you
Robespierre: Where?
Saint-Just: Within myself.
Robespierre [surprised]: In yourself? You, whose life is an example of self-sacrifice?
Saint-Just: You don't know!
Robespierre [incredulously]: Some--- youthful slip?
Saint-Just [seriously]: I have been to the brink of the abyss; I saw crime down below, ready to devour me. Ever since I have sworn to destroy it in the world at large and in myself.
When the Revolution broke out, Saint-Just was too young to become involved but took an active interest, writing such pieces as L'Esprit de la Revolution in 1791. It was around this time that he wrote Robespierre, calling him "the deputy of not a province, but of humanity" and telling him that "I know you as I know God...through your works...". In 1792, having just reached the legal age of 25, Saint-Just became a deputy for Aisne and became well-known as soon as he made his debut speech, a show-stopping piece of rhetoric which called for the execution of the king without trial. "No one can rule guiltlessly" declared the young deputy, "every king is a rebel." Not surprisingly given his attachment to such Rousseau-esque ideals, Saint-Just soon attached himself to the Far Left with Robespierre. In fact, Saint-Just was something of a Robespierre groupie. He scared away a lot of Robespierre's other friends though. Camille Desmoulins, with whom he shared a nice warm mutual antipathy, commented that Saint-Just "carried his head as if it were the Holy Sacrament." Saint-Just in his oh-so-loveable way was said to have retorted "I'll make him carry his head like Saint Dennis---in a basket." With such a wonderful sense of humor one wonders why the boy didn't have more friends. He was well-respected though and was elected to the Committee of Public Safety in 1793.
At the Committee, Saint-Just proved that he was indeed, as R.R. Palmer says "an idea energized by passion. All that was abstract, idealogical, absolute in the Revolution was embodied in his slender figure, written on his youthful face, and made terrible by drive of his almost demonic energy....Saint-Just was a specialized instrument of revolutionary precision." Perhaps most notable is his success as a representative en mission in Alsace, where he was known for his bravery in riding out with the common soldiers into battle as well as his strictness in enforcing the rules. (There is a very apocryphal story that he met one of his childhood friends when the young man ran inside his tent dressed in a nightgown. Saint-Just embraced him and smiled saying, "Meeting you brings me a double joy. Not only do I see a good friend, but I also get to prove how much I love the Republic." With that, he has the young man shot for disobeying the dress code he had created the day before.) More so than most of the other revolutionaries, Saint-Just had very clear ideas as to what the Republic of Vertu should be like. In his spare time, he wrote The Republican Institutions discussing his Spartan utopian world where all the little boys in barracks were raised by the state at age five and were forbidden to eat meat. Saint-Just was usually the person chosen by the Committee to address the death sentences to the Convention, which certainly didn't do a lot for his popularity. He took the job very seriously, becoming so upset when he couldn't read Danton's indictment to Danton that he threw his hat in the fire. Saint-Just came up with the Ventose Decrees, by which seized property was to be shared among needy citizens and which has been called "a communist pipe-dream." Although Saint-Just had pushed for Danton's execution, he began to feel that "the Revolution is frozen." Nevertheless, having returned from helping to lead the troops to victory at Fleurus, he supported Robespierre in a speech he never got to finish on 9 Thermidorknowing full well that "I am going to get myself killed." And that he did. He was silent all the way to the guillotine, but supposedly he looked at the Declaration of Rights of Man and said, "Well that, at least, is something I accomplished." Legend has it that he died with a carnation in his boutenier; the only one of the Robespierrists who was able to stand up by himself. Albert Camus would write a fitting epitaph for the young man in The Rebel when he said, "with Saint-Just died all hope of a new religion"--the Religion of Virtue.
Fictional Representations
