Secularism arguably functions as an unspoken fourth element in the motto of the French Republic: Liberté, égalité, fraternité—laïcité. Today, debates about Islam (especially as perceived as a “threat” to the Republic through the presence of immigration, refugees, headscarves, and burkinis) expose these fissures most acutely. Historically, however, the discussion about the compatibility of religion with the public sphere dates back to the Revolution, and I have presented previously on Jules Michelet’s representation of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc, 1841) as a virginal incarnation of French republican values—a proto-Marianne or a Gallic Madonna. Continuing in this vein, my next research project upon completion of my book will trace twentieth-century and contemporary figures who force us to reckon with the unstable space between religion and French identity, beginning with turn-of-the-century author Charles Péguy, a French Socialist who lost friends over his conversion to Catholicism and subsequently disappointed Catholic nationalists when he issued a patriotic declaration as a resolute supporter of Alfred Dreyfus.