In the hours following the terrible attack in Annecy, in which a Syrian refugee seriously injured six people in a park, including four young children, videos taken at the time of the tragedy showed that a young man courageously stepped in to try to stop the murderer. Since then, he has been nicknamed “the hero with a rucksack” (le héros au sac à dos).
His name is Henri d’Anselme, and he is 24 years old. A few weeks ago, after studying philosophy and international management, he set off on a tour of France’s cathedrals. A practising Catholic from a large family, he is also a former scout leader who attended a famous independent Catholic school in the Paris region, Saint-Dominique du Pecq. Symbolically, his journey began at the Benedictine abbey of Le Barroux, in the hills of Provence—a Mecca for traditional spirituality in France.
The young man is crisscrossing France on a journey due to last around nine months, relying on the hospitality of local people to provide him with day-to-day accommodation … “with the help of Providence,” in his own words.
In April, he told the Catholic news website Aleteia all about his journey. This tour of cathedrals has all the hallmarks of a pilgrimage. It is above all a “spiritual and personal” journey, but it also has a strong educational dimension: the young man communicates extensively about his itinerary on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
“In August 2022, a Senate report sounded the alarm about the current state of France’s religious heritage. The cathedrals are its emblem. I thought I’d introduce as many people as possible to them. It’s also a way of raising the question of the vocation of France, the eldest daughter of the Church,” he explains.
His journey immediately aroused interest: his newly-created TikTok account got 3,000 subscribers in just a week. In the last few weeks, he has also been featured in the regional press, for example when he stopped off in Grenoble in Dauphiné. The young man is an intriguing figure, because he is not simply a tourist, but is driven by a genuine quest for meaning, which he believes is embodied in the string of cathedrals scattered across the beautiful land of France. As he explained to the newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré on May 26th:
This adventure leads me to answer two questions: why did our ancestors go to such great lengths to build these jewels, which are apparently useless today? What does this say about our country today, and what lessons can we learn from it? By visiting them one by one, my aim is to show that cathedrals are symbols of beauty and unity that we can easily learn from!
While passing through Annecy, his path crossed that of Abdalmasih H., a Syrian refugee who, in an act of murderous madness, threw himself with his knife at children playing in a public park. Henri, who was present at the scene, tried to get between the little victims and the assailant, narrowly escaping being stabbed by the Syrian.
“I was afraid for my life, but above all I was afraid for the lives of others,” Henri confessed to CNews the day after the events. He rejects the term ‘hero’ that has been used to describe him on social media: “I acted instinctively, as any French person should.” He has been referred to as “the hero with a rucksack” since the videos show him putting down his large hiking bag to chase after the murderer while trying to protect himself from the knife with his other small bag.
His first message after the tragedy sums up his character quite well: “I’m fine. Please pray for the children.”
It seems he made his motto this sentence from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:
You die for a cathedral, not for stones; for a people, not for a crowd. You die for the love of Man, if he is the keystone of a community. You die for that alone that you can live for.
On meurt pour une cathédrale, pas pour des pierres; pour un peuple, pas pour une foule. On meurt par amour de l’Homme, s’il est clé de voûte d’une communauté. On meurt pour cela seul dont on peut vivre.
