The Courdins of Val Pellice

This book is the story of a Waldensian family that emigrated to Uruguay from Europe in 1858. In 1875 the family relocated to southern Missouri in the USA.

Etienne and Catherine Courdin with their four surviving children departed from Villar Pellice and sailed to Uruguay. Their destination was a Waldensian agricultural colony in the frontier west of Montevideo.

Conditions in Uruguay become intolerable

Strife within the church and marauding bandits proved too much to bear even after working 17 years to change the virgin land into a practical farm. In 1875 the Courdins emigrate again, this time to southern Missouri in the USA.

Famine threatens Waldensian valleys

The centuries of persecution were over by the 1800's but now the Waldenses were imperiled by scarcity of food. The population had enlarged to the extent that it could no longer be supported by the rocky terrain.

Courdin family leaves for Uruguay

The immigrants from Uruguay were soon joined by other Waldenses from Europe to form the first Waldensian colony in the midwestern United States. Scores of their descendants live in the area today.

Waldenses slaughtered in Piedmontese Easter

Troops of the Duke of Savoy invaded the haven of the Protestants at dawn on Easter 1655 in a bestial frenzy of murder, rape and pillage.